Heading further south, we landed in Porto for two nights. Our first foray into town saw us heading into a Fado show. Fado is a Portuguese traditional music style (that is also UNESCO listed), the music is known as fado a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and infused with a sense of resignation, fate and melancholy.
We were also served a local Port at the Fado show, Vinho du Porto is produced in the Douro Valley and but under the European UnionProtected Designation of Origin guidelines, only wines from Portugal are allowed to be labelled “port”. It just tasted like Port to me, not a wine that I’d really partake of at home!
Porto is a medieval port city straddling the Douro River. Consequently, everything slides steeply down hill, and the medieval old town or “Ribeira” is perched into this steep valley, at times cliff, wall. If you are lost in the back alleys and point yourself downwards, you will always find the riverfront and your way. Of course that also means you have to get back UP that hill!
We crossed the Pont Luis I at the bottom and the top (nasty climb!) and took the 6 Bridges Boat cruise up the Douro River.
Of course we ran into another noise religious procession, though not as jolly as the one in Llanes, Spain.
I may or may not have purchased a couple of kilos of the local Porto tile (logistics be damned!!).
We are managing to average between 15-30k of steps per day, whether we have a long drive or not. So it seems that we are always winding our way to food somewhere.
Shortly we head down to Lisbon for the last few days of the trip and back into some hot weather.
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