Now we know about port

Well, a little bit, at least.

The day started promptly as we headed across the river to pick up our (almost) free boat ride. There was a slight snafu when it turned out that the usual ferry wasn’t operating, but it isn’t a very long walk across the bridge, and we made it in good time for the first trip of the day. We almost had the boat to ourselves, but at the last minute another couple arrived.

It was a lovely morning and a delightful ride, first upriver, under the various bridges, including one designed and built by Gustaf Eiffel, before he built his tower in Paris. Then we turned and sped downstream with the tide and the sun behind us. Before finally spinning round and returning to base. It was supposed to be a half hour trip, but we were out there for 50 minutes, which was delightful.

Next on the agenda was visiting one of the port shipping companies that line the waterfront. We stepped into Sandeman, the name being familiar, but got the brush-off: the next two hours were booked for private tours with Japanese and Chinese groups. A sign of the future of tourism, I suppose. Anyway, nothing daunted we headed off elsewhere and ended up at Croft, where the only query was, could we take the tour right now, since they had bookings for later (probably Chinese too!). The answer was yes, of course, and we had a private visit with a delightful young man who told us all about how port is made and aged in these massive warehouses..

But the most important part of the tour was the tasting that it concluded with. Three very nice examples of different styles.We have bought a few bottles to bring home with us.

After the tasting, we went down to the base station of the cable car that takes you up to an old monastery and also the end of the upper deck of the bridge. Amazing views both from the cable car and the bridge.

We strolled over heading for the main railway station. Not intuitively a tourist attraction, but it boasts wonderful tiling in the entrance hall, which we duly admired.

Having also dropped into the Cathedral on our way to the station, we were fairly exhausted by this stage, not least because it was getting very hot. Summer seems to be arriving in Portugal! So we strolled around in a rather desultory fashion, finally stopping for a little much-needed refreshment. Then we decided to return to the hotel, where we were delighted to find that Diana’s coat had arrived from Cascais. Good service!

Then I had a tapa, while Diana crashed out for a bit, before venturing forth in search of a hairdresser. Meanwhile I trudged back up the hill a bit to buy the port we had promised ourselves.