9th to 12th Sept, Baiona to Porto

After lovely days getting to Baiona, the weather heading south to Portugal was rain, drizzle and low cloud. Dave changed the flag as we crossed the border but it was a miserable35 mile motor to Viana do Castelo. The town has some nice older buildings and an interesting museum of the clothing made and worn by women in northern Portugal, so worth a visit. We set off for Leixios, the main port of Porto the next day and though we were motoring for the first 15 miles we did manage to sail the next 20 in bright sunshine.

Leixios is a port town so not that special, but it has a lovely sandy beach and good bus and tube connections into Porto. We spent the first evening being fed and entertained in a local restaurant, where the young keen owner did his best to educate us on North Portuguese cuisine.

Friday was spent wandering round Porto, including a walk over the top deck another one of  of Eifels bridges, (he did good business here in Portugal) and a visit to a local “cave” to learn all about port wine. We now know it can be either red or white wine, where Grappa is introduced to stop fermentation, then aged in oak barrels before bottling. How did we not know this before? Wendy decided the white port was the best.

This morning we said a sad goodbye to Chris as he set off for home at the end of his holiday. Pat Wendy and Dave are carefully studying the weather forecasts, its nice today but more bad weather is on its way tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday.

 Eiffels bridge at Viana do Castelo

Brightly coloured ceramic  tiles, typical of houses in Porto

The Eiffel bridge in Porto, a stiff walk up the steps from the river to get the view from the top deck, but worth it.

Port wine is made 200 miles up river from Porto. Before railways it was brought down river on these boats, it looked pretty exciting on the video we were shown.

Pat and Chris tasting port at the end of our tour

Pat on the beach at Leixios