Porto

28th February

We have decided to get closer to Porto. Park up somewhere (hopefully) and walk into town. There is an Aires shown on the south side of the river and further east from this there is all the Port distributors caves and visitor rooms with their tours and tastings. So sounds like a plan.

This area is still in the region of Vila Nova de Gaia, so only a few kilometres from where we are. The journey there is impossible. Spaghetti junction tripled and Jane has going round in circles and finally we switch her off and follow the signs to the Cais. The Aire is a grobelly piece of land - well rubble really!, and we decide to continue down the road following the river to get to civilisation. Of course, as we are used to, the roads are all cobbled so my Gibby is up on JC's lap as she is unhappy with the noise and vibration. And she is not the only one. You can now see Porto across the river. A fabulous old town with great architecture. The road is narrowing down and we are driving slowly to think about the options. We arrive in the main caves area with restaurants and shops lining the river interspersed with the Port centres such as Taylor's, Sandemans and Crofts. They all have their Barcos Rebelos boats that used to transport the port down the Duoro, now used as a Tourist attraction.


































There is absolutely nowhere to park and we are carried up to one of the fine bridges that go across into Porto. NOPE. a quick and fairly noisy U turn sorted that out and we finally find ourselves back at the rubble. I mean Aire. Where we park in the shade. Leave the pups on guard, and mount our trusty bikes for the mile ride back. A glorious place and we actually went across the river to the Porto side for lunch by the river.

The Sandemans building has been there for over 2 centuries and has a museum and large visitor centre with tours. We didn't bother with that. A bottle of their finest tawny and we were gone. At least we got a flavour of it all and we will be back.

Found a site on the west coast north of Porto in Vila Cha. Campismo sol de vila cha. Small family run site which was a delight. They were all tending the grounds, planting, cleaning up and getting ready for the summer. The beach is a 5 minute walk and our pitchy was luscious green grass. The first we have had on this trip.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Vila Cha