Porto is a really cool city

Our arrival experience in Porto was a decidely negative one. After a quiet 3 hour drive north from Ericeira, we entered Porto city limits and all hell broke loose. Our GPS started giving unclear instructions, triggering a series of last minute swerves and threats to toss the GPS out the window. Add to this the torrential rain requiring maxed-out windshield wipers and Friday afternoon rush hour pedestrian and vehicular traffic and you have the recipe for a hot bowl of stress soup. Would this decidedly sour taste stay in our mouths the rest of the time in Porto? Well, the upbeat title of this blog post is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?

After a blissful sleep in our kickass apartment (said apartment is getting its own blog post) we woke up ready to explore the city. It was overcast and drizzling through about 2pm then the clouds spread and we got blue sky like you see below. This is the view of Porto from the sister town of Gaia, across the Douro river. The boat in the foreground is one of the many of its kind you see moored in Gaia. These are the boats the Port Wine houses use to bring the wine down the Douro from the vineyards upriver (note the barrels on the deck):

We started our morning at the Bolhao Market. This is the biggest outdoor market in the city. It has been going here in the same location since the early 1900s. It also happens to be directly across the street from our apartment. We shopped for fresh veggies to go into our pasta dinner:

I risked my life for this photo. Right as I was snapping it, Cam was reaching for my hand yelling "Jon, no!!!!" I snapped the photo, wondering what the big deal was. Cam pointed to a signed just out of the photo frame that said "No Photos" and had a skull and crossbones next to it. The lady behind the course was slowly sharpening her bread knife as Cam dragged me away to safety. Isn't the bread beautiful?

Adjacent to the Bolhao market you have lots of little gourmet shops. Pastries, wine, cheese, dried meats, butcher shops etc. This one is called "Comer e chorar por mais" which means "Eat and cry for more." So of course we went in:

Its shelves are packed with wine, olive oil, bread...all the good stuff:

The staff was great. A young guy asked us if we would like to taste some port while we browsed. Uhhhh, yes please? Turns out this place had an incredible collection of Portuguese non-Port wine (aka table wine) from the Douro region. I had already done some research on the Wine Spectator app and had a few bottles I wanted to try. This place had them. The guy working there approved of my choices and then suggested another bottle that was immediately added to the pile of stuff to buy. We left very happy:

With food and wine shopping done, we set off on a walk around the city. Here is our local church, exhibiting classic Portuguese tile. The blue and white painted tile is beautiful and distinctive:

Cam buying fresh roasted chestnuts on the street. A big hot bag for 1 euro:

A big public square surrounded by beautiful buildings:

This little park with a WWI memorial reminded us of Alamo Square in San Francisco:

Another church with some nice Portuguese tile:

This is on the bohemian street that is home to a ton of art galleries. Lots of color in Porto:

Yellow tile apartment and pink tile apartment:

Cam browsing an art gallery:

Found this nicely designed live music flyer posted on a wall:

This is right about when the sun came out. The large building on the right is the main train station:

Some really narrow streets in the old quarter known as the Ribeira:

As we approached the river from above, we were blown away by the architecture;

Looking back up the hill, from the riverfront embarcadero:

This is the bridge you walk across to get from Porto to Gaia. The port wine houses are all over on the Gaia side:

We strolled along the riverfront in Gaia. It is lined with port wine houses offering tastings and tours. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, it was packed with tourists. So we pressed on, trying to escape the crowd. We saw a sign for Graham's port lodge that pointed to the top of a steep hill. Figuring that most of the tourists wouldn't be able to make it up the hill, we headed to Graham's. It was awesome. There will be a separate blog post dedicated to the experience. After Graham's (feeling quite good, may I add) we walked back to the bridge taking the higher route. This is the view of Porto, from the Gaia heights. The long buildings in the foreground are the cellar-warehouses holding the ageing port wines:

This is eastern Porto from the bridge:

This is some sort of castle on the top of the hill in Gaia. Behind the illuminated  roman arches is raw granite. I thought it was a parking lot at first. But this is Porto, not LA:

We'll continue to photograph Porto over the next three days we are here. I predict another blog post showing our favorite parts of this enchanting city.