Around Porto on the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus

Our apartment, O Quarto Direito, has five bedrooms, one for each of us, and a balcony on each side of the main floor of the apartment, as well as a balcony upstairs on the top floor. We're in the penthouse of a 4-story building, and our apartment is spread over 3 floors. The apartment also has 3 bathrooms. Although we're renting the whole place, the apartment is also run as a B&B, one room at a time. That's why there is a live-in housekeeper.

For breakfast, we had some pastries bought the night before at a chocolate cafe. Aside from the free port we had on arrival, there was no free coffee or tea, or free anything else at the apartment. There were lots of food items available for a small fee, and we could also request meals, for a fee. Grocery stores had been closed by the time we got to town, and some would be closed today also, since it was Sunday. So, we purchased coffee at the apartment on this day, but we'd stock our own supplies when we were able to shop.

We took the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the city and saw lots of beautiful blue tiles on old buildings and churches around town.

Clerigos Tower

Carmo Church

The side of Carmo Church

The town is built on the north bank of the Douro River near where the river meets the Atlantic. We got off the bus at the Foz (fozsh), or beach, and walked for a while.

The riverfront on the Porto side of the river

Cable car that runs along the waterfront

There were a few parks, and we came across an outdoor market and bandstand with musical entertainment going on. We picked up sandwiches and ate at a picnic table with a view of the fishing boats bobbing in the water, and saw the huts for storing their nets along the shore.

Fishing nets are stored in buildings along the walkway

Our tour drove by the Ribeira, which is the old part of town along the river, and also drove across a bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia, where the wine storage warehouses have been for generations.

Looking over the wine storage warehouses toward Porto, from Gaia

We noticed a McDonald's ad at the water taxi stop

Even old, rather rundown buildings, sport beautiful tiles

On our way back to the apartment we stopped at a grocery store and bought coffee, fruit and vegetables, and ingredients to create a stir-fry with our leftovers from last night's dinner. Nancy's improvisational melange of ingredients turned out great, in spite of the fact that we weren't sure of the flavors of some of the sauces we bought at the grocery store.

Our great dinner of leftovers augmented with some stir fry veggies and a nice salad

We're having beautiful warm weather, and lovely cool evenings.