Melia Porto Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia

29 September 2009

Arrived in Porto by "another on time Ryan Air Flight" from Barcelonaaaaaaaa to Porto, called my couch surfing host Gitau and woke him up and he told me the Metro stop near his place.

Met him at his place, and it was so easy to get along with him! He is a very approachable guy and lives in a shared house with other university students who are just as friendly and easy to ...

Een gevaarlijke haven volgens de Nederlanders die hier al 5 jaar liggen met een Etap 32: de mensen zijn aardig en het is niet al te duur: je blijft er zo maar liggen. Ze konden zo nog een aantal mensen aanwijzen waarbij dit was gebeurd. Wij hebben ook nog geen neiging weg ...

Here is a picture of Donna that I would be avle to take every day that we are traveling to another city.............as you can see she is an avid sightseer!!!!


Also attached is todays daily explosion...................IS it getting worse or better?????

... keeps warning us that when we get to southern Portugal and Spain the weather will be much warmer. Beautiful 5 star hotel tonight...going to a dinner of roast orange duck...any bets as to what Wendy will be eating?..Check out the pictures of our day in Portugal!..Adios (Don't know how to say goodbye in Portuguese)

... spots in the beautiful weather and sampling the local delicacies. The speciality here is the Francesinha and there a particular street where they come highly recommended. Always keen to try the local delicacies, I opted for one one lunchtime and Virg sensibly went for a salad. So what's a Francesinha? I was starving so opted for the "Special" which was described by the girl in the bar as "with chips" and waited with a beer for it to arrive.
Porto, Northern Portugal, Portugal warm

Well, today is our last day in Portugal. Early tomorrow we leave for 4 days in London before returning home to wet and wintery Perth. We´ve had a great time and would recommend anyone to come to Portugal for a visit.

On Wednesday we took a day trip up the Douro River (up by train & then a 5 hour boat trip back down to Porto. The port wine country is nearly all ...

... and play cricket - they seem to revel in fast bowling and big slogs (maybe they can get the IPL here?). The cricket guys take over from the skateboarders each afternoon. Just over the road from the square is the internet cafe we're using - €0.50/hour which is very reasonable.

Today we got lost trying to find a particular tram that goes to the coast (a suburb called Foz) and thus had a long but enjoyable walk ...

... for a hostel. It looked more like an Ikea show room with free printing, quality linen, and a little bit too nice for a hostel. Good point to wind down I guess and as a result the only exciting thing I did was visit the Port Cellars which it is obviously famous for.

Unfortunately, I was one night too late for St John The Baptist festival ...

... kala oli üsna kuivanud, veel kuivem oli seal peal olnud laimiviil, millest ei tulnud tilkagi. Kõhu sai küll täis, aga sellised väiksed asjad rikkusid meeleolu. Pärast me muidugi lihtsalt naersime selle üle, sest ülejäänud restoranikogemused olid hoopis teistsugused :) Õhtul klõpsasime paar pilti, vaatasime kuidas jalgpallifännid laulsid ja lõugasid (ilmselt tulid mingilt kohalikult matšilt) ja sõitsimegi metrooga tagasi hotelli, et välja puhata järgmise päeva pikaks sõiduks.

... I took a lot of pictures. OUr favorite part of the city was along the banks of the river. The apartments all looked out onto the river and they all had colored porcelain tiles on their facades and every balcony had clothes lines hung with sheets and clothes to dry. On our second day we took an hour cruise down the river in a small boat and then walked over a bridge to the other side of the river to take a few Port wine tours. Our favorite tour was of the Croft ...