We arrived in Porto yesterday and have spent the last couple of days walking around the city. The city is built on a hillside and has beautiful old buildings. There is a double deck bridge that you can walk over either on the lower deck or the upper deck if you want to get a good view of the historic city.

It has been so nice to be in a larger city where you can get food any hour of the day. The smaller towns were nice but you are very limited to what hours you can get lunch or dinner. Our first stop was to the Time Out Market to get an easy meal.

The city is very crowded with tourists. You probably hear more English than Portuguese in the main areas. And every corner has tourist information and tours you can book. So it has been an adventure of how to navigate the city without the huge crowds of tour groups every way you turn.

By law, Port wine can only be made in this region. You can still see the old boats that used to transport the wine in the river. The boats are called Rabelos and were used from the 13th century all the way to 1971. They were built with a flat bottom to help navigate the rapids on the river and avoid hitting rocks in the shallow areas. Although they aren’t in use now, the wineries do race them once a year from the mouth of the river to the bridge.