Day 6 The home of the winter warmer

Guimares, we thank you, however the party must go on. So from the old and crumbly, but still fabulous, Guimares, we now head to the old and new capital of the Port wine trade. The city that actually gave its name to the wine, yes, Porto. We cruised there by way of the Vila Do Conde. It is a beachside 'town' North of Porto, but it is more like a suburb now of the continually growing and sprawling tentacles Porto. This is evident that the Porto Underground even goes out there. We strolled around town, had a coffee, just for something different. On the way back to the car, we came across the man with the best office in the world.
Coffee, sunshine, shirtless, and with a view of the ocean and the beautiful women of Portugal. I don't think it could be summed up as bad.

After here we pushed on to Porto, navigating through the leafy suburbs, through the corporate sections just outside the commercial centre, then through to the old town and the Port area. Our hotel was in a pretty handy location, right slap bang next to the train station. Some would say the area was dodgy, but I think I would say colourful. On arrival to the hotel, we found a carpark on a street that would have looked like it was at home in San Francisco. Then we looked out the window to watch a regional drunk arguing with someone who had just parked their car and, well, let's end it with the drunk getting a slap and the police coming. Certainly an interesting start to Porto.

We strolled out for an exploration of town and the chance to find something to fill the parts of our anatomy that were sounding like an idling lawnmower. We cruised past the water front which was packed with tourists but, oddly enough, some of the restaurants were starting to close and not serve food.

Waterfront restaurants and the masses wanting food or maybe just Port....

About now we were getting a little toey for something to eat! Yes, there is a deal I made to give at least one pun per post.
We climbed to the top of a hill, and we got a scape of Porto and with the red roofs and blue sky makes Porto seem a glorious old city, but.......
down on ground level it looks tired, worn out and in need of some TLC. Plus the fact that almost everywhere it smells of tinkle, as Stupid Flanders' Kids would say, or piss, as the rest of us would.
There are some beautiful things and great quaint articles that you see throughout this part of the city.
Sometimes you can even get a little head.... on top of a statue to show you the way.
We grabbed lunch in a really scary looking place, it was a dingey bar but had a large restaurant on the floor above. We basically decided on this location as we were so hungry and it had good prices. Marty had Lulas, but for the life of me, I can't remember what my meal was. I do remember that we both were shocked at how good it was, given the surroundings.

We went for a stroll, from lunch to observe the surroundings and try to find somewhere nice in the open air to have a drink. We arrived to an area around the university, law courts and a number of museums (including the photographic), it had a lovely park and a popular student bar. I sat down to my first porto tonico, a white port mixed with tonic water. It was pleasant but didn't really get me going like I had hoped. So instead we bought some great wine and snacks and headed home.

To enjoy our view of the Porto Railway station (Sao Bento) and the sweet flavour of our Red wine from the Douro. Can Porto get better than the sad start.....?