Last day on the Douro.

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South side of the Douro so we are in Vila Nova de Gaia not Porto. Technical difference but important to locals! No one wants to be called a ‘tripe eater’ when they’re not!
Talking food the ship served a ‘francesinha’ on board today. Poor substitute for the real thing and significantly smaller but it probably meant considerably fewer heart attacks than serving good ones.

After breakfast we walked across the Luis l Bridge to the cathedral and then to the station. All I’d seen before but with a guide I had a few aspects explained or expounded so it was worthwhile. Additionally the bus picked us up and drove via a fairly circuitous route back home so I saw a few sights outside of my walking radius. We also went to a port warehouse, Sandemans, one of the oldest and biggest here. They have hundreds of barrels some with a capacity of over 20000 litres. The various ports (white, rose, tawny and vintage) were explained and of course there was a tasting. Even though I did not have a taste Lee could smell the ‘port perfume’ on me when I returned. The building has it in its pores!

Most of the afternoon I spent purchasing a few souvenirs and not really doing anything special. We are docked and have been since breakfast time and don’t leave dock this evening or tomorrow. People leave for all over the place tomorrow and at all times of the day so it will be hectic although as we leave fairly early we should be in front of most of it.

I will drop the few photos and hopefully post away. Bye.

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