one should arrive in porto by train from the south on a
foggy/overcast day. one minute youre traveling along by the beaches of some atlantic town... and the next youre making a sharp curve to head towards one of the bridges over the rio douro... the city is perched on bluffs overlookin the river on both sides. the city tumbles down to the river. when teh river emerges out of the fogs and cl
ouds, and you see the bridges over the douro and then the town, its a very dramatic entrance...
in the neighbourhoods around the river, the riberia, the buildings look ramshackled and cobbled together from whatever comes to hand... some have tile fronts in the portuguese fashion, some have plain stucco, some have red tiles made to look like bricks, some have corrugated steel,
and some have what look like wooden shingles covering sides of the buildings... the only thing uniform in the appearance of the buildings are the terra cotta roofing tiles. the riberia is a unesco world heritage site now, so the style of the buildings cant be changed. the vegetation is lush and green, its a very charming place indeed. to me, strolling along the streets and the view of the town from the river, are how i would picture an antillean town in the 18th century. and indeed, this is probably somewhat how they would have looked, because the luso-spanish architecture was fairly prevalent... if i was filming a movie aboth the caribbean, and i needed a place for filming the town... porto's water front would be the place. the only major complaint i have in about porto is the sea gulls/pigeons poop with little regard for the inhabitants... in two days i was pooped on twice by sea gulls... once on each side of the
douro.
porto is famous for port wine, the grapes are grown waaay up the douro river, lik
e 100km inland. the wine gets brought down the river to porto, technically villa nova de gaia, directly across the river. the port ages in warehouses in villa nova de gaia, and today, the port houses let people come to look and enjoy and taste their port. they used to use these viking-esque looking boats to carry barrels of port from the warehouses to ships waiting to take it to england and other places... but mostly
england. and every year on the sunday after st john the baptist's festival they have the races... about 15 oft he port boats race up the rio douro... and it ended right in front of our hotel room. so that was fun to watch.. some of the other port boats have been converted to take tourists up the river on cruises... and thats fun as well. but those use motors instead of sails so it's not quite the same...
but porto is great. unlike most of spain, it's rarely hot here. the atlantic breezes keep the temperature down. the highs have been in the 70s and lows in the 50s... so its nice during teh day and cool at night. and there are not large numbers of americans here, so its nice... although i have seen lots of russian tourists in big giant groups...
foggy/overcast day. one minute youre traveling along by the beaches of some atlantic town... and the next youre making a sharp curve to head towards one of the bridges over the rio douro... the city is perched on bluffs overlookin the river on both sides. the city tumbles down to the river. when teh river emerges out of the fogs and cl
ouds, and you see the bridges over the douro and then the town, its a very dramatic entrance...
in the neighbourhoods around the river, the riberia, the buildings look ramshackled and cobbled together from whatever comes to hand... some have tile fronts in the portuguese fashion, some have plain stucco, some have red tiles made to look like bricks, some have corrugated steel, 
and some have what look like wooden shingles covering sides of the buildings... the only thing uniform in the appearance of the buildings are the terra cotta roofing tiles. the riberia is a unesco world heritage site now, so the style of the buildings cant be changed. the vegetation is lush and green, its a very charming place indeed. to me, strolling along the streets and the view of the town from the river, are how i would picture an antillean town in the 18th century. and indeed, this is probably somewhat how they would have looked, because the luso-spanish architecture was fairly prevalent... if i was filming a movie aboth the caribbean, and i needed a place for filming the town... porto's water front would be the place. the only major complaint i have in about porto is the sea gulls/pigeons poop with little regard for the inhabitants... in two days i was pooped on twice by sea gulls... once on each side of the 
douro.
porto is famous for port wine, the grapes are grown waaay up the douro river, lik
e 100km inland. the wine gets brought down the river to porto, technically villa nova de gaia, directly across the river. the port ages in warehouses in villa nova de gaia, and today, the port houses let people come to look and enjoy and taste their port. they used to use these viking-esque looking boats to carry barrels of port from the warehouses to ships waiting to take it to england and other places... but mostly
england. and every year on the sunday after st john the baptist's festival they have the races... about 15 oft he port boats race up the rio douro... and it ended right in front of our hotel room. so that was fun to watch.. some of the other port boats have been converted to take tourists up the river on cruises... and thats fun as well. but those use motors instead of sails so it's not quite the same...
but porto is great. unlike most of spain, it's rarely hot here. the atlantic breezes keep the temperature down. the highs have been in the 70s and lows in the 50s... so its nice during teh day and cool at night. and there are not large numbers of americans here, so its nice... although i have seen lots of russian tourists in big giant groups...
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