Felice Natal

 The following day, another climb up a hill brought us to the Cathedral, in a splendid position above the old town.

A great place to see the days activities on the river, it being a Sunday there were a good many people out and about.

The sky was almost cloudless, we took the opportunity to have a quick look inside, we may be becoming jaded by golden splendour as strangely this was the least impressive church we had visited. A bit on the gloomy side too until I relised my reactolight glasses were still reacting! It is however quite small for a Cathedral.

We made our way down to the Bridge over the river, the Ponte de Luis. I was struck by a mural on the gable of a house on Perched on the cliff above the bridge. It clearly showed one of Boltons famous sons Fred Dibnah! it even mentioned Fred but got his last name wrong......

The bridge again provided spectacular views of the town and river on the south side of the river the " Rabelos" which in times past were used to transport the wine downriver were moored in a line.

We asked a passer by to take a "selfie".

We were now close to the monastery of Serra do Pilar, probably because it was a Sunday access was restricted to the cloisters. We paid our 1 euro which was worth it just to use the toilet!

The monastery occupies a prominent position above the bridge and can be seen from every part of the city, it is also a fort and there is a collection of field guns in a part of the complex. A strange opposition......









The cloisters are  very quiet and relaxing with the gentle tinkling of a central fountain.











By this time my ankle was making itself felt and I suggested to Lynne that the cable car would be a good way to get back down to river level. The temptation of a riverside market was pointed out but Lynne seemed quite blasé about dangling hundreds of feet in the air so we bought two tickets which also gave us a free port tasting.

The cable car is quite exciting and certainly a novel way of arriving at the side of the river so famous for the many Port wine merchants who have their "caves" there. the photo below shows the cable car station below the monastery.

We decide to take advantage of our free sample ticket and made our way to the port cave for a tawny port which was delicious. As we warmed our cockles we read the fascinating story of the Douro river valley and the many Port producers.

Most of these are household names in the UK, Sandemans, Taylors, Croft etc. Unfortunately as we were flying home with our usual bare-bones hand luggage we couldn't buy a few bottles. We had a bottle in the fridge in our apartment which we would be forced to drink before we left......

Lynne got to mooch through the market traders stalls and bought a couple of tea towels and as the sun slowly set, we walked back over the Ponte de Luis to our side of the river for a coffee before going out to dinner.

Porto, lovely spot............