Porto

A night of drinking on a fellow British boat led to a less than early start, however the efficient Metro soon had us in familiar environs around Trinidade station in the centre of Porto.

We have covered this fine city before in our blog so suffice to say that the addition of sun was a welcome addition. We wandered round the old town and enjoyed seeing the familiar sights. it was however very busy with tourists, so we tended towards the more obscure back streets and alleys.

I had wanted to get  a small change purse as I had been finding coins down the back of our saloon cushions, I tend to be prostrate these days!
I spotted that just below one of the big churches was the cobblers district the cobblers also sold wallets and purses along with shoelaces by the roll and other useful stuff, a particularly quirky shop had the strange title of  House of Crocodile.

It soon became apparent that this was a literal name as inside the shop tied to the ceiling was a stuffed crocodile.

Luckily they also sold change purses.............................
We dropped down towards the river and after jostling with the many tourists along the opposite side of the river, home to the many Port wine cellars we walked to the old boatyard at the end of the wharf where a group of traditional river boats were being worked on.

A fascinating place.

 We were also fascinated to discover one of the biggest groups of grey mullet we had ever seen at Ferreira`s  pier. We are used to seeing these fish in marinas and harbours but rarely in such numbers.

Among the restoration boats was a new build. obviously destined for the booming river cruise trade.
After walking back towards the main bridge across the river we decide to climb the hill behind Sandemans to get back to a Metro track and discovered this rather nice graphitic art.

Lots of lovely and humorous detail to discover as you walked up the hundreds of steps, Porto is pretty much all steep!

We had something to eat and returned to Povoa de Varsim on the train as the sun set. We availed ourselves of the free drinks vouchers we had been given for the  Sports bar which was linked to the local yacht club. Photo taken earlier in sunshine! Great bar and handy for the church next door....

An interesting revisit and day out.....