Porto, Portugal
September 28, 2026
The fast train from Lisbon to Porto was very nice and comfortable. Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, is on a scenic river, and again, very hilly. It is known for the production of port wine, from the grapes grown in terraced vinyards along the bank of the river. Many tourists take cruises along the river to see the vinyards and taste the port. Since we had seen terraced vinyards along the Rhine in April, we chose not to use our limited time to do that.
We chose to see the city from a hop-on-hop-off bus. I chose not to take pictures from the bus, and obviously chose not to do much hopping. Our tourbus ticket included a six-bridges tour on the river.
We later tried both the red and the tawny port wine. We both prefered the tawny, but thought the red might be OK with dessert.
Instead of hopping back on the bus and going to the hotel, we took an Uber up to a church named for St. Francis. Note the characteristic tiles on the exterior.
Stay tuned for pictures from Barcelona and Madrid.