This is our second day touring around Porto and we had so much fun. Continue with us on our journey, if you missed the beginning check out “A Must Do When Visiting Porto Portugal – Day 1”
Checking Out A Different Line in Porto Portugal
The next day, it was raining even harder. We knew we wanted to see additional parts of the city, not to mention the Atlantic. Once we were on the bus (Red Line), I was glad that I wasn’t driving in that kind of downpour. Our daughter was sitting next to me on this trip, so we started playing a game. She would change the channel, and ask me to guess which language was being played. It was pretty fun. The languages were Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Japanese, and Dutch. I did pretty good. I messed-up on the Dutch language most of the time, but she had a fun time quizzing me.
Once we arrived at Praça Gonçalves Zarco, we were committed. We were going to get wet. No doubt about it. And we got absolutely soaked, but I would say it was probably my favorite part of the trip. While we didn’t get to go in Queijo Castle, the drawbridge and surrounding are was pretty cool.
We went around the back of the castle, and watched the ocean break on the rocks. There was an interesting paved part that you would walk out on that was about 100 feet long, that went out to where the ocean was crashing, but the tide didn’t come up as expected. I walked out to the end of the pavement, and found out why the tide wasn’t coming up as expected. I was standing on top of a wide culvert that was draining a significant amount of water into the ocean. The incoming ocean tide would hit this run-off, and essentially stop.
I brought the kids out there, and held their hand while they looked over. I even held Bev’s hand so she could see, and I didn’t even think once about giving her a nudge. Not once. Heidi took a great picture of it.
By this time, we were pretty wet, so we decided to get out of the rain and wait for our bus at the bus stop. We waited, and waited. It seemed like it was taking forever, but eventually, a nice dry bus came and picked us up. While it helped us thaw out a bit, we were all still very soggy, so we decided to take the last part of our bus tour. Port tasting!
Sampling the Port Wine
Once we warmed-up a bit, and dried off ever so slightly, it was time to get out, and find the Caves. That’s were our port tasting was held. We get off the bus, and see a sign for Caves, and notice it’s up a hill. Oh well. It will be worth it. We kept climbing up the quaint streets, and we’re still seeing the signs, and they are pointing us ever upward. After climbing about 250 feet of elevation, we’re starting to wonder if it’s worth it. We are seeing the Caves signs, and various Port manufacturers, but we’re missing a key piece of information about where our particular Caves is located.
Heidi goes into one place (Taylor’s) for directions. It looks very nice. The lady at Taylor’s looked at our tickets, and on the back of the ticket, it listed the actual place we were trying to find: Ramos Pinto. She gave us directions which were down the hill, and we made our way to Ramos Pinto. Now it’s has been raining the entire time, and we’re soaked. I’m so wet, but at this point, I am beyond caring. We finally found it!
So after walking up 250 feet of elevation, walking down 250 feet of elevation, and over a mile later we found our destination. In travel circles, this is called a Slight Detour. Let me show you picture of our path. Keep in mind it was all up hill and then all down hill, but felt like up hill both ways.
This is what as known as the Correct Way, or Shortest Path and completely flat!
For analytical purposes, I will show them an overlay.
It’s much shorter isn’t it. This is a beneficial blog, as I’m letting you learn from my mistake, and I’m not even charging you.
So we’re finally in the Ramos Pinto Port building, and we’ve found a nice comfy spot to sit. It’s a beautiful tasting room with a mix of wooden tables/benches and couches. The hostess brings out two samples for each of the adults. There was a Tawny port which was the color of honey, and a Ruby port that looked more like a red wine. We’re not connoisseurs by any means, but they were very good.
With the clinking of glasses, we said, “Salud!”
Once we had relaxed a bit, and let the Port warm us up, it was time to go. We got all of our things, left some puddles here and there, and made our way to the bus stop. It was a lot of work, and we made some mistakes along the way, but it only made the Port taste that much better. We earned it!
Organized Tours
There are also many organized tours for you to enjoy from being active on walking or biking tour, to enjoying a food or wine tour. There is so much to do and Viator has so many great offers for you. Click here to see their latest Porto Deals!
Wrap Up
So you may be asking, “Would you do the Tour Bus thing again?” Absolutely. With the inclement weather, it provided us opportunities to see the city which would not have been possible walking or driving around. We had a few chuckles along the way, and some great memories.
