Knowmark Travelblog: Portugal 2006: Dawdling Along the Douro

Today was a very busy day. We started off by walking down to the closest metro station and taking the subway to the south side of the Douro. Interestingly, just before the bridge across the river, the subway train emerges from underground and becomes a tram. We had noticed previously that the subway trains looked exactly like the trams in Bordeaux and now we know why. The tram crosses on the upper level of the Ponte Don Luiz I which is the most famous bridge of Porto, inaugurated in 1886. There are several interesting bridges crossing the Douro at Porto including the Ponte Maria, designed by Eiffel, and the Ponte Arrábida which is an interesting concrete structure to the west.

After wandering around the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the river, we walked back over the bridge and explored the Ribeira area. Behind the colourful buildings right on the river is a maze of twisty little streets, alleys and staircases in which we almost managed to get lost. Eventually working our way out we refreshed ourselves with café and pasteis - we're going to miss that habit.

Next up was a tram and bus ride out to Foz do Douro which is where the river Douro meets the Atlantic Ocean. By then it was time for lunch and we found a small place where we had a very tasty version of fish (filetes de pescada) and chips, accompanied by the almost inevitable arroz and of course some wine.

After lunch we walked down on the beach to dip our toes in the Atlantic from the eastern side (a first for both of us). The beach looked quite sandy from a distance but proved to be very coarse sand and hard walking (at least for Susan's tender toes).

Susan decided that she wanted a feed of amêijoas so we had dinner tonight at Gambamar, a marisqueira not too far from the hotel. She had amêijoas á Bulhão Pato which served the purpose nicely while Steve had caldo verde followed by a tortilha de marisco.

Another absolutely gorgeous day - 3.0 on our scale.