Porto, Portugal

 For some unknown reason, the English call this city Oporto, but according to the Portuguese, who should know, it is Porto.  Our tour today was Highlights of Porto, which meant a bus ride overview of the town and a few stops to walk around.  Port is the second largest city in Portugal and is famous for the port wine that is aged and shipped from here. It's a pretty city built on hills and at the mouth of the Douro River which is where the grapes come from that make the port wine.  The buildings and houses are built mostly of granite from the local area and many put ceramic tiles on them to protect them and keep the water out.

There was a nice beach between the port and the city center that was really busy since it was a warm weekend in august.

This church has some of the beautiful Portugese tiles on the side. 

Just one example of the beautiful tiles on the fronts of many of the homes.

Gorgeous architecture throughout the city

Porto from across the river.

This is the port wine seller where we had the tour and tasting.

We tasted two ports, white and tawny.  We preferred the tawny as the white was a bit too sweet.

These are local college students who sing to raise money for student trips.

After the wine tour, we were given a bit of free time when we bought a couple of souvenirs and wandered around the area.  It was quite warm in the sun and very crowded so we were happy to get back to the ship where we grabbed a quick bite before taking a break before Trivia.  We got 11/15 this time, but still didn't earn any points.

Dinner was at Compass Rose and then back to the cabin.