Thursday 24^th May

Blue skies and sunshine at last! Tuesday we drove to Porto.  Very scenic crossing from Spain to Portugal.  The countryside was very steep, green and cultivated – often terraced a bit like parts of Asia is.  Lots of pretty villages more like France.  The hillsides were dotted with cream houses with terracotta roofs – a contrast to Northern Spain’s brightly painted, gaudy colour schemes and huge apartment complexes.  Porto (Oporto) is a large city but very attractive.  We biked around the foreshore where the Atlantic rolled in onto the golden sand and treated ourselves to Gelatos.

Wednesday we bussed into Porto and spent a lovely day exploring the city.  The highlight was visiting the Taylors Port Caves where we took an excellent tour then sampled 3 different types of port on their terrace overlooking the city.

Today we visited our first Portuguese supermarket and stocked up.  The boys are barbequing a split chicken tonight which we bought for about $5. We have driven to a camp ground just out of Coimbra and plan to go in to the city tomorrow morning.