Portugal is hot! Five degrees warmer than Islas Cíes – with staggering sunsets from the marina, halfway up from the mouth of the estuary to the city centre.

They deliver bread every morning – in direct proportion to the number of crew on board. We like this.

The rain in Spain does not stay mainly on the plain – it seems to fall on the Atlantic coastal resorts for the most part, and Portugal is no different. Heaving it down on our first morning, so a good day for tourism.

Churches (Sé Catedral, Igreja de São Francisco – Gothic Baroque), museums (the latter plus the Instruments of Torture Exhibition, and finishing off with the really very good indeed interactive navigation museum) and shopping punctuated our stroll around town either side of a tourist-trappy lunch on the Ribeira (in fairness one of the least tourist-trappy of the establishments along the tourist trap!).

Priority for day two was a port cellar tour. We all enjoyed Graham’s tour which stepped up as Churchill’s, our initial plan, decided to close their doors to Sunday tourists. The children were all delighted to sample 20% alcohol, even if the adults were less impressed – “champagne taste, beer money”, as the saying goes.

Nous avons beaucoup aimé Porto. Un labyrinthe de rues étroites qui montent et qui descendent sur le flanc d’une colline. Une architecture diverse avec de jolis monuments style gothiques/ baroques, des maisons avec des façades entièrement carrelées et décorées, des maisons complètement delabrées, le tout se côtoyant allègrement.

Igreja de São Francisco

Public laundry

Sé Catedral do Porto

Porto

Instruments of torture exhibition

World of discoveries – interactive museum

Graham’s porto cellars