Our one day in Porto, Portugal

Still trying to get caught up on our blog posts, and there's still quite a lot to tell you about! We had a very hectic week between when we finished our big hike and we made it back to Canada.

I already told you the story about our flight delays, so when we arrived in Porto, Portugal on the 26th of June, we only had the one day to explore. 

We've never been to Porto (or Lisbon, for that matter), but a lot of people had mentioned how much they liked Porto. 

We were exhausted from our crazy trip from Tirana to Rome to Paris to Porto. So we didn't actually head to the central area until about 1:00pm. Yes, this would be a quick visit to see the highlights, and that's all!

We walked the 4 kms (2.5 miles) each way from our apartment to the center.

Typical street in Porto. Lots of tiled buildings.

Monument to the Heroes of the Peninsular War.

We walked to several viewpoints.

The Fountain of Virtues.

Water lily in full bloom.

The Portuguese sure like their tiles!

The Duoro River flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Porto.

Other side of the river.

Tourist boat.

Old tram, apparently sponsored by Coca Cola.

A different McDonald's.

Into the tourist area.

There are a lot of hills in Porto. Didn't mean anything to us, after all the hills we just hiked!

Unfortunately, there is also a lot of this!

We found that there was a lot of trash and graffiti in Porto. Maybe it was because we just finished 11 days in the unspoiled mountains, but it was a complete turnoff. As was the number of tourists. We admit that we were tired, and probably didn't give it enough of a chance, but we felt like Porto isn't a city we need to return to. 

You can have your roof any color you want, provided it's orange!

This fountain was built in the 17th century. 

Pretty sure the quality of the water is not the same now!

Porto Cathedral.

We made it to the bridge for the view over the river.

Porto, Portugal.

We're glad we were able to stop in here on our way back to Canada. Some readers had told us of a day trip you can do that takes you by boat down the Duoro River valley, and then you take the train back. It does sound really nice, but we just didn't have time. And for that reason we would return to the area... but not for the city itself. 

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