23 December 2024, Porto, Portugal

Having departed Vigo by train rather early arrive to the blue sky and sun of Porto mid morning. Having reverted back to GMT. Check in to the Hotel Vincci Ponte Ferro (https://en.vinccipontedeferro.com/) with an amazing view of Porto’s signature bridge and the Douro river below from room. Ah yes, this will do very nicely for the next few days. Not a bad place to spend Christmas.

A cable car takes you from bridge level high up to the river level below on the Villa Gaia side of the Douro. Skimming the roof tops of the old port houses as you do. Rows and rows of long tiled roofs. Still used as storage cellars for Porto’s most famous product. Port. A drop of which I’m rather partial to. Along with some ripe Stilton. There are few finer things than sipping a port with stilton and biscuits by a roaring log fire at Christmas. Such were my teenage years in parents’ cottage. Dad used to buy a wheel of stilton and feed it port over Christmas. Ah yes. Happy memories. So used to good quality port that when a mate offered some of his Dad’s port one Christmas I knew how rough it was. It was Cockburn’s. Dreadful stuff.

So you can imagine my delight at being in the home of port. A few tastings have been booked, dear reader.

All the restaurants on this side of the river are empty. They’re in the shade this side. And all the sunbathed restaurants on the north side are busy. But that’s OK. I’ll have a quick snack. So pop into Casa Portuguesa do Pastel de Bacalhau. An ornate interior with organ. Which sells the local delicacy. Codfish cake with a cheese filling. Served with a glass of sweet white port. Presented on a board where you put your thumb through a hole to hold the glass of port in a slot and the deep fried codfish cake. Bit like an artist’s palette.

But.

What they omit to tell you is this.

When you bit into the crispy codfish cake at one end.

Hot molten cheese squirts out the other end.

FFS.

Thinking it’s only squirted onto my hand that is entangled in the wooden board. But no. A huge globule has streaked down my right trouser leg at the knee.

Oh FFS.

My hands are a greasy cheese covered mess. My jeans now have a large greasy blob of cheese drooling down the leg. Grab tissues. Trying not to make things worse. But fail miserably.

Spend rest of day walking around with a greasy patch on leg.

Cross the river by tram to Sao Bento and spend a few hours milling around the old town. Lots of architecturally stunning buildings but there’s also a lot of derelict properties. Ripe for renovation. It’s soon apparent that the ground floor of a building might be a nice shop, café or restaurant but when you look up you see that the building above is derelict. There’s a phenomenal amount of derelict buildings. And this is the centre of town too. Where you would think they would be a prime location for housing.

Today’s main event is the Sound and Light show at the Clerigos Church. Wow. What a spectacular show. You’ll have to see the photos and video below dear reader. Utterly brilliant.

And another great end to a day. With dinner in the hotel overlooking an illuminated bridge. Scallops and pork belly, wild boar fillet followed by chocolate fondant. With some nice wine. You would love it mucker!

Ah yes.

This will do nicely, dear reader.

Loving Porto.