This is our first visit to Porto, but it isn’t the first time we tried. We had a lovely work + holiday trip fully booked for March/April 2020. I don’t need to tell you why that one didn’t work out. But I guess 2nd time’s a charm, because after an uneventful bus ride we arrived at our apartment in Porto.

Jan found a lovely apartment centrally located in Porto, and it’s fair to say that it has exceeded our expectations. Spacious and comfortable with hardwood floors, and 12 foot ceilings decorated like this…

Today is Halloween, so tomorrow is All Saints Day. It’s a national holiday in Portugal, which means all the stores are closed, so we rushed out to the local market to get a few groceries, and of course…

Jan played her part and sampled the Douro Valley rose wine. (Spoiler alert: it’s dangerously tasty.)

After we unpacked, we headed out for dinner. We decided to try an authentic Portuguese specialty – Sardine Bruschetta. We both thought it was delicious.

After dinner we took a short walk back to our apartment. We kept it short, because today was our day of rest (we need it), and the “short walk” was mostly uphill. But still managed to walk a bit along the river with lovely views of all the port houses on the south side. We counted at least a half dozen. Tomorrow we’ll explore more.