I think I may surprise some of you, as I surprised myself when I started to write this bit, but I didn’t like Porto! I came here to see the romantic old city that I had read about, what I found was a dirty, decrepit and unloved city. As you all know, I love to explore the back streets of the towns and cities I visit, but here they were not inviting. Crumbling façades were not backed up by tired but “loved “old buildings, here block after block are empty shells with no roofs or windows. On the main river front I saw hundreds of decaying and empty building. I’m not saying there aren’t any nice places, there are, if you go across the St Luis bridge to Gaia you find the area where all the Port companies have their cellars, and they, have invested in their property assets in a big way. Of course this is to get more visitors through the doors and in to their shops. I visited Calem’s, (I could have gone to Sandemans, Cockburns or many others), and enjoyed a 40min tour of the museum, barrel and vat store, followed by a tasting session of 3 types of port: Ruby and Tawny I was aware of, but White port was new to me and a very pleasant surprise it was too!
