porto in the daytime

Across the Douro there are lots of touristy port-tasting places. I walked up to the farthest and highest... which is, alas, closed on Saturdays in the off-season, and then to the next closest, which was open but ridiculously expensive: you could have bought a bottle of the same port in the nearest wine shop for about twice what the 5 cl tasting cost - and this was one that all the guidebooks list as a 'free tasting.' What they don't tell you is that you only get to taste one, of their choice, for free. So I got some free white port, which convinced me not to try anything else there. And then I set out for a wine shop on the North bank, in Porto proper, where they do cheap tastings of independent port-makers. Unfortunately, they either no longer exist, or they were closed both when I went by in the morning before 11 and after 2 when I returned, limping. My old bicycling injury doesn't like it when I go up lots of stairs, apparently, and has been reminding me forcefully. All this means that the only good thing I got on that side of the Douro was some pictures of the main town in the background with the ships that bring port downriver; here's one:

Earlier, from the Torre dos Clerigos, I got to see the Atlantic for the first time in almost a year; it turns out that Porto is really near the coast. It also had lots of the things I love about Naples, including grannies watching TVs in their living rooms, with the door open to the street. Even better, in Porto you don't get the feeling that they can do that because they gave birth to a guy named Tony who's in with the Camorra. Alas, I didn't get a picture of that.