It would not have been right to spend time in Porto and not cross the Douro River and visit at least one Port Wine lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia. Port wine grapes are grown upstream in the Douro valley and come to Vila Nova de Gaia to age in the various lodges in the area. You'll see very familiar names, Sandeman, Taylor, and Kopke as you cross on over.
To get there, we walked back up to the Sé do Porto – the Cathedral and crossed over on the top level of the Dom Luis Bridge. You could just as easily walk over on the lower level, but crossing over on the "Metro level", you'll get the benefit of a very nice view.
I also enjoyed watching the metro zoom by…….
Crossing over, we got kind of turned around and a bit lost in the winding streets of Vila Nove de Gaia. When we finally made it to Taylor, they were closed for a private event. The Missus was starting to get a bit frustrated when we finally found Croft.
The rustic interior and large barrels really gave this place the "right" atmosphere.
We were going to take the tour and even bought tickets when this large noisy group of young people came in and basically took over the place. The Missus and I decided to pass on the tour, which I heard is pretty good and just had our tastings…..
I supplemented with a tasting of the 10 year old Tawny Port, which was more to my taste, not overly sweet, slightly smokey, caramelized fruitiness……
We then headed back down to the waterfromt, which was much more relaxed than Porto, though I've got say, Porto is fairly relaxed as a whole.
On a bright sunny day like this one; you got some postcard worthy views…..
We decided to head back to the apartment. We took the lower level of the bridge…..
And within minutes were back at the apartment. It had been a pretty long day; starting with checking out Avenida dos Aliados, Imperial McDonald's and breakfast. Moving on to Mercaod do Bolhao, Clérigos Church and Tower and lunch at Antunes. Ending with our visit to Vila Nova de Gaia. We decided on staying in for dinner…..
I'd really taken to the dense, dark, bread called Broa de Avintes and we had found some at a local bakery.
Meal complete, we took our usual after dinner stroll……
Walking along the Ribeira (riverfront), I saw a place selling a variety of Francesinha…..there's just something wrong about having a veggie or tofu version of this calorie bomb of a sandwich, don't you think?
I was mentally trying to determine if I had enough room in my belly for one of these, when the Missus read my mind and said, "there's no way I'm going to let you have another one of those sandwiches". Which was probably a correct decision…….still, I was sorely tempted.