October 8: After a long day of flying, we arrived at the Porto airport at 11:00 pm. After several communications, we were greeted by our shuttle driver and taken to the OPO Hotel. During our overnight stay we received a free ride to the hotel, a great night's sleep, an excellent free breakfast and a late check-out … pretty good for $71.

We arrived at our apartment around 2:30 on the 9th… it is spacious, clean and comfortable. Our first two days in Porto were spent wandering the city on foot and getting in touch with our new surroundings. During that time we met the owner of Maria Rita Restaurant where we had our first authentic Portuguese dinner … boiled cod and potatoes. On day three, we introduced Uber to our daily plan and went to Vila Nova Gaia for Port tasting. After tasting Port at Taylor's (the oldest Port producer in the Duoro Valley) we had a fabulous lunch at The Yeatman Hotel with the best view of Porto. Later, while tasting Port at Ramos Pinto we met Kris and Michaela and had a great time visiting with them. They are a fun and interesting International couple: he is Australian, she is German, they met in Australia and now live in Holland. After a water taxi ride across the river, we took an Uber ride back to our apartment for a delicious homemade dinner. Porto is beginning to make sense to us!