G'day....So I staggered to me room last night....tried all the ports the bartender had. That does tucker a person out. Had an awesome sleep. Then I woke up go figure....but was a good sleep.

Today is a day to check out Porto.....and its an awesome day at that....minimal gear required

So I scrubbed off and grab some breakfast.....shook of yesterdays ride..and started to figure out what I should see. So me bartender buddy suggested I go see the Catehdral....yes i think that's spelt right and he suggested a whole bunch of other places too. But in all honesty folks I was so plastered I was lucky to find my room by the time we were done...so memory retention....non existence. I'm pretty sure he was helpful......the sandwich was great...I do remember that.

Must say the staff at the hotel are super friendly at least. So I grab the map take a peek go find the bike and hop on....the plan is to check out the Catedral. Again...its spelt right. I remember the bartender saying how much nicer it was than Salamanca's. Plug the name into the GPS and she found a route...she really is a good bud.

Holy frig.....I have no idea how I found the place....I was driving north south east west and everything in between up n down narrow cobblestone roads and I must have done 50 turns...to go 2 km.....seriously....how the frig....I imagine a lot of divorces trying to navigate around here....my friend never screams at me...she just says ...recalculating....so nice when I screw up a turn. Must say sometimes I thinks she's sippin da port too.....cause I can't believe she is sending me on the quickest route.....cause...again 50 + turns to go 2 km...doesn't seem right....and to add to it I gotta learn local driving....lights everywhere can't turn on a red....one ways everywhere...tonnes of traffic..they are all in a hurry too....and I'm sure the street signs....mean stuff...they really should give you a book...cause what does a blue circle with a red cross in it mean.....? I still don't know...but I did think about it a lot....as I drove by em...didn't hear any crashes behind me....so that"s good I think. I always have the "loco touristo" card to play if I have too LOL.... Anyhoo....poof there it is.... a cool cathedral on a hill.

Nice thing about riding a bike here..you can almost park anywhere. So I do... nice n close. get of the steed and start to look around. Very cool...but no where near as big as Salamanca's. so me tinks a lil country pride is at play here. Couldn't go in it but it looked cool so I wandered around the court yard...so cool....and you could see the whole city. So I wandered over to the south side of the courtyard and low and behold the Douro river that they use to move the port...so I gander a bit and lo n behold there be the port houses.....down below....right about there...I tink me knows where I am going next.

Take a chance...march back to the bike....spark up mrs gps......enter Taylor Fladgate....bong....she finds it. Whaaaaa hoooooo. Off I go. Again with the 50 turns and a bridge....and next thing ya know I'm in a really bizarre part of town.

Lil history.....the wine to make port is grown in the Douro valley region of northern Portugal. It's all about the grapes and the weather. The wine once finished It is then shipped via the river to this area for aging using cool looking boats. So the port houses have what they call caves here. they used the area as the temperature of the area was fairly stable. So they built big warehouses that they could control the temp as best they could. So big buildings....gravel floors and no light. It worked. Also port only exists as some one figured out how to stop wine from going bad on the long ocean crossings an losing is alcohol content....its simple really .... add brandy...sweetens it and fortifies it plus seriously adds to the alcohol content. Port has serious kick....I got into the habit in me military days....can't leave the table till the ports gone....

So the area I am in is all of a sudden very upscale it seems....look up and there it is the home of all the Taylor Fladgates I've ever had...whaa hoooo. wander in and they have tours...off I go.

Very impressive tour.....I learned a lot about the elixir.    and in the end free samples of first a dry white...was...good..never seems like a port to me though....then they broke out the vintage...ohhh yaaaa muyyyyy buenooooo. That is good stuff. So I can't leave yet....pull out the menu and you can order by the glass.....they have port from 1900 at 100 euro a glass was tempted...bu settled on some 40 year old Tawny.....not a bank breaker but costs enough and the gal suggests some aged cheese to go with it.

So I find a nice chair by the fireplace and sit and commence to savor the moment. Must say.....big check mark on bucket list item today. But after a while the glass was dry....sigh....so time to wander off any more and I would be staying for the night. As i was leaving I asked the gal if she thought I could carry a good bottle on the bike....never saw a head twist back n forth so quickly...I sighed.....and I wandered out....but they had a gift shop..so needed to check it out. Well well...they got small sampler bottles...lol....I stock up and drive out the lot...the bike made a strange tinkling sound as I rolled over the cobblestone. I had a smirk.

Where to next...duhhhh pub ... by river. So the area is like full of port houses and pubs / cafes. You sit outside and take it in. So a nice gal corners me into checking out her cafe. She was good....I had a flashback...I grilled my bartender buddy the night before about what I should have for a really good Portuguese meal and he went on and on about tripe....not sure I get that but that's another story...he then whipped out a magazine and showed me a picture of a wild looking sandwich....may have been tanked but had me faculties...so I took a picture of it with me phone. I told the gal one second whilst she awaited me to order...and yes Portuguese is quite different from Spanish...so I was not going to embarrass me self so I in English and hand mode.ended up showing her a picture of this sandwich so goes ahhhh blah blah blah blah blah blah blah....I nod....and off she trots with a smile.

No idea what its called but its a sandwich with several types of sausage cut up in it and smothered in some kind of gravy...ohhh and its got melted cheeses all over it. Dammmmmmm it was tasty. Somewhere in here the owner of the cafe came out and asked if I had the Bmw? I nodded...welllll then he started to tell me his life story. He has a motto guzzi...seems he went to Italy on a 3000 mile tour and hardly saw any. Weird. anyhoo he bent me ear for a long time then he insisted on getting me some port and of course he wouldn't let me pay....most cool...the he gives me his phone number and says any problems in Portugal....call him. Every person I met here is great so far.   But time to go...more to sober up than anything....

My new friend Antony...insists i go down the river road to check out the sunset. So I wander around for a bit to sober up and then head down the road......and wow....amazing sunset over the ocean.....

What now...didn't want to go to the hotel yet....heck the other side of the river has cafes....so off I go. I found a really cool one that had this wild chocolate desert....and of course Port. so I digested.......and it was gooooood. but all good things must come to an end.....so back to the hotel.

Once I got there .... time hit the bar area....my bud was there...and he just walked over with port....sigh whats a guy to do. Needless to say....crap....staggered to the room eventually and blinked........great day.....