Port wine has long been one of my favorite types of wine. The flavor is full, often sweet, and the drink packs a delightful punch of alcohol content. When we decided to head to Portugal I knew Porto, home of port wine, was a city we absolutely must visit.

The Wander

Before taking care of my port wine craving, we wandered all over the city. It’s a stunning place with most of the city perched on hills alongside the Duomo river.

We decided to spend one of our days walking along the Duomo to where the river meets the Atlantic.

The river isn’t the only interesting site in Porto. Since the city is one of the oldest centers in Europe, it has some really beautiful old architecture.

Port

Many of the port wineries are clustered together not far from the river. You can see them from various viewpoints around town.

And their logos are painted onto random walls.

We chose Offley for our winery tour + wine flight experience. Joseph James Forrester, the first person to chart the Duomo river and valley, used to be a partner of the winery so we figured we would hear some interesting history during the tour. Offley also has one of the cheaper tour fees and that sounded great to our tight budget.

The tour was really cool and the port was delicious.

Originally, we had planned to try some port elsewhere afterward. Those plans changed when the pregnant woman across from us gave us her tasters of wine. We were really feeling it by the time we left the winery 🙂

Interesting fact: port wine is still transported up the river by old school boats. You can see a bunch of them docked along the river when you walk around.

The quirky and absurd

Like the rest of Portugal, street art is everywhere in Porto.

One thing that I found to be both interesting and hilarious in Porto is the fact that cork is such a big deal you can find pretty much anything made out of it.

And then there was this place.

Lello & Irmao

No first visit to Porto would be complete without a visit to Lello & Irmao. It’s rumored that the bookstore served as inspiration to J.K. Rowling while writing Harry Potter. It was a bit too crowded for our taste, and the people everywhere made it difficult to take quality pictures, but it was a fun place to stop.

The chicken

By the time we arrived in Porto we had an intense craving for chicken. Food is the best way for us to connect to a place so we try to eat local dishes as much as possible when we travel. We also love to try new cuisines because we want to eat all the food. Portugal, for example, is known for its seafood so we were eating a lot of fish and the like. Unfortunately, as any long-term traveler knows, sometimes you develop a strong craving for something specific. So we hunted out chicken and had one of the most delicious chicken meals either of us has ever experienced.

Go for the wine, stay for the chicken.

 

You can take a look at the rest of my Porto pictures here!