There's No Port Like Oporto

Perched near the mouth of the Douro river in the northern end of Portugal sits an architecturally stunning city that just happens to be the home of Port wine.  Oporto is one hoppin' place.  Tour buses and hop-on-hop-offs trawl the streets and river and ocean cruise passengers cram into the plazas and the narrow passageways of the old city.  And you don't mind it at all - especially on such a glorious day as we had today.

We had relatively little time in town today, so we did a hop on/hop off just to see the city; totally worth it.

Still more great churches.  Many older buildings are covered with the most beautiful tiles called Azulejo (Az-oo-lay-ho).  Most of the tiles are blue and white, but I saw yellow, bright green, and even pink ones.  They cover the better part of the buildings, and many of them are murals.

Absolutely gorgeous.  

We passed a couple of beautiful old cathedrals.

The tiles even covered this entire building!  

And let's take a look at the architecture...

We crossed over the river to check our the cellars.  There are so many port cellars in Oporto, I couldn't find a definitive number.  We saw signs for at least 20...but we needed to eat something first.

Back towards the old town, we noticed a market by the riverside and decided to check it out in hopes of a nosh.

We were not disappointed.

The rest of our short time here was spent back across the river at two cellars: Porto Cruz and Sandeman.  Both were excellent and really inexpensive.

Bottom line - we'll have to come back and visit...and stay for many more days.  Thanks for the taste, Oporto!