The next morning, we said bye to Spain for a couple of weeks and hello to Portugal. Our first stop was the city of Braga to check-out the Bom Jesus. The Bom Jesus is a Catholic sanctuary. the stairs up to the Basilica are truly something to see. On each of the landings are fountains of the five senses sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. And the fountains of the five wounds, where water is thrown from the eyes in one, ears in another, nose, mouth, and finally a jug held with both hands.
While we all walked the stairs, there is a funicular that will take you up and down as well. The funicular was built in 1882 and is currently the oldest in the world to use the water counterbalance system. I think the current price to ride the funicular is €2 one-way and €3 roundtrip.
Yes, it’s a lot of stairs.
We headed on into the historic center of Braga, grabbed some lunch and walked around for a bit.
A guitar shop 
We drove on as we were staying in Porto for the next couple of nights. There was a little grocery store across the street from our place. Had a nice meal and tried some of the local wines.
The following morning, we had a short walk to meet our tour bus that would be taking us to the Douro Valley. The Douro Valley is a wine region in Portugal famous for its port wine. It’s a really beautiful area with the terraced vineyards all along the valley. It was a little under a 2-hour drive to our first stop at a scenic viewpoint overlooking the Douro River. Then we headed on down to take a one-hour river cruise.
This guy was enjoying the view as well.
It was a beautiful sunny day once the morning fog burned off. After our little boat ride, it was on to our 1st tasting of port wine at the Quinta de São Luiz. While still getting used to drinking such a sweet wine, this one was probably the best I had tried.
Back down from the hillside winery to the scenic drive of the 222. The 222 goes alongside the river. Finally, made it to the next winery, the Quinta de Santa Julia, where we had a great lunch and unlimited wine refills. It’s been a family business since the 16th century and the views from the property are incredible. We were given a short tour of the property and then a proper wine tasting after lunch. Then it was time to get back on the bus and head back to Porto.
We even got a sample straight from the port barrel.
We had tickets the next morning to checkout a bookstore. Yes, you need tickets just to visit this bookstore, the Livraria Lello. The bookstore has been around since 1906 and has been referred to as “the most beautiful bookstore in the world”. It really is a site to see, but definitely a tourist destination as the line is continuous all day long. It is also said to have given JK Rowling some inspiration in the Harry Potter series.
Inside the main Porto Train Station 
After, we had a tour scheduled for a local sardine factory, Conservas Pinhais. The Portuguese love their sardines and so does John, so we figured why not. It was an interesting tour. We got to see how this family run business gets the sardines from the fisherman into the little canned tins. There was also a sardine tasting at the end. I have to say they were quite good. Maybe I’ve only had the cheap variety of sardines before and that’s why I wasn’t a fan. It was an easy bus ride there and back and a fun little tour.
Ready for our shift. 
We had a late morning and made it out to the Centro Portuges de Fotografia (the Photography Museum in Porto). It is set in an old prison. The photography exhibits change, but the 3rd floor camera exhibit is permanent. It seemed that they had examples of almost every camera ever made, including spy cameras. One of the photo exhibits was the Wildlife Comedy Exhibit. It was cute and most of the captions on the photos were entertaining as well.
Prison Courtyard 
Caption was: “Lost. Once again, Cecil forgot the map!” 
Spy cameras
It was interesting to get a little history on the prison itself and so, we asked one of the security guards about the prison. The 1st floor housed the poor people with about 30-40 people in each cell. The cells were bigger than the typical 6×8, but not big enough to hold that many people. The wealthier people were housed on the 2nd and 3rd floors and in some cases had their own cell. Their most famous prisoner was a writer who was held for about a year. His crime was adultery. The prison was used until 1974 when the Portuguese dictatorship was overthrown, and the prison was declared inhumane.
So True 
In the Ribeira Neighborhood of Porto
You need cash?? ATM right outside the door.
It was then a walk (thankfully mostly downhill) through the historic Ribeira neighborhood down to the Douro River. Another short boat ride taking us for a view of the 6 bridges of Porto. The most famous bridge is the Maria Pia designed by Gustave Eiffel. Yes, the same man that designed the Eiffel Tower.
Maria Pia Bridge
The Traditional Port Barrel Boat 
All of us were a little hungry, so we finally made a stop at McDonalds for a quick bite. Can you believe the McDonalds here offers a gluten-free bun? I can’t even tell you the last time I had a McDonalds’ hamburger.
Made our way to the tram museum. I liked how they gave the museum a city street fell. The cobble stones, streetlamps and the electric lines running overhead. The city of Porto still runs a couple of the historic tram lines, which are quite popular with tourists.
Bye Porto. Did a lot, missed a lot. I see a bridge walk in my future, if we ever come back.