“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” Lawrence Block

Today we had a city tour of Porto which I found to be a delightful city.  If I was to describe it I would say it was charming, had character and was unexpected.   It has the old world appeal which I was hoping to find.

City view of Porto

Part of the tour brought us to the center of the city where there was a one hundred year old bookstore which was used in one of the Harry Potter movies.

100 Year old bookstore in Porto

As we walked in the time we had on our own there were many sights to see, the narrow streets, the olive grove built on top of a shopping center, the delicious smells of the bakery.

Olive tree

Tile at the train station

Bakery window

We toured a church where there were two old women chatting while hanging out their clothes and cleaning.  I do believe one might have put a curse on me after she saw me taking her picture.

Woman who put a curse on me

Woman cleaning

Part of the tour included a port wine tasting at Grahams followed by a photo op by Dave our fearless leader and king of selfies.

Dave

The Amalegro 8

After a port tasting

After a nice lunch back on board Tom Haas, Skip and I went for a walk and after a port tasting by the boys we came upon a Fado singer while the boys sampled another glass of port.  It was both unexpected and delightful.

Fado Singer

Worker listening to Fado singer

The best things in life are unexpected-because there were no expectations.”