Having carried out a very limited amount of research for the first few days in Portugal, it was pure luck that we chose to stay in Porto for a couple of nights and rest up, rather than rushing through. This city, the second largest in the country, deserves to appear on every itinerary! I really loved it here and will definitely be back, especially as there are direct flights from the UK to here... look them up now and book a long weekend :)!

I knew that this city was famous for producing port, but I didn't realise just how many port producers actually reside in the Vila Nova de Gaia area along the riverside here . The riverside is also an Unesco World Heritage site and the city itself offers an extensive list of historical buildings and things to do. 

The majority of the sights within the old town can be conquered on foot, but bear in mind there is a reasonable amount of climbing required, depending on where you choose to stay, but certainly to experience the best of it. The choices are endless, but there are numerous free city maps available which indicate the key places to visit so you can plan out your route to suit, whatever your preferred palate.

The lady at our hotel was extremely helpful in providing us with a list of things to do and see, as well as telling us a large amount of personal information (!). All of which was in Portugese, as she only spoke the odd word of English. Fortunately being reasonably versed in Spanish (which is actually quite similar!), between the two of us, we we are to interpret her ramblings into useful bits and the rest - well what we didn't understand we didn't need to really lol!

The weather in Porto had improved on our arrival, as apparently the day before it had mostly rained. So we were treated to sunshine throughout our 2 days, which meant t.shirts and ice cream... although the latter seemed to come out whatever the weather ;)!

I recommend a climb up the Torre dos Clerigos (tickets €2) for spectacular views of the city and a good way to get your bearings before diving into the other offerings. Of course a tour and tasting experience at a Port wine cellar must not be missed, but do note that these places only open until early evening... so it's not like you can do a pub [type] crawl as we had planned, not unless you want to start at lunchtime! Of course we were civilised and only started mid afternoon, and then realised that our plans to try out a few were limited to just one as out of season they close even earlier! So instead we resorted to resting our tired limbs at one of the eateries along with river front, in the cold, along with the obligatory coat, hat and scarf.

Before leaving we stopped off in the Foz beach area, past the river mouth... sun shining, although a little chilly, this was perfect for a picnic before heading South.

It is actually starting to get warmer as we head towards the coast, and there have been no signs of snow since we crossed over the border. I'm hoping that our next destination, will provide much warmer weather, as we are going to the coast.