Porto, Portugal
We arrived in the port city of Leixoes, Portugal, early yesterday morning, Tuesday, May 1, for a half-day visit to Porto, Portugal's second largest city. A very short, and to be sure inadequate, visit, but an introduction nevertheless to a beautiful place, and one well worth coming back to for an extended stay. Porto is known for its port wines and historic architecture. Its fate was sealed when the barcos rabelos delivered the first wine shipments here from vineyards in the Douro Valley. I walked all around the ship on an outside deck early in the morning before our scheduled departure time to visit Porto. Unlike most ports we've been to, which either had no cruise ship terminal facilities at all or very modest and dated ones, this port has a beautiful modern passenger terminal building and ramp system. (Click on any photos to enlarge them.) Here are other views of the port area from the ship, including a few showing Leixoes' beautiful beach.