Kiwi Roaming

With breaking our last day of walking into two we didn’t have our planned exploration day in Santiago de Compostela but that was ok as we had some time to physically recover before heading back to Porto. Our bus left at 9:30am so we walked to the station during peak commuter and university student time, was lovely to see a little more of the city as we covered the 2km hike to the station.

What took us 14.5 days took 4 hours on a bus! the first part of the journey tracking our walk pretty faithfully including coming into the Vigo bus station at the same mall we had visited, from there it deviated slightly. Most of the other folks on the bus were Camino walkers and many got off at the airport to fly straight home. We got into the city then took an uber to a vegan restaurant Imogen had scoped out close to our apartment.

This trip we were staying on the eastern side of the city so got to explore a different district. The lunch was amazing but massive – soup, juice and a massive salad course. Our apartment was cute and very functional for us with large bedrooms and a good kitchen (which we didn’t really take advantage of). That afternoon we showered, napped and then headed down into the chaos of tourists so Imogen could see more of Porto. Our dinner was at the Time Out food hall which has about 20 different high end places with a wide range of offerings, again vegan choices and we ate very very well.

Next morning we had calls with home, then vegan baked goods, then Steve and I went to a nearby laundry and chatted with an American traveler from Texas while waiting for our washing before we all headed off for another explore. More food markets and sights to see. As we were leaving the Ribeira (the cute riverside tourist mecca suburb of Porto) about 15 Police vehicles arrived with 6-8 officers in each fully dressed in all of their gear – we got to the bridge in time to hear a huge crowd of football supporters arrive and understood why so many cops all of a sudden, it was very very very loud.

Port tasting – Next stop was Sandeman port house in Gaia, the other side of the river where all of the port houses have massive complexes, warehouses and bottling plants. Sandeman is one of the older houses and their tour + tasting package was only €22 so we booked the 2:30pm English tour. It was way more interesting than we expected, we already know alot about wine making processes but there are loads of differences with port. Sandeman’s point of difference, as we could tell, was they were the first to brand their product and branding is their big thing. Still family owned (now by the same family who makes Mateus wine and own vineyards in NZ) their tour was more personal and we enjoyed the experience very much – which might have been clouded by the 3 x glasses of port we tasted of course.

Farewell Porto – for our final evening in Porto we took the gondola up to watch the sunset, something Steve and I had tried to do with Rachel and Gordon. Imogen was fascinated with the hundreds of people, hawkers and general spectacle of it all. She also enjoyed the experience of walking across the top of the bridge while the trains tried to navigate the crowds. Our last food stop was for vegan gelato which was so yummy, then back to pack before our early trip to the airport tomorrow.

It was sad to Farewell Porto, but sadder to say goodbye to Imogen. Our taxi ride took way too long due to an accident so she had to go straight through security for boarding, while we had 3 hours before our checkin opened to hang around the airport. Steve and I will be back in Portugal in about a months time but in the Algarve not back to Porto. Loved Porto.

It was strange transitioning into not walking, not following yellow signs or collecting stamps. It’s meant to take 21 days to form a habit but we were totally operating in Camino mode in less than that! Also, sorry way too many photos, but this is just a tiny subset of what I took over the course of the few days and I do love the food markets!