Ride Day 17: Viana de Castelo to Porto

The ride from Viano de Castelo to Porto today was anything but scenic and we were amazed at the urban sprawl that has crept northward from Porto.  But even with heavy traffic for most of the day, the ride was nice and we made it into downtown Porto with only a few panic attacks!

It seems like every time we ride in a new country it takes a few days to get used to local driving habits and how cars deal with bikes.  I've said several times in this blog how great the Spanish drivers are.  The French are pretty good, too.  The Portuguese are a different story.  They don't really seem to care if a bike is on the road; if there is a few inches to go by, then they squeeze by.  Yikes, this is new.  Being Saturday morning there were quite a few club rides on the roads so we watched what they did and how they dealt with the cars.  Here's the trick: totally block the lane with the bike so that the driver cannot get by.  It can be a bit intimidating at first, but the drivers don't get mad at all -- they just wait until you move over, which I do when it is safe for them to pass.

Porto is Portugal's second largest city and it is famous for being the home of port wine.  We are taking another day off, so we are looking forward to exploring.  The city is on the banks of the Douro River.  We are staying in a funky hostel that Lorie found.  Should be interesting.  We need the break, too.



The ride took us inland of the coastal roads.  We figured out yesterday that the unnumbered roads, the smaller ones that we usually like to ride, are all cobblestone in Portugal.  Riding cobblestones on a mountain bike is jarring; doing it on a fully loaded tandem is uncomfortable in the extreme.  So we plotted a route down the larger roads away from the coast.

After a sweet breakfast in our mansion, we rode past some farming communities just south of Viano de Castelo.  Saturday, so the local farmers are out selling their produce.  Too bad we can't carry anything.

Produce for sale on Saturday mornings

We came across this old aqueduct just north of Porto 

The architecture of the churches is very different from in Spain and France

As soon as we entered the city proper the roads turned to cobblestone, and it is very hilly in Porto.  Nothing to do but ride and dodge people and buses, so that's what we did.  Our GPSs took us right to the hostel (well, there were one or two conflicts between machines that we worked out at the side of the road -- I'll admit that Lorie's is always right.  Couldn't be me, could it?)

The hostel was a bit late to get us into our room, so we just kind of chilled out by walking around the neighborhood.  But we eventually got into our room, which is actually kind of a little bit not too very bad.  OK, it could be a lot better but it is cheap.  It is on the second floor and they told us that our bike would not be safe outside and that they had no place to store it.  So when they weren't watching we hucked it up two flights of stairs into the room.  We almost knocked an older British couple over coming up the stairs, but they made it.  It is sitting cozily next to my bed right now, and there is a big gear stain in grease on the bedspread.  Ooops.

It was early enough to explore a bit so we hiked over the famous Ponte de D. Lous I bridge over the Douro to the other side which is called Vila Nova de Gaia and which, we found, it an enormous tourist place.

Ponte de D. Louis I bridge

View from the bridge; it is really high and as far as I am concerned, pretty scary!

The north bank, Porto

The south bank, Vila Nova de Gaia

We were struck by the crowds of tourists, tourist buses, and hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of useless trinkets.  Not our deal, but we were plenty hungry so we walked away from the sea wall into the quieter part of town to find something to chow down on.  Nothing looked very appetizing and we were getting a bit bummed.  We decided to go one more street and when we did we found this absolutely perfect coffee and craft beer joint.  Without a doubt we haphazardly found the best place in Porto, maybe all of Portugal: 7g (https://7groaster.business.site/) 

If I am being honest, most of he beer in most of Europe is awful.  There's really no other way to put it.  The beer that is sold in most bars, most restaurants, has very little flavor and is a waste of time (Belgium is excluded from the foregoing generalization, as are the many cities where craft brewing is taking off, Berlin especially, but many other cites as well).  But so far in Spain and Portugal there has been no point in getting a beer.  But this place, 7g Roasting sounded interesting.  It was only 50 meters away from the madness of he sea wall, but was a million miles away in its vibe and what it looked like and what is being done.

Tiago, the guy who waited on us told us that they'd opened about a year ago. Their passion is coffee and they roast their own coffee.  It is fantastic.  They help the beans along to their proper place.  And they buy their craft beer from a Portuguese brewery called Lefte.  I wanted to try and IPA and since they had 4 different Vinho Verde's on the list, Lorie went for the wine.  And we had a meat and cheese board.  Oh, it hit the spot.  If you have one afternoon only in Porto, skip the cathedrals.  Skip the downtown and waterfront.  Go to 7g.  Have a great beer or wine and enjoy the relaxing and soothing atmosphere.

7g Roasters from the inside

From the outside

Dinner

Fantastic IPA -- Cascade hops imported to Portugal from Oregon

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It had cleared up a bit by the time we left; Porto is a very beautiful big city

A hilly city, too

Our chance visit to 7g will surely be repeated tomorrow.  As to that, we have all day to do nothing but catch up on this and that and explore.  Maybe I will blog, but maybe not.

From Porto we are going up the Douro to the heart of the port wine growing and producing regions at Peso da Regua.  We hope to stay in an old Franciscan monastery from the mid-1700s but will see what happens.  We need to educate ourselves about port before we leave the intelligence of Wi-Fi/

Be well.