Porto, also known as Oporto in English, is the second-largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon, and one of the major urban areas in Southwestern Europe. In Portuguese, the name of the city is spelled with a definite article (“o Porto”; English: the port). Consequently, its English name evolved from a misinterpretation of the oral pronunciation and referred to as Oporto in modern literature and by many speakers. So, basically, either Porto or Oporto is correct, though the locals typically call it just “Porto” so that’s what I’m going to go with for the purposes of this post.

Porto is believed to have been inhabited since the 8th century BC. The earliest evidence of settlers in Porto dates back to the end of the Bronze Age in the 8th century BC, near the present Morro da Sé. This makes Porto one of the oldest cities in Europe!

For our excursion here, the three of us roamed through Porto’s historical riverfront district and cruised the Douro River on a boat traditionally used to carry port wine. The first thing we did was to meander on foot through Ribeira, a district so culturally and architecturally important that UNESCO deemed it a World Heritage site. We were given some free time to delve deeper into the charms of this intriguing city. We walked up and down the streets, stopping into souvenir shops and grabbing a drink for Ryan at a storefront.

It’s interesting the things you find in such an old place, from plaques commemorating events that happened hundreds of years ago to unique modern-looking art.

After roaming around a little, it was time for the next part of our tour, which was a trip along the Douro River aboard a traditional rabelo boat, a flat-bottomed vessel unique to Portugal that was used in the 18th century to transport barrels of port wine. We were treated to some drinks and snacks aboard the vessel and then we went on top to enjoy the views as we sailed along.

There was a recording that told us all about the various areas we passed. One of the places we passed was the fortress-like São Francisco Cathedral, one of the city’s largest churches and the site of famed Portuguese explorer Henry the Navigator’s baptism. The recording highlighted a prominent rose window that was part of its original façade. Note: I learned on this trip that Ryan doesn’t like it when I say the word façade. He thinks I sound hoity toity (my word) and thinks I should just say “exterior.” I insist that façade is more specific to what I’m referring to, particularly in Portugal with all the beautiful azulejos (the mosaic ceramic tiles) along the… you guessed it… façades of the buildings.

After our ride on the boat, we had a little more time to walk around and further enjoy and learn about the area.

We finished our excursion with a shuttle bus tour of the area, in which we saw two particularly interesting things. One was an incredibly long line of people waiting to go into a building. It turns out they were lined up to go into a bookstore – the Livraria Lello – purportedly the most beautiful bookstore in the world and one that legend has it much of the Harry Potter books’ scenery was based on. People had tickets to enter the store, and if they bought a book the entrance fee would go toward that purchase. Another cool thing we saw from the shuttle bus was a “home” within two churches. It’s an amazingly narrow building situated precisely between two churches that were built in different centuries. You can kinda see it in the image below. We had to pass by the building twice just to fully appreciate it.

That concluded our tour in Porto. After this we headed back to the ship. It was a fun excursion overall and Porto was beautiful.