Wrap up Portugal (2)

The drive to Porto was all mapped out with plenty of time to get us to the Graham's Port tour and tasting that had been set up ahead of time by our friend, Nathalie, from Grand Vins de France in Anguilla. The navigation system was working swimmingly. We were on schedule or ahead. Until we got to the address we were given and found ourselves in a very residential part of town at some apartment buildings. Multiple calls to the Graham's PR department and several stops along the way to ask for directions (of guys having coffee and even the guard at Graham's competitor, Taylor's Ports) and we finally arrived not 20 minutes early but 40 minutes late. But it was well worth it.

Lovely facility. Special VIP tour and five really nice glasses of port later we still had to find our way to our hotel on the other side of the river Douro. Michael had to navigate some pretty narrow streets (but the helpful locals did come running to help us with maneuvers) after having had all of the port and we missed and turn and had to retrace our steps but we were rewarded with a lovely evening in a really adorable little town and enjoyed fresh grilled sardines for dinner with a view of the Ponte Luiz.

Wednesday morning we rode the funicular up the hill to stroll around some more but had to head back to Madrid to return our car and fly home. Unfortunately, we had to take a bit of an out of the way route to avoid one of Portugal's 'electronic toll device only' roads. It was touch and go for a while as we found ourselves winding our way through the mountains at a relative snails pace. But somehow we managed to roll into a parking place in the Hertz lot just as the low fuel light popped on and just in time to catch the last shuttle back to our hotel. Perfect.