Porto: Day 2 evening

We had a fairly quiet afternoon today, but there are still some pretty awesome stories to tell!

First thing we did was cross the river. We’ve spent our entire time in Porto so far on the north side of the river, so it was well past time for us to explore the south side! We started next to the river itself and headed slowly up the hill, mostly shopping in all the little stores and street stalls as we went.

One of my personal favorite things I’ve seen in Porto is the beautiful ceramics! We’ve talked about the azulejos tiles before, but the same idea can be found in many places, such as these dishes. They’re pretty easy to find here and they’re very eye-catching; it seems like no matter how many of these stalls I see, I still want to explore the next one.

We were lucky enough to meet the husband of one of these artists, who was able to tell us a little bit more about how the dishes are painted. They’re not done with brushstrokes the way most people expect, but the paint is dropped on in specific areas and then spread with the tip of the brush. This is why the lines can vary so much; the closer the line is to where the paint was dropped, the thicker and darker the line will be.

I also bought a cute hat. Couldn’t be helped – it’s really sunny here and I like hats!

We were going to take a river cruise today, but had to reschedule for tomorrow morning so we settled for a bit of an early dinner instead. The boats look like so much fun and they take us all the way to the ocean and back again, past all 6 of Porto’s bridges. I can’t wait!

Today we have our first comments re-winner: Zoe E! Congrats Zoe!! I’ve been so much happier with everyone’s comments lately – I really do enjoy seeing what all of you have to say, so keep them coming! There’s no limit on how many times you can win either so keep posting and you’ll win additional prizes every time your name gets drawn!