Day 15 Rubber necking in Porto

I awoke at 0400, I think old habits die hard. I managed to get back to sleep only to wake up 0500 then  at 0600.

We got up at 0800, had breakfast then prepared for some serious rubber necking, we decided to go straight to the cathedral to get our pilgrim credentials for the next stage of our journey, I would add that I lost my last one two days short of Porto.

On our way we stopped off at the station, all these scenes are made out of individual tiles, they were stunning. What a grand entrance.

We picked up our credentials and looked around the cathedral.

I had a closer look at the view across the river, I could see all the famous port producers.

To name but a few.

Matts first introduction to the arrows, he will be seeing a lot more of these over the next two weeks.

It was time for Matt to have his first Portuguese Tart, ably assisted by us.

Needless to say he went around the buoy again.

I have always wanted to have a go in a tuk tuk so the team pampered to my wishes and we became your typical tourist for an hour, I loved it, in fact I think we all did.

Phillip our driver and guide really did a great job as he whisked us around the narrow streets of Porto, there really is a sense of history here.

He certainly put it through its paces, egged on by us.

He dropped us off in the main square and we had a beer, we were enjoying feeling normal and not walking, having said that there was a side of me missing being on the open road, I must not wish these two days away as the pain and tiredness will soon be back.

Time for lunch.

We really have eaten very well indeed since we have been in Portugal, hardly the life of a lowly pilgrim .

When in Porto one must have a glass of Port, we toasted Mark as he is the reason I started walking in the first place. In the last year I have nearly clocked up 800 miles walking on Caminos and loved every moment of it, thank you Mark my lovely brother, out of sight but never forgotten.

We went back to the hotel and had a sleep.

After a bit of motor sport.

The management of the hotel complained about Matt drying his smalls ,said it lowered the tone of the place.

Stats for today 

60 tarts consumed.