Flying from Casablanca to Porto was uneventful except for the screaming infant on the small plane and, once we approached northern Portugal, total cloud cover, which, though sudden infrequent fragments of sun and azure skies will tantalize us, will stay with us for our entire visit of Northern Portugal. As all families teach their children, “into every life, a little rain must fall.”

We Uber from the airport and, after checking into our lovely hotel, wander down to the Douro Riverside, gawk a bit — the wiiide river, the opposite shore of Port houses covering the steep hillside, the endless seaside promenade of restaurants, the arched bridge built by Eiffel, the mummers — and find a very nice place for dinner. Cynthia has a white she likes and David has an “Ernest Hemingway red” (the “strip the enamel” line). But charming old stone walls, cute, bubbly waitress, atmosphere, and good food at less than “gouge-the-tourist” prices.

Our first full morning, David is severely under the weather and ends up spending the whole day in the room. About 3 he showered and wrote one post on Morocco.

Cynthia went out to explore the town and came across a lovely little cafe for brunch at 2! Perfect timing for me. There was a line of people sheltering under umbrellas and a 20 minute wait but it was worth it.

Walking further up hill I found this beautiful church. The tiles (azulejo) are painted with scenes from the lives of Saints.

Nearby I saw a Falconeri store and had to go in. Luckily there was nothing I wanted to buy. While in the store, I began hearing chanting and banging of drums so I stepped outside to see what was happening. We had been told that this day was a national holiday, but had not thought through that May 1 is Labor Day. Sure enough on the street was a huge parade of people trade organizations.

Heading back towards our hotel, I came across a group of university students in their famous black capes preparing to give a concert on the street.

David had some soup and an early night, hoping he would be up for the boat trip the next day.