May 12b, 2010 - Porto

Walking down the hills of Porto, we get some great views of the city.

This is today's walking group.
(We had so many people, we had to split to a manageable few.)

We stop at Igreja de São Francisco (church of Saint Francis)

Brooke and Katherine play in the church walls.

São Francisco is quite the Euro-church.

Jill and I take turns feeding Ella (with a view) and going into the church.

They don't allow photos inside, so here are ones I found online...

Down below the church (where the do allow photographs) is the catacombs.

The floors are graves, but rather than people walk over the engravings or paintings on the floor, the tombstones line the walls.

Bones of the less interesting monks lie in a mass grave under the catacombs.

Back outside, Ella gets a last bit of freedom before going back in the stroller.

The view from Francisco of the river.

We're finally on the northern bank of the Duoro River.

We get our bearings (and a final look at the labyrinthine alleys of Porto), and head for a bridge.

We're trying to get to the southern bank where all the port wineries are.

OK, we'll stop for a picture, first.

Though the hillier northern bank is more scenic.

So, once across, we stop for picture time.

Ella enjoys a quick strech while we wait for our samples at the Kopke winery.

Ella shows off her new crawling skills on the table.
Yup, Ella learned to crawl at the 'monkey house' in Ponte de Lima, Portugal.

The samples are here. Time to get serious.

After the ports, we move on to dinner (and more wine).

After dinner, we head of for a nightcap at a local bar as the bus pulls around for us.

Then, the night basically ends with some alcohol-fueled zaniness, which included all levels of dancing, inspired by a couple of more bottles and, as you see in Jill's hand, a big ole roady from the bar.