May 28

Did laundry at a laundromat this morning ... Luxury :)

Then to the market ... Lots of fruit in season and lots of fresh fish ... We bought some fruit ... But no fish :)

Then to the supermarket to buy bread and juice for breakfast so we can leave at 6 am tomorrow.

A little rest in the hotel and now we are going to tour a Port Cave ...

The tour of the Port "Cave" was interesting ... The port is aged in huge vats and then barrels. The woman giving the information on the tour was very anti-English ... Since all on the tour were from the USA (except us :) ... Her views were well  accepted. Apparently Port was originally made so wine could be exported from Portugal to England. There is some disagreement as to who "created" the first port.

We knew that many rivers flood in Portugal in the spring (that is why we did not come earlier) ... She showed us how high the waters flood ... I think 1909 was one of the worst ... The oak vats kept the port safe since the the water does not go through the wood and the barrels floated so even though there was a lot of destruction, the port was saved.

We tasted White Port and Ruby ... The Ruby was my favorite. We did not buy any at the store ... Too heavy to carry ;)

One last evening with fellow pilgrims and tomorrow we begin again. It will probably be hard after not walking with packs for a few days.