Day 1 - Porto to Matosinhos

We left our hotel in Porto at 7:45 am and walked down the hill a half mile to the Rio Douro, then along the river via sidewalks and bike paths for three miles to the mouth of the river at the Atlantic Ocean. We should have been suspicious of the guidebook mileage, such was 6 Km or roughly a mile more than we actually walked, but figured the error may have been because we didn't start at the cathedral. 

We then walked along a wide pedestrian and bike path between the beach and a broad avenue lined with hotels and vacation condos--typical beach resort scene-- for another three miles to the Matosinhos tourist office, where we stopped to get our credentials stamped. We asked the man at the desk where our lodging for the night was, and lo and behold it was just four or five blocks up the street. We were expecting another two or three miles, so our day turned out to be a lot shorter than we thought.

Being only 11:00am, it was too early to check in, so we left our backpacks behind the front desk went off to find a church with a noon Mass. After Mass we stopped at a small sidewalk cafe for slice of pizza and a glass of beer for lunch, then checked in to our pensions to take a nap.

I'll try to post a couple of photos separately.