Last weekend myself and my aunt Caroline (the one with the really successful career in the travel & ski industry) hopped over the border from Spain to Portugal by heading to Porto. Porto is an absolutely adorable city which we both fell in love with, and I’ll go into much more detail about our adventure there in a separate blog post. For now I leave you with this postcard of the Ribeira, Porto’s northern waterfront onto the famous Douro River.

         We had been wandering around the Cathedral when Caroline very luckily found a random path among the weave of alleyways in the oldest part of the city, which is called the Escada das Verdades (the Stairs of Truths). These escadas are unbelievably picturesque and echo a time when the town’s fishermen lived in a higgledy piggledy fashion in tiny houses one on top the other on this steep slope down to the riverfront. We even saw a frugal family in one particularly poor alleyway barbecuing peppers in the street to celebrate the São João festivities which happened to be taking place that weekend.

         Reaching the Ribeira we found lots of open-air restaurants, a few boats, market stalls and views across the river. It’s a lovely area to stroll along and I imagine very romantic with the right person. I’ll write more about Porto soon but in the meantime add it to your travel wishlist – trust me!