Last day of relative leisure.

This morning we had the luxury of no early alarm!  However Jan and I were down for breakfast by shortly after 8.  We were met by joanie and Sandy later as they had slept in! Our pick up was for 3pm so we had time that was unplanned. Joanie and Sandy took an Uber to the Crystal Palace, had a wander in the garden as the palace was closed for renovations and then found a book market where they purchased a little book on the Portuguese Camino.
Jan and I walked a few paces from our hotel and scouted out the mall. Nuff said, we had an enjoyable time!
We returned to the hotel to check out and had them hold our bags till our departure.  An Uber was called and we were off to walk over the St Louis Bridge. Porto is a very hilly town, with streets zig zagging every which way so one can easily get mixed up and end up back where they started.   Our uber driver was new and he even got lost!  The bridge is situated high above the river and affords magnificent views of a large part of Porto. We stopped often on the bridge to take photos, and ask others to take photos of all 4 of us. We seemed to be asking the same fellow several times. He didn’t seem to mind and as he took a photo he would say, ok I’m going to press the princess button now! After the second time he said, don’t forget the tip!
When we reached the opposite side of the bridge we walked down a very steep cobbled  incline to the waterfront which was busy with people. A very pretty scene with sailboats and tourist boats on the water and puffy clouds in the sky, picture perfect. There were many market stalls selling the usual tourist fare, and cellars with wines and port.  We took a seat at the outdoor patio of Sandeman Port and ordered water and a pitcher of refreshing red sangria. It really hit the spot as the day was really hot again. As it was getting near time to leave Porto we called another Uber and got back in time for our pickup. We were going to Epsonsende where we will start our hike in earnest....26 km. The drive took just under an hour and we arrived at a charming seaside location, wind blowing in the palm trees, at least 8 kite surfers in the bay.  We were soon outside walking the length of the sea wall.
Dinner at our hotel was delicious, as was the “green” Portuguese wine. (Green means it is a new wine, not aged at all, and not strong.)
After dinner we moved to a glassed in lounge area and played a card game called Golf.....simple but fun. Back in our rooms we looked out gear for tomorrow.
Hiking starts in earnest!