Day 8 started early once again.   It’s weird – after years of going to bed at 2 or 4 in the morning and getting up at noonish, I’ve now converted to a day person thanks to this trip.

I woke up at 7am and headed downstairs for the complimentary breakfast – scrambled eggs, toast, banana bread, fruit cocktails, cereal and juice.   At the communal breakfast table, the German invasion continued as there were 5 people from Germany sitting there.   Crazy.   I’m convinced the whole country is on vacation this week.

I had a full day planned as I was heading back to Lisbon by bus at 8pm and had only one day to see everything.   After doing a walking tour around the city for a couple of hours, I headed down to the waterfront and walked over the small bridge over the Douro river to the city of Gaia where all the port wineries are located.

When I decided to come to Porto, visiting the Taylor Fladgate winery was at the top of my list of things to do.   I’m not really a port drinker but, c’mon, I’m in Porto – I have to try some don’t I?

After the tour, I walked awhile (most of it uphill) to visit a monastery which was supposedly a *must see* but ended up being more of a *yawn* instead.   By this time I had probably walked a good 5 miles and done everything I wanted to do in Porto so I headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner before making the long trek to the bus depot.

My last official meal in Portugal was a vegetable noodle soup followed by pork ribs with salad, rice and fries with a 1/2 liter of wine – total bill 10 euros… crazy!

I headed back to Lisbon late at night arriving just after midnight for a quick 5 hour sleep before checking out again to catch my flight to my next destination – Madrid!