Where they make port

 With alarm going off at 2am this is how to induce jetlag whilst staying in the same timezone.

By 2:30 the four us were neatly packed into the 3pointer and zooming off down the M4 under the cover of darkness which was nicely hiding the huge stain on the side which could only have been accurately placed there by an albatross. Nick proved to be a far better guide than the voiceless lady behind the dashboard and a couple of hours later we'd arrived at Gatwick, feed and stabled the beast, walked to one terminal, caught the train to the other one, had exactly the same experience as every other attempt in the UK when going through the screening process (can definitely blame Brexit on this one), stopped for a bite and then onto a BA plane full of poms to Porto just as the sun was once again touching the green grass of olde London surrounds.
Great to see one can purchase tobacco from the in flight service..must be poker machine somewhere around here....
2 hours later we plunged into the bright white fog laying between the black mountains of Portugal.
Due to studious preparation the night before by Nick we had a dude at the airport with a sign with his name on it. This gave us passage through the transportation confusion to a personal van which nicely accommodated all of plus luggage and took us to the amazingly central hotel.
We were early, our rooms were ready and so we were wondering where the inevitable travel issue was waiting to appear. It didn't. The rest of the day was an amazing self discovery tour of the olde town of Porto (based on some astute guidance from the girl on the desk) and Google filling in the historical knowledge gaps when required.
Securing the EU sim for the phone (the need of which is unequivocally due to brexit) on the way to the local market, we enjoyed the fares on offer at cheap prices and an abundance of good cheer and relaxed attitudes.

We walked for miles (actually "kilometers" now we are back into a fully civilized society) whilst checking the place out. Leaving the layout if the town to future entries its appropriate here to say we went up and down many cobblestone streets and had appropriate refreshment stops along the way.
The sangria from the authentic joint next to the train station was a case in point. Another was siting back watching the sights in the olive garden on top of the hill.

In order to remain sane we all had an afternoon kip after limping back to the hotel in the nicely warm afternoon heat.
Heading out to dinner our choice if pre's location was exceptional in that we were besieged by a political rally deciding to march along our strip.

With machine gun toting police bikies leading them on they first banged their way past using huge drums to drive home the fact that they exist followed by a crazy throng of flag waving, yelling knot of people with their devices held up in order to capture the unfolding events in the middle of the mele'.
Somewhere in there was a budding politician.

Our dinner was a fine dining experience (linen table cloths). Can not tell anymore who is a local and who is not, the place did seem to be full of white retirees with mostly English accents though. Makes one feel quite young.
After our highbrow dinner the girls went off to catch some zeds whilst the boys went on an exploratory exhibition, traversing the historically significant old town before eventually arriving at the waterfront in order to capture the scene i.c.w. a plethora of (one can only assume) tourists.

The place still throbs late a night with the never ending stream of visitors rubbing up against the only locals willing to make a buck from them.
It was a very pleasant evening. Even managed to get to try out first Porto port - which was very nice - it'll be interesting to see how the varietal experience unfolds over the next few days.