As we travelled down the coast of Portugal from Baiona, Spain, to Porto in Portugal we noticed that most of the Portuguese coast is long, sandy beaches. The beach and the breakwater at the entrance to the River Douro were crowded with people swimming and fishing as it was a beautiful sunny day when we arrived at about 4.00 pm; many were also watching the Xtreme 42s, super fast catamarans that were out racing as practice for a forthcoming regatta in the river.
Our introduction to the Douro Marina was extremely positive as one of their staff came down the river to meet us, guided us into the marina and then several staff helped us tie up at the dock. For the past few weeks we have been used to Peter and Elisabeth doing that for us so we did miss their welcoming smiles. (They have been going into the marinas first to make sure of the depth for us.)
We settled in with pre-dinner drinks and nibbles, with Anne and I celebrating our arrival at sunny Porto with a couple of Pimms each and I cooked a roast lamb dinner, mostly to fulfil our need for lots of vegetables.