A day of two halves

First, a full day's trip to the Douro Valley to force ourselves to sample wines and port. It was hard (not!). I was honestly glad to be in an air conditioned vehicle for a long time and then in cool wineries as it was extremely hot outside in the real world. Our guide was a lovely chap who did these tours to help fund his Masters degree in Industrial Engineering at Porto University. He was charming and knowledgeable - a great combination. 

He also told us that Porto had its annual massive S Joao Festival that night so we had to go out and join in the celebrations. There was a lot of bonhomie with everyone out enjoying themselves, old and young alike. There was a tradition, initiated by students of course, of bipping complete strangers on the head with a squeaky soft hammer  - weird but a lot of fun!  The biggest firework display I've seen was held at midnight - lots of ooohs and aahs.  The one thing I really disliked, despite their prettiness, was the huge number of Chinese lanterns sent up and away. Awful things. 

But a marvellous way to finish the day :-)