A successful day in the end. Neither of us slept well last night. I was brassed off about the laptop and Barbara is not sleeping well at the moment. I think the jet lag still has a sting in its tail. Fortunately we got the laptop issue resolved quickly and then we were able to get the Metro into the cathedral. Our aim was to get our Credencials, Pilgrim Passports, so we could start collecting stamps in them when we start walking.

At this hotel and all hotels to come except for the last one, breakfast is included. This was pretty much standard continental fare for Spain and Portugal. Juice, coffee, muesli, yoghurt, some bread, cheese and ham, croissants, muffins and pastal de nadas.  And some fresh fruit, apples and kiwi fruit. Suits us.

Coming up out of the subway into the sunlight in Porto was a bit of a shock. It was a glorious sunny Sunday and the streets, plazas, bars, cafes were teeming with people. We were not exactly sure where to go to get our Credencials but joined a long line of people waiting to go in and see the cathedral. Two lots of people saw our Camino patches on our back packs and asked us where to get their Credencials. As if we knew. On our way out of the cathedral we were able to tell them yes, they were in the right queue.

We are going to start our walk from the cathedral and go via the Douro River and out to the coast. Today we checked out the first part down to the river as we had been told it is not well sign posted. It turned out if you follow your nose you can*t go wrong. There were lots of boats on the river doing river trips so we hung around watching them and just generally people watching. We then crossed over the river on the Dom Luis 1 Bridge. This is a double deck metal arch bridge spanning the Rio Douro between the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. It was constructed in 1886 and at that time had the longest span in the world for a bridge of that type. The bridge was designed and the construction administered by a disciple of Gustave Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower, Paris. The lower deck is for vehicles and pedestrians and the upper deck is for public transport and pedestrians. We walked over the lower deck.

On the Gaia side we caught the Metro back over the high level deck and made our way back to the hotel. We had a late lunch at the same food hall we went to last night, the Mercado Bom Sucesso. It was also very busy. I spent the rest of the day getting to grips with the new laptop. My old Dell was 12 years old and this one has the latest version of Windows etc, so everything is just a bit different and there are a lot of new things to learn and set up.