This is where the ship sank (and a view from my room)

Common area at hostel

A view across the river to all the port wine companies

These are the traditional port wine boats used to bring the wine down river from the vineyards to be exported from Porto.
Now a days they are just used for festivals, but of course each house has to have their own boat... so there's lots.

High watermarks are placed next to this door to record record flood years

Croft Port tour and tasting

Old record book with buyers and distributors' signatures from 1817

On REALLY, REALLY old bottles of wine, you actually have to break the neck off rather than try with the cork. This is an example.

Next it was off to Taylor Fladgate.
They have a very nice reception room with display cases showing bottles from as late as 1692!
The peacock was a nice touch too.
Actually a really interesting thing happened on my way up the hill to Taylor's.
It started to rain heavily, so I and an old man took cover next to an old stone wall where the rain wasn't as heavy.
Well, I looked down and saw the rain running down the gutter wasn't very clear.  The more I looked, the darker it 
got!  After a few moments, I was shocked to see the rain had turned to a blood red color!  I had no idea what to
make of it, and was kind of scared.  After all, the color of blood raises your awareness.  I pointed at it in confusion
and the old man said "Ci, ci... porto!"  What?!  I realized that the blood wasn't blood, but port wine.  Well that was
a relief, but why in the world had someone just wasted all that port wine?!  When I got to my Taylor's tour everything
was explained.  To maintain the highest level of quality, and not dilute the port in any way, the tanks and casks are
washed with wine instead of water!  Wow!  Well, it was quite a site to the uneducated eye, I can assure you.

The guilty street gutter