There were lots of mosaics of Roman gods.

The rich people had two entrances to their houses, a big door for themselves and a small door for the slaves. You could even see the grooves in the stone where they had sliding doors.  They also had their own swimming pools.  All you can see is the stone, because the wooden doors and roofs have disintegrated.

We also saw the Roman Forum which they used as a market, and meeting place. And there was a temple and we saw the altar where they sacrificed animals. There were lots of different type of carved columns.

There were lots of olive trees and we could see green, red and black olives. There was also an olive press, so people a long time ago made olive oil. They collected the olives and put it in a mill to get rid of the stones. Then they put the olives in bags and put it in a press.  All the olive oil was squeezed out and ran into channels in the floor into jars.

In the distance you could see the holy town of Moulay Idriss.  The guide told us that it looks like a camel, but I think it looks like a seahorse on its side.

Then we went inside the ruins. Inside there was a 16 sided church with lots of paintings of stories from the bible. We could also see where the knights slept and ate. There were lots of carvings on the walls.

The knights templar were monks who fought with a sword, they had a symbol of a red cross on a white background. The knights templar order was very rich, even though the knights had taken vows of poverty. A lot went to fight in the crusades.

Today we went to Porto. We had to walk 3km to get to the train station. After the train we walked down the main street.

Then went to the Palacio da Bolsa. We did a guided tour and the first room was the Hall of Nations. It had the coats of arms of all the countries that Porto traded with. We even saw the UK. The floor was a pretty mosaic. Then we walked up a staircase with lots of carvings, which took 40 years to make. It was made out of granite, which is very hard rock. The best room was the Arabian room which had 20kg of gold leaf on the walls. It was all carved in plaster and painted, see the pictures. It was amazing! There was also a room that looked like it was made of wood, but it was actually plaster painted like wood. You couldn’t tell the difference when you looked at it, but I could feel the difference when I touched it.

After this we went to Igreja de Sao Francisco. This was a church that had lots of wooden sculptures all covered in 100kg of gold leaf. The best one was a tree with Jesus at the top and 12 Kings of Judah around him. We didn’t take photos in the church. We also saw the catacombs. This was a bit creepy, there was a big room with lots of wooden doors in the floor, with numbers on them. Lots of people were buried there and it smelt a bit funny.

We had lunch by the river, and I had a hot dog with cheese and a real orange juice.

After lunch we walked over the bridge to all ‘wine caves’ where you can taste Port.  Port is a type of wine that Mummy and Daddy like. We went to one called Porto Cruz. They have a woman in a black dress as a symbol.

I had to put on a helmet with glasses and earphones and I was flying over the fields with grapes and then a factory where Port was made. (Virtual reality goggles) It was amazing! Mummy and Daddy tried some different ages of tawny port, 7 years, 10 years and 30 years.

Then we took a train home, and had to walk down the road in the dark. I liked Porto.