Day 2

Hitting the Road to the North
So after a pleasant nights sleep, we received a lovely inhouse breakfast. Sitting in the bright sunshine and eating fresh breads, jams, a big pot of coffee, ham and cheese, it was a really great start for our first real road trip part of our travels.

First we sped off from Peniche and stopped in a little randomly selected town along the way of Amoreira. It was very quaint, and we took some photos of some great door knobs and doors. But, these photos won't appear until my section on door knobs and handles appears to which I have a good Portugese collection.

After this we stopped in the gorgeous hilltop fortress town of Obidos.


This town is really picturesque and makes a great break from highway travel. It is famous for its cherry liqueur which Marty wouldn't let me drink, as I was driving. I did sample some later in our travels, so it wasn't a complete loss. This town really is a place to stop for a few hours to walk to town walls and poke around the souvenir shops. Or like Marty, buy a big straw hat, as the heat and warmth were getting to her delicate Slavic skin.

From Obidos, which way now?

We decided to pushed on, as our bellies were still full from the large breakfast (to become a Portuguese tradition for us), so there was no real need for an early lunch. Our next stop on route to the Douro was the really quaint town of Viseu. It is a university town, but has a really nice town centre and would have been great to have got there earlier in the day, to relax with the grandpas on the benches or leaning out of windows, and watch the world go by.


Instead, we decided to grab a quick lunch and found a nice little restaurant near the very large church.

It was, funnily enough, run by some Antipodeans. These ones were a Mother/Daughter team from South Africa. I ordered the mixed grill which was massive! However, not so much a mixed animal grill, as much as a mixed pork cut grill.

After this late lunch, we did a quick tour of the city centre and saw some really different sites and new, to us, regional architecture. Then it was back into the car to hit the Douro before the sun went to lay his sleepy head in the West.


So without further ado, we jumped back on the road to head to our agritourism location in Valenca Do Douro. We were driving along the motorway, when due to bad maps, not bad navigation, we missed the option of the turn off. So we kept driving and got off at the next town. This was fine, however, it meant our drive to Valenca Do Douro would involve more windy snaking roads. This made Marty a little car sick,

so we got out and strolled around a little at some vineyards somewhere near Sabrosa (Magellan's birthplace). This was nice, as it made us realise we were really in the Wine country now. After recovering, we jumped back in the little Colt and headed towards the River Douro, our sojourn was amazing, as it allowed us to see some spectacular scenery. Terraced hillsides and beautiful stone buildings everywhere.




The area has many different fruit and nut trees and crops different to vines as well, and makes for a really stimulating view. As the road we took was very much a back road, it was limited with the volume of traffic and with the sun setting, you were able to enjoy this most picturesque view without many interruptions at all.


Upon arrival at Casa Cimeira, we were treated to 2 types of home made port, and a small meal of meat, cheese, bread and home made wine. It was certainly one of the warmest and sweetest welcomes I have had, especially considering that neither Marty or I speak Portuguese, and neither of our hosts spoke English. Luckily, our Spanish combined with fantastic hand gestures allowed all to be said that was needed.

We headed into our room, bellies full, livers working up a storm and the room was very luxurious, even if there were 7 religious figures around the room (including 4 Jesuses), it still made for a great place to be.