Day 3, It's Douro time

So after a pleasant, but squeaky, night's sleep we arose to a fantastic breakfast. It was freshly brewed coffee, fresh breads, home grown melon, ham (dry cured Presunto like Spanish Serrano), cheese, home made preserves, and I am sure port if you asked for it. This filling and bountiful meal allowed us a relaxed and somewhat slow start to the day. We jumped in the little Colt and hit the road. This time, it was to tour the Douro, with our current accommodation to be for 3 nights, which meant we could get around some more in loops, so we get more exposure to the landscape than just a highway.

So first thing we did was went up away from the river to the hilltop town of Tabuaco.



It is quaint and small, somewhere that I could easily dream of retiring to. If I ever owned a donkey, and/or didn't mind living so far away from water. After this, we cruised the little Colt along the Douro, and we drove along the main road between Pinhao and Peso Da Regua. Along here, we stopped at a couple of wineries ...... and then Sapos.

Maybe not the most classy, but certainly fun, not just for people, but the spiders seem to like it, too!


I am sure some think it is a barrell of laughs! (oh god sorry the jokes just get worse!)


This was where we bought our first wine. It was a white port called Lagrima, even though we bought this from Q.V Sapos, it is a Qunita de Marrocos wine.

The old lady of the cellar that we bought it from didn't really want to talk much, but allowed us to pour our own tastings. Shame I was driving really..... but we went through most of all their selections that were available, including brandy.

After here we headed into Peso Da Regua, as they have lots of tiles around

and a large tourist office there, we thought it would be good to get the low down of the area. Problem being it closes on weekends! Yes, just mildly insane as you would expect many visitors to visit on weekends.... but such is the life of the Iberian Peninsula, you will find oddly similiar things in Spain as well. So after taking photos of many varying doors and door features (aren't we just a riot! But you should see the looks you get from locals, that alone is a great reason to take such photos!), we were thinking it was about lunch time, but the only thing we could find that looked interesting was a Churrasco (BBQ grill). This was impressively busy, and a great sign, but we weren't really in the mood for either BBQ or waiting in the sun to get a table indoors.

So back to the Colt it was and off to the town of Lamego (which was supposed to have another Tourist office). Not just this, but things we dearly love. I had read it was a home of some regional smoked speciality meats.... hence the lunch you see below.

It is also home to some fabulous bakeries (where we should have had lunch instead of the overpriced meal that we did end up having).




To our surprise it is also the home to some rather charming and entertaining Grampapies, Grandpas, Poppas, Papas, or whatever you chose to call them. Something that I loved about Portugal, as it was in direct contradiction to Poland, is that there are lots more Old men either on the move or sitting around gas bagging and arguing. Sometimes drinking coffee, sometimes aguardente (firewater!) or other times, sitting around a backgammon/chess board or a deck of cards. Either way, it made a big difference to the Grannies of Warsaw and Poland in general.




We actually went to the tourist office (it was open!!), and the lady there was fabulous, she gave us more maps than we could imagine and some great tips and pointers on things to see. After Lamego, we headed off towards home, stopping in at a couple more Quintas along the way. The highlight was the Quinta do Panascal (part of the Fonseca group). This Quinta gives you an MP3 player and sends you into the vineyard to listen to a rather well-to-do English Gent tell you the story of not just Panascal and Fonseca, but the Douro as a whole.


Panascal olive terraces on the way to the Vineyard

The Vineyard with the Tavora river in the background.

Tinto Barroca grapes getting read to be Port!

Up close and tastiful.

So after this, we came home to a great home cooked meal from our hosts. It was an amazing meal of salted cod with roasted potatoes, roasted capsicums, olives and tomatoes, all washed down with copious amounts of home made red wine in three varieties. Followed by melon and cakes and, of course, port. In all a magical meal, and a great starting day to the Douro.

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.