Our hybrid transport took us quietly out of Porto in the early am, our destination, the Douro Valley famous for port, wine and beauty. Amarante was our first stop;beginning with a quick coffee – cappuccino for me, I have learned my espresso lesson 🙂 – while we waited for the cathedral to open. Igreja de Sao Goncalo a 16th C church is a study of contrasts inside. It has the usual baroque facade, pipe organ and altar areas but the builders left the rest of the church alone, resulting in a minimalist vibe that muted the often over the top effect of the baroque. A lovely space, well worth the visit. The soft morning air due to the patchy clouds in the sky made for some nice photo ops as I was watched intently by a neighbourhood dog.
The Douro Valley quickly came into sight, anchored by the Douro River surrounded on all sides by vineyards glowing in their autumn colours. Roads are extremely narrow and we picked our way down the hillside carefully, passing through small villages. An old graveyard appeared around one corner, full of flowers from Nov 1 – All Saints Day. Similar to Dia de Muertos in Mexico, family members had gathered here to remember the dead. Flowers were everywhere and some candles still burned. As sometimes happens, there were a few graves of the forgotten ones – graves of individuals without family or friends in the area. The two graves of the forgotten ones were the oldest at the site. It would be interesting if the stones could talk….
The Douro River is a busy river cruise waterway. The six dams along the Douro are a major provider of electricity to Portugal and provided a challenge to the river cruise industry. The reason for those long skinny ships became clear to me watching one traverse the locks on one side of the dam and then watching it thread the needle going down the river following passing through the dam. The green buoys on the left and the red buoys on the right outline the route that the ships must take.
The valley road took us into Pinhao over another bridge designed by Gustav Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. Pinhao is a little tourist town with some excellent restaurants, boat tour operators and an interesting railway station, home to some lovely hand painted tiles outlining the history of the area. Had some fun experimenting with shapes around the railway station before the train to porto arrived.
Vineyards in the fall sunshine
Our time in the Valley passed all too quickly and we headed for our last stop, the small village of Joao da Pesqueira to visit the Rua dos Gatos – street of the cats – located in the old Jewish quarter in the town. A lovely eclectic surprise 🙂
I would like to close by thanking my guide for these last two days Jose Manuel Santos. Jose is listed in toursbylocals under Jose S. and I highly recommend him to you all. You can also find him through his website – www.picturyphototours.com He made these two days post tour in the Porto area special for me!
This morning I travel back to Lisbon by car, with a few stops along the way, visiting some medieval sites and hopefully the coastline. I meet my sister in Lisbon tomorrow and we fly to Madeira. Until then adeus por agora!
