Day 13 (11th Sept) (Viana do Castelo to Porto) (9.71 km): We are up for a few days R&R now so all we had in mind to explore in Viana do Castelo before heading to Porto was to ride up the funicular to the Santuário de Santa Luzia, strikingly situated at the top of the old town. The funicular is fun and the view unfolds gradually.
The church is pretty impressive outside and inside has a beautiful dome and some wonderful circular stained glass windows. However, the rest is marred by an ugly and not very well painted ceiling - apologies to whoever the artist is.
For 2€ you can climb the tower, so of course we did.
What a view!
We had quite a conversation up there with an Englishman from Newcastle who was enjoying free time after having to accompany assessor’s to a fire in a pulp factory that had caused 4 million pounds worth of damage. Not everyone in Portugal is pro the pulp industry.
Having caught a coach out of Porto to Ponte de Lima, we decided to return to Porto on a train, so after a quick cup of coffee we headed to the train station, which was just behind our hotel. Trains are a great way to travel. You seem to see so much more than on the bus. We had one change to make at a place called Nine (you pronounce this like neen-uh). Our connection was running late though making us feel right at home. Every time we looked at the board, the time got later by 2 mins. Eventually, running about 35 mins late, the connecting train did arrive and we got back to Porto in time, to check in to our hotel and be on time for the last treat of our self-guided walking tour - a port wine winery and tasting tour.
Fortunately, our hotel was down near the riverfront and the winery directly across the river - only about a 15 minute walk. We were the last of the group to arrive, but we were on time. The tour of the Sandeman winery was fascinating. My port knowledge was very limited and now it is a tiny tad less limited. Here are some photos from within the winery. The small barrels hold about 600 litres, the big ones about 43000 litres!
This particular winery was established in 1811 and is widely known, in part, for its logo, The Don. Apparently, the Sandeman Winery was the first to actively advertise its wines (read ports) and the logo is one of the world’s first commercial ones. Now the winery is Portuguese, but Sandeman was Scottish and had been dealing in both Spanish and Portuguese wines from the late 1700s. His first advertising was by way of iron-branding the barrels he sold. This had never been done before.
At the end of the tour, we sat next to a lovely young Swiss couple for our tasting of three Sandeman ports, a white, a ruby, and a tawny one. A lovely afternoon treat.
Pete and I then meandered down the riverside, browsing market stalls. We had a drink of freshly pressed (in front of us) pomegranate juice, then meandered some more. We enjoyed our dinner by the riverside then spent time listening to buskers and people-watching.
Day 14 (12th Sept) (8.8 km) - Porto to Pinhão (Douro Valley): We had arranged with our hotel the day before that they would store our large bags for a day and a half while Pete and I headed up the Douro Valley. We really did not want to have to lug them around. It was good of them to do that because we were not returning to the same hotel (Descobertas).
We headed out on a historic train ride up the Douro Valley.
The first hour is actually through greater Porto but still interesting. You see much more modern buildings, and suburbs interspersed with grape vines and small corn fields in particular.
The Douro Valley though, when we got there was far more varied than I had imagined. Vines, villages, and forest and of course, the beautiful river. It is dammed in five places along its Portuguese length (its origin is in Spain) and the river becomes shallower and rockier just downstream of any of these. There are locks at each dam that allow quite large cruise boats to travel from Porto right up the river.
We did not complete the train journey but got off at Pinhäo. The staion itself is interesting with lots of azulejos depicting different aspects of the Douro Valley.
In contrast, just outside the station was a modern meeting area.
We had booked an afternoon cruise to Tua and back but had heaps of time up our sleeves so we had a very lazy lunch and wait alongside the river. I wandered around a bit - just can’t stop myself poking around.
The grape harvest was just starting.
I love how places look different from different places (river vs train) and from different directions. In one place the vines looked like hieroglyphics. We passed by the main Sandeman vineyard in addition to maaaany others. Quite a few spots along the river to have our European base!
Nothing is static here. You can see in the last photo how new terraces are being formed. We saw this a few times.
We couldn’t avoid some exercise and to make sure of this, the place I’d booked for us to stay was at the top of the hill - well almost at the top. I’m glad we didn’t have our larger bags with us. While our room had no view, the view from the pool area was lovely. Dinner down the hill (all food is down near river level) meant we had to walk down and up again! We are keeping fit, even if I have to stop a few times in the process of going up!
Halfway up (or down).
Day 15 (13th Sept) (9.29 km) - Douro Valley to Porto: This day was the continuation of our train ride up the valley to a place called Pocinho, then back to Porto.
There were some cute train stations on the way, and the old waiting room at Pocinho itself is a museum piece.
I was quite surprised to see how the Valley widened out at Pocinho. During this last part of the journey up the valley you could see how much drier the landscape was becoming too. At the Pocinho end they might get an annual rainfall of 300 mm.
The section of the Valley between Tua and Pocinho had far more unfarmed, wild sections too.
We learned that in the late 1800's, the root damaging nematode, Phylloxera, was introduced to the Douro Valley from American vines and it devastated the industry. Many people's livelihood were lost. It wasn't for some years that they learned why the vines were dying. Now the Portuguese grape variates are grafted onto Philloxera-resistant American vines root stock.
Once we returned to Porto we had to retrieve our luggage and take it a little over a kilometre back up the hill to our new accommodation, which as it turns out was in a very convenient location, if not very salubrious!! Ours was the yellow building with green on the ground floor.
Our room had an interesting view over Porto but we hoped there was not a fire, since the so-called fire escape was the interior set of wooden stairs and we were on the 3rd and a half floor!
After a siesta in good European tradition, we headed out just to wander around and find whatever we found.
We found a lookout, we found intriguing trees in a park.
We found the Cock Shop.
I ate sardines at last!
I was invited on the street to buy marijuana for the first time in my life.
Day 16 (Sept 14th) (13.7 km) - Porto: You can wander the streets all day in Porto and find something new and interesting every time. It is a fascinating town that at first can seem so touristy and not much more. It is worth looking harder. As you climb further and further up the hill, it becomes obvious that Porto is also a place where people live. There is a modern side, often kindly placed alongside the old.
Many old buildings are decorated with tiles but there also new interpretations.
As with all cities, there is graffiti and street art.
There are performance artists and musicians.
We did buy tickets to see two places, the Lello Livraria (of a tenuous link with Harry Potter fame) and the Casa da Música, Porto’s modern music hall. The Lello Livraria is worth seeing despite the horrendous crowds. It is still a working bookshop and the price of entry can be deducted from a book purchase. I was keen except for the fact that I would have to find room for a book in my very limited available luggage space, so we forfeited our money. The owners of the bookshop have spent much of the money in restoring this amazing building. The photos are rubbish, but you will get the idea.
Our second visit was to the very modern Casa da Musica, completed in 2005. The outside is rather brutal but is softened by the plaza in which bike riders and skateboarders are welcomed.
The inside is a wonderful and innovative mix of glass, aluminium, concrete and wood. The play of shapes and reflections inside completely captivated me.
Another event we bought tickets to was a Fado performance, Fado being a traditional form of a person singing accompanied usually by a Portuguese guitar and a classical guitar. Our performance was meant to be of traditional Fado as opposed to Coimbra Fado. We saw singing performances by a man and a woman, accompanied by the same two amazing guitarists in a venue that, from the outside, looked very unassuming.
The performances were thoroughly enjoyable (although he was better than she was) and evening was a great way to end our time in Porto.
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