After
breakfast we left the city of Porto to drive east to the upper Douro Valley
where the grapes are grown for the Port Wine famous to this region. In fact, all Port Wine comes from the Douro Valley.
To get to the Upper Valley as quickly as possible we drove on the 4-lane Toll
Road to this area. On route to the valley we stopped at the village of Amarante, which has a very nice church and 16th century bridge.
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| Amarante |
Once in the Valley we
decide to check-in to a hotel as we had no idea to the time we would be
returning in the evening and we did not want to leave the Valley to find a
Hotel. So we checked into Hotel Regua in
Peso da Regua. We are in a beautiful suite
tonight – the cheapest way to go with 3 adult persons. We are almost over the Douro River! We have a
balcony and when standing on it, we look right down on the river. Across the
river we see terraced vineyard. This is
just the beginning of what we will see this afternoon!
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| Views from the Hotel |
After a bite
to eat, we begin driving east along the river, winding and twisting our way up
(east) the river. Around every corner
were more picture perfect terraced vineyards.
Stopping for photos was a slight problem, as there were not a lot of
pull-outs. Thank goodness the traffic
was very light today. Only photos can
explain what all we saw today. We not
only drove along the Douro River, but other rivers which flowed into the
Douro. We climbed ridges, some higher
than others, on narrow curvy back roads, drove through little villages, saw
millions of grape vines just beginning to break their buds for this season on
terraced hillsides, and saw lots of terraced olive trees as well. It was a fun day
of exploring. It was 7:00 before we
returned to Peso da Regua, and we were so glad we already had the hotel room.
The Douro
Valley was more than we expected. We had no idea how large of an area it
covers, nor the depth of the river gorge. Please enjoy the photos.
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