After leaving San Sebastian we headed straight down into Portugal on motorways. As it was raining, we saw no point taking a more scenic route.
We crossed the border into Portugal and immediately came off the motorway as we weren’t sure how to navigate the fully electronic tolls in Portugal without registering. This put us onto N2 – a national road that runs from North to South straight down the centre of the country. We often used to say how surprised we were at the whole change of the feel of places just crossing over a few metres of a border can make (Central and South America and Africa), but we weren’t really prepared for such a marked difference between Spain and Portugal. Immediately the roads didn’t feel in such good condition, and the buildings looked a bit more tired and crumbling.
We were heading for the UNESCO world heritage site of the Douro. The first few towns we passed through had signs advertising thermal hot springs and spas. As we continued the N2 started to climb, and the landscape changed to olive groves and woodland. Further on we enter the classical Douro region landscapes as the road winds its way around steep hillsides which have now become stepped terraced slopes filled with vines, olive trees and fruit trees. At one point we got an incredible view of the A4 motorway that runs across a huge viaduct. We passed through a small hilltop town called Santa Marta and were pleased to find an aire on the edge of town that had space for us. It had great views down the valley.
The following day we continued a short distance to Peso da Regua which sits on the banks of the River Douro and was where we planned to stop the night. Before we parked up we continued, driving on an incredibly scenic road that followed the river with quintas (wine growing estates) all the way along to Pinhao, a picturesque little town (on celebrity Race Across the World this year) which looked a bit deserted out of season, but we could see it had lots of largely closed bars and restaurants, and had tourist boat trips still running from its waterfront. The 19th century railway station here is very attractive with blue and white tile images of the wine growing history adorning each wall. We retraced our route back to Regua and parked up in an aire by the river below the three bridges that cross the town. For just €3 we got a good level spot overlooking the river with electric and water point and it was stones throw from the town. Having had Wi-Fi problems in San Sebastian we were relieved to see the SIM card was now working so we did some admin jobs while it was raining.
In the afternoon we walked into town to visit the Museum of Douro – in a lovely modern warehouse conversion on the banks of the Douro telling the history of how the river drove the wine growing in the region, how wine is produced and where they sell it to. There was also a colourful art exhibtion by a loclal artist. The tour finished with a tasting of a ten-year-old tawny port.
Between the museum and our aire there was a line of wine shops/restaurants – we’d stuck our head in one earlier and it had our name written all over it, so we booked a table early evening. The restaurant (Aneto & Table) was slam dunk one of the best meals we’d had in a long time. It only serves the Aneto brand wines and was set up by the wife of the Aneto winery owner and her sister. Their menus offer simple but delicious innovative dishes, each with a wine pairing suggestion. The ambiance was wonderfully relaxed, the service superb and food and drink wonderful. As well as a three-course meal with 3 different paring wines, we bought a couple of bottles of their wine to take out too – final bill less than a main and drinks in our local pub.
The next day was dark and overcast as we drove towards Porto. The road we followed was incredibly scenic winding towards and away from the river, through vineyards and crumbling old towns and villages. As we reached the outskirts of Porto, we left the vines behind us, and it became more built up.
It was tipping it down again by the time we reached our campsite – we’d booked into an official campsite by the sea south of Porto from where we could catch a bus into the city. It felt a bit like an English seaside resort out of season as we pulled up – the campsite looked a bit shabby and depressing, but to be fair it had clean hot showers and even a coffee shop and bakery on site.
We hadn’t planned on going into central Porto until the following morning, but after a long day driving the thought of being cooped up all evening in the rain felt a bit too much, so in a rash moment we thought ‘what the heck’ and got the waterproofs on and set off to catch the bus. What we thought was going to be a 20-minute journey took the best part of an hour – the bus route was all over the place. Colin, who usually has a good sense of direction, gave up trying to work out where we were. It was pitch dark, we were hanging on for life as if we were on an adventure park ride and the bus was packed after approximately 20 random stops (Colin’s favourite was the one in the middle of a roundabout). We got off at the terminus in Porto with no idea where we were. We had no maps and it was raining too hard to navigate on a phone, not to mention we couldn’t see a thing out of our dripping wet glasses. We realised this was not one of our better decisions and, now wet through, we decided to take shelter in the nearest pizza restaurant then catch a bus back to the campsite. Our second lousy decision of the day as the pizza was dreadful and tasteless too.
I felt quite down about our start to Porto. It is a city I’d really looked forward to visiting having loved visiting Lisbon in 2017. We’d booked a three-hour city bike tour the following afternoon based on the forecast looking OK a couple of days earlier, but now the forecast was for heavy rain all day. The tour was non- cancellable, but we didn’t want to pull out. Bizarrely our Wi-Fi that was working the day before now wouldn’t. We tested the SIM card in my phone and that worked, so we now assume water that has leaked into the truck again (after we thought it had been resealed properly) had blown or damaged the connections on the router.
We had another white-knuckle bus ride into the city - even more so in the daylight! The rain wasn’t too heavy at this point, so we had a walk around the central area and visited the tourist office to get an old school map.
Bizarrely by the time we were due to do the bike tour it had stopped raining. We were the only tourists stupid enough to book the tour, so it was just us and our guide Jonas (originally from Germany but had lived in Portugal since a young age) and a student who was training up to be a guide tagging along with us. We love doing bike tours on trips in new places – they allow you to see a wider area of a city, helping us get orientated and seeing where we’d like to explore more on our own, and the guides usually give lots of good information on the history and current situation of the area. Porto is hilly with many cobbled streets, so being on a heavy e-bike was perfect. Jonas was a great guide giving us just the right amount of detail for our limited attention spans, and gave us an extensive list of non- touristy bars and restaurants to try. We stayed dry for the full 3 hours of the tour, albeit it was cold by the end when it was dark.
After the tour we headed to the indoor Bolhao market – a food market in a very stylish covered hall. We meandered up and down the stalls that sold everything from fresh fish, meat & veg/fruit, to cheeses, tinned fish and sweet stuff. There were also stalls selling food and drink to have there, so we joined the trend and walked around with a glass of port as we browsed. Shopping in Waitrose will never be the same!
We then walked through town towards the Ribeira district where lots of the bars and eateries are located. We plumped for a restaurant that looked quite buzzy and had an ok meal – anything would be better than the previous nights pizza. We went to a bar afterwards where Jonas said we’d get less mainstream ports to sample but it was closed, so we ended up in a small bar nearby and had a nightcap before heading back to camp.
The weather was a bit brighter the following day. It was a public holiday (1st December is Portugal’s Independence Day) and the busses were on a reduced timetable. On the way to the bus stop we decided to have a peak at the beach, which was surprisingly nice, but as we were heading back to the road we saw our bus pulling off – not at all at the time we’d expected. We ended up getting an Uber which was with us in a couple of minutes and dropped us in the centre after a 20-minute smooth comfortable journey for less than €10 – bit dull after the bus!
We caught a tram along the Douro river to the Foz district where there is a fort. It was a slow and rattly thing (bit like me before you say it) but it was pleasant and we caught a different route back in a tram decorated for Christmas that took us up the hill in the centre meaning we could have another walk downwards towards the river.
Much like Libson, we would describe Porto as ‘shabby chic’. There are a lot of crumbling old buildings crying out for renovation, but property prices are shockingly high in the centre, forcing workers and students to live on the other side of the river. We had a walk down the river front where colourful buildings sit above tourist restaurants. It was nice to see them busy with people enjoying the sunshine after several days of rain.
We walked over to the Gaia district on the other side of the river where most of the large port houses are based. We strolled down the front before an uphill climb to Taylors Port house where we did a self-guided tour covering the history of the brand. Many of the big Port names we know in the UK (Taylors, Croft, Grahams, Sandemans, Cockburns) are British companies who were formed on the back of a political and commercial alliance treaty. Of course, us Brits love a good strong glass of wine so the British merchants spotted an opportunity to set up their own vineyards and estates. At the end of the tour we had a tasting of a very dry white port (Chip Dry) and a LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) port – both very nice. They also gave us a couple of tins of Taylors Chip Dry and tonic to take away – we’ve not tried them yet, but Jonas told us they are very good with ice and a slice.
After grabbing a bite to eat in a food hall back down on the river we caught a bus back to the campsite. We had enjoyed our two days in Porto, but we were feeling ready to bounce along in Lo11y heading further south and hopefully meeting some warmer weather.
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