A truly great day!

Ola!

 

Well, we have certainly had a truly wonderful day!  Some months ago, I had signed us up for an Airbnb “special experience” – and that happened to be today.  To say that a 9½ hour small group tour (six people) would be the highlight of our holiday is probably the truth.  It was really amazing!  

 

(And absolutely none of it would have been possible had I not gone to the hospital yesterday and gotten the injection and the meds.  I had a few twinges early in the morning, but after that, absolutely nothing!  Better living through chemistry strikes again!)

 

We were due to meet our host and group at 8:30 am this morning – at a very central square, right in front of McDonald’s*.  However, the interesting part is that the McDonald’s didn’t open until 9 am!  So, needed to find a place for breakfast, as I’m not supposed to take the meds on an empty stomach.  Found a very nice café on the square open early – as we got there about 7:15 am (a foggy morning), not wanting to worry about being late.  Enjoyed cake with two wonderful cups of hot chocolate, and R had coffee and croissant.  We obviously needed to stretch things out a bit, as we were so early, but finally headed out to find “our” group.

 

Excellent breakfast!

As it happened, apparently some other tour groups figured out that McDonald’s was a good place to meet, as the square was brimming with people – most of whom got on a HUGE bus, and several other smaller groups went into smaller vans.  Finally, our host, Leandro, arrived and then the last two stragglers of our small group.  We had Steve and Trish from North Tustin, CA; both recent retirees who love to hike; Steve’s puns were almost as bad as Robert’s!  Nikki, young gal – late 20’s? -- from SFO, was traveling with her partner who apparently was a bit under the weather today and stayed back (she tested herself this morning and came up negative…let’s hope!). And our last member, Harriet (call me Hatty) in her early 30’s from London, traveling without her partner.  So, into our comfy Mercedes van and out on the road to the Douro Valley.

Stopped at Regua to walk across the bridge!

Actually lots of bridge right there...

Sandeman port & sherry logo character

 

It was about an hour’s drive, but it passed very quickly, and we arrived in Pinhao (a small city on the Douro River) for our first wine tour.  We were taken to Quinta (which means “property”) de Foz, one of the oldest family-owned wineries in the Douro.  Christiano, the winemaker, was our guide, and he did a fabulous presentation.  It seems that most wine makers in the Douro Valley are now making both red and white wines, as well as various kinds of port.  This particular winery still actually picks all the grapes by hand (no machinery) AND stomps them by FOOT!  (Oh Lucy and Ethel, here we come…!) I had no idea any wineries still do that!  R and I even got to participate in a basic “grape stomping” dance demonstration; so much fun!

 

Old traditional boat once used to transport port barrels to Porto!

Stunning wine tasting area

Traditional granite stomping bins

Some of our group!

After our tour, we had a wonderful tasting experience outside on their beautiful patio – we tasted both white and red wine, as well as two different ports.  Everything was yummy.  We decided to have some port shipped home and picked 6 bottles of each of the two ports that we tasted. The last time we were in Portugal, the winery told us they could not ship a full case to a single address but, this time, there is no such restriction.  (Oh!  We did go to the ATM this morning on the Placa de Liberdade before we met our group, and got scolded again by the machine for trying to take out more than €200 at one time, which is the maximum amount a Portuguese bank will allow you to withdraw…in Spain we could take out €600 at a time…)

 

From the winery, we headed uppppppp the hill to a private residence and winery where we had lunch.  And to say the lunch was incredible is not really good enough!  The food was fantastic.  We started with a plate of appetizers – three different cold chorizos, chick peas with salt, black olives (which were actually pretty good!), a dish of mixed meats, three different cheeses, including one topped with jam, cooked-at-the-tablechorizo (which was amazing!) and bread.  With that we had a Portuguese aged “champagne” a specialty of the house.  

 

Pictures are backwards; this is dessert

Main course with port; incredible!

Veggie soup

Cooking chorizo

Leandro, our guide, cooking chorizo

Appetizers

View from the vineyard where we had lunch

Now at Pinhao

After that, we had plates of vegetable soup, which got even better with some house-made olive oil on top. This came with a lovely white wine.

 

The main dish was a day-long marinated pork roast (like I have NEVER tasted before; SO delicious!) with sauce, and rice, roasted potatoes and green salad. Absolutely amazing!  This was served with a house red wine.  And finally, dessert, which was a slice of quince paste on top of a local cheese, with crackers and some strawberry jam.  YUM!  Oh!  And this came with a small glass of excellent dessert wine.

 

We were all pretty much stuffed by this time, and we still had the river portion of our day to do!  So, back down the hill and into Pinhao again, to the river.  We had a very nice pontoon boat that held us all comfortably, and a very enthusiastic skipper!  We learned a great deal about the soil and wines in the Douro Valley – and of course, there were more appetizers for us to eat – more cheese, chorizo, ham and bread to eat, all washed down this time by the specialty drink of the region – 1/3 white port with 2/3 tonic, with slices of lemon and mint leaves – it was actually really good, if I had had any room left to spare after lunch!  We were out on the river about an hour, and it was absolutely perfect!  It was cold – about 62 when we left Porto, but by afternoon in Pinhao, it was 87 degrees and sunny!  Being on the river brought us wonderful cool breezes, although I think we were all thinking about jumping in the river, as it’s beautifully clean.  Next time…

 

View from our last stop!

On the boat with our Port & Tonic

More food...

It was beautiful on the river

Finally, back into the van for our return trip to Porto.  Leandro was a wonderful tour guide and driver, and he put on some very nice Fado music for us, and I’m thinking there were more people sleeping than not on the drive back.  Arrived in rush hour traffic about 7-ish.  Truly a long day – we totally exhausted – but an absolutely brilliant day too!!  I’m hoping I can stay away long enough to get through the pictures and get this posted…we’ll see!

 

Much love,

m

xxx

 

*A very special McDonald’s. The building was originally a local restaurant (the Imperial Café) with an Art Deco style.  When the owner decided in 1995 to close, he sold it to the guy who intended to open a McDonald’s but with the stipulation that the Art Deco motif had to be preserved.  And so it was.  The place is known as “McDonald’s Imperial”.