Arriving in Portugal and the Duoro Valley

Sunday 13^th January  Spectacular journey from Spain to Portugal

 As we left Salamanca the road went through some very pretty countryside but as we neared the border the scenery was spectacular.  We were both quite unprepared for the beautiful mountains that border the two countries.  To enter Portugal we had to drop down into a deep gorge to cross a large hydrodam on the River Duoro that was the border between the two countries.  We then spent the next few miles climbing up through beautiful wooded mountains to our destination for the night Freixo de de Espada a Cinta.  This mountain town is at the far end of the port producing region which we intended to explore over the next couple of days.  Once again our stop was at a free aire (including electricity) in a large communal space at the top of the town and once again we were the only people using these facilities.  Perhaps everyone else visits in the summer months.  Mike and I went for a walk in the evening and it was then that we realised that Portugal is one hour behind Spanish time.  I wonder how long this would have gone unnoticed if we had not seen a large clock tower on our walk.

14^th and 15^th January The Alto Duoro region

Today was all about the scenery.  The drive from Freixo de Espada a Cinta to Peso da Regua was stunning.  We meandered slowly up and down mountain gorges where every inch of the mountainside was terraced to support mainly vineyards but also olive trees. I was not surprised to read later that this region is a Unesco World Heritage site.  It was a fantastic drive and we were really pleased how our van coped with the steep gradients and narrow roads. Well done driver Mike!  We arrived in Peso da Regua in the late afternoon.  It was not a particularly interesting down but it was set on the banks of the Duoro and would make a good overnight stop.

On the following morning we set off again on a very windy, twisty uphill route where again the hillsides were filled with vines.  We drove up to Vila Real where we planned to visit Palacio Mateus, a port wine estate (although red and white wine are also made here ).  (Please note that this place has very little connection with the plonk known as Mateus Rose - some years ago the producers of Mateus Rose asked to use a photograph of the house for their bottles for either a modest one off payment or a royalty fee per bottle of wine. 

 The family went for the one-off payment and must have been kicking themselves since.)The house was a baroque splendour that had been owned by the Mateus family for centuries. We arrived around noon and were informed that the next guided tour of the house was at 2.30pm.  So we visited the gardens, which were rather formal in nature being dominated by box hedges and knot gardens. After wandering around for an hour we went back to the van for a soup and salad lunch and then back to the house.  We were the only two present for this tour although the guide informed us that in the summer months they have 500 visitors a day with 4-5 wine tours each hour.  We felt rather privileged to have her undivided attention as she guided us around the house.  The house was quite grand inside but you could imagine it being a family home.  It was full of artefacts from Brazil, India, Spain etc reflecting the importance of the family in the 16^th to the 18^th Centuries in Portugese Society.  After the tour of the house and Chapel we were taken to the winery where they make their port and wines and we sampled a young white wine.  It had been a very interesting visit and we have a bottle of 2004 port to sample in the future.

We had planned to do some more exploring of the region but the cloud was low and at times it was quite foggy. Mike was getting tired and we decided to take the fast route to our night time stop. This turned out to be an expensive mistake as we ended up on a toll road without a ticket and had to pay 44 euros to get off it.  I was very fed up as we had literally only travelled about 3k on the toll road!