Long and winding road - up the Douro valley

We managed to get going quite early and retrieved the car from its underground lair. TomTom was slightly confused by a road closed and deviation sign, but eventually we managed to get out of town and on the road.

Lots of people had told us how dramatic and beautiful the Douro valley is, and we had seen something of it in one of those TV shows featuring elderly actors boating down the river. In the event, it proved that no-one was exaggerating, even though the skies were grey and the colors a bit subdued for photography.

Strikingly, there were lots of flowers and flowering trees and shrubs in bloom, particularly the wisteria (not strictly a flower, but still)  and lots of others that I cannot identify, as well as orange and lemons trees laden with fruit.

At first the road crossed a high sierra that the river runs through in a very deep valley. We caught glimpses of it far below from time to time.

The road was a continuous series of bends and even at one stage reduced to a single track with cobbles and very steep climbs, descents and sharp bends. Interesting.

Eventually the valley broadened out a bit, and we were in the proper port-growing area, with big name brands advertising themselves. However, we couldn’t find Croft, even though we went as far as Pinhao, where we were told they have their main production centre. The still precipitous hillsides were neatly terraced and planted with millions of vines. In places they were creating new terraces.

We passed a couple of dams on the river, clearly for flood control and electricity generation. They each had a massive lock for the cruise ships, of which there were plenty - as well as their accompanying buses, talking guests off to sample the port, no doubt.

Arriving at Pinhao at lunchtime, we decided on a pit stop and found a really pleasant bar/restaurant down on the river, where they served us a delicious platter of tapas and a couple of glasses of very acceptable white wine (no port at lunchtime!): a really good final meal in Portugal.

After that, we hit the road again, this time bowing to the inevitable and using motorways which even so took us three hours to get up into Spain.

So here we are in Galicia, on the Atlantic coast at Baiona, in  a wonderful room in a wonderful parador, thanks to Lorna’s recommendation (and, I suspect intervention with the management). Much appreciated.