Hi everyone,
After our short stay in Reston, VA we flew to the UK. We spent a week visiting relatives before flying to Porto in Portugal. We had visited Porto briefly on Zen Again in May 2021. See here. This time we'd have longer to explore.
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| Colourful houses |
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| Colourful Supermarket |
We joined a day trip to visit the Douro Valley. That's where all Port wine is grown. The Douro River goes all the way to the Spanish border and beyond. The river valley in the wine growing area is very scenic.
Our day trip started with a train ride up the valley. The line runs alongside the river with some nice views.
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| A view from the train |
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| Vineyards from the train |
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| Railway station decorations |
From the train we moved to a coach and up into the hills to a vineyard. We were welcomed with a glass of Moscatel. Then we were set to work in the fields!
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| Approaching the vineyard |
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| Harvesting Moscatel grapes |
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| Glass of wine anyone? |
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| Beautiful Country |
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| Just Us |
Having earned our keep we were treated to a traditional 4-course Portuguese lunch. Very tasty indeed. Accompanied with music, dancing and poetry. After lunch we toured the winery and tasted some more product. Then it was back on the coach which took us all the way back to Porto.
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| More wine tasting |
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| Douro River view |
Back in Porto we've been exploring the city and trying out cafes and restaurants. It's a mission!
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| Micro-Brewery |
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| Who knew there was a Reynolds winery? |
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| Porto Shopfront |
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| Baking the famous Pastel de Mata custard tarts |
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| Trying the product - with Port of course |
We did another day trip by train. This time to Aveiro south of Porto. It's known for its canals and is a nice town. Quite touristy but very pretty. There was a very interesting Art Nouveau museum too.
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| Averio Canal |
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| Canal Boat |
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| Fancy Bridges |
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| Interesting Museums |
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| Aveiro Square |
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| Nice Lunch! |
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| Aveiro Shopfront |
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| Colourful canned fish shops are everywhere in Portugal |
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| Spectacular Streets |
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| Spectacular Squares |
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| Just another snack back in Porto |
Next we'll be doing a 'Schengen Shuffle'. Back to the UK for a short stay.
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