The Douro Valley and Porto

We said a sad farewell to the spectacular northern mountains and turned south. We were heading for the Douro Valley but there were a few things to see on the way. First stop was an old fort (and yet another toasted cheese sandwich!) in the lovely town of Montalegre.

We had been told about the famous meat pies that are sold in the town of Chaves. This was reason enough to visit, as it was on our way, but there were other things to see too. The old town was gorgeous.

We went to buy the pies but they were still in the oven! John was channelling Maria from the Paul Hogan Show, and was dancing with excitement when they were ready. They were pretty good but were mostly pastry with a little bit of meat.

Many parts of Portugal have been burnt by bush fires in recent years. Some people blame the eucalyptus trees, which is fair enough. In some areas people are not allowed to plant them any more.

We drove up one side of a mountain range and crossed over the top. As we came down the other side, we found ourselves driving through the famous vineyards of the Douro Valley. It was spectacular! The mountains were huge and vineyards were planted from very high altitudes all the way down to the river. I took a gazillion photos on this drive. I've restrained myself to only sharing a few of them!

This is mostly a port wine area and some famous names dotted the hillsides - Taylor's, Dow's and Graham's all come from here as do many others.

We stayed in the village of Pinhao and explored a gorgeous side river here.

Many quintas (estates) are scattered through the area. Traditionally, these are large, whitewashed buildings and they look great in amongst the green vines. Signs pointed the direction to some of them.

This is a huge tourist region and there were all sorts of boat trips and wine tasting tours that you could do. I think this one might have got a bit lost in translation though!

We went for a tough but stunning walk up the hills nearby. We wandered through vineyards and beside old stone walls. We picked up a stray Kiwi (hello Trish, lol!) and enjoyed a wonderful walk together. It was nice to have someone else take a photo of us!

The views were amazing!

The Douro River wound its way gently through the vineyard-chequerboarded valley.

Even the skies were amazing!

Rows of vines formed stunning patterns.

We did a port tour and tasting at Quinta do Bomfin winery which was good. 

We loved this sign they had hanging up there. It reads:

French key
English key

Portuguese key 

We had some great meals in this town too.

When it came time to leave we drove along the Douro River for as long as we feasibly could. Finally we climbed up out of the valley and made our way to our last stop in Portugal - Porto.

Like Lisbon, Porto was of tourists. And like Lisbon, we got over it and loved the place! The people were wonderful and there was so much to see. Grand old buildings lined public squares and buskers serenaded people cruising along pedestrian-only streets.

Our lovely little hotel was in one of the tall, skinny old buildings that lined the narrow roads near the river. Our room was lovely but it was pretty small. I loved the view from the window.

Nearby was a lovely public square where the roads ran down to the river.

Many buildings were from different eras and styles. There were some amazing art-deco buildings. I don't know what style this lovely tile-clad building is but that window is pretty cool!

One building I really wanted to see was the Livraria Lello. Promoted as being the world’s most beautiful bookshop, it was supposedly the inspiration for some things in Harry Potter as JK Rowling lived in Porto for a number of years, including while she wrote her famous novel. We bought tickets online and arrived at the shop 15 minutes early. The queue for the 9.30 session that we booked for already ran down the street. This queue – and the payment – was just to get into a bookshop!

The shop actually was amazing but it was hard to see anything with so many people in there. Surely they mustn’t sell that many books because it was too hard to get to them!

The ground floor was beautiful and the famous staircase swept up gracefully from it. Even the underneath of the staircase was gorgeous!

There were so many people on the famous red staircase that it was hard to even see it.

A stunning stained glass ceiling let subtle light in.

Beautiful old glassed-in bookshelves held old books.

I would love to see this place in winter without tourists!

There were oodles of grand churches in Porto. Most that we walked into had huge gilded altars.

Like Lisbon, Porto is know for its incredible tile-work. Many of the tiles tell a story. This church had its whole exterior covered in gorgeous painted tiles depicting religious events.

The tiles that really blew me away though were in the main railway station. About 20,000 tiles depicting historic scenes covered the enormous walls. The main parts were classic blue and white while a colourful frieze ran around the top. The details were incredible.

We had to get some sunscreen and we found some in this pharmacy. It’s got to be the most gorgeous looking pharmacy we’ve ever been in!

That afternoon, Portugal was playing in the European Cup again. We were directed to a sports bar and got there just as the game was starting. The sports bar was huge and was full of excited football fans. We ended getting one seat on the very top floor. Everyone was really friendly. Portugal won 3-0 so everyone was in a jovial mood.

From there we headed to a steak restaurant that John had booked ages ago. The staff were fantastic. I wasn't going to drink at all but as soon as we walked in we were handed free drinks and we were off and running! The wine, port and other pours were very generous. We had a such a great night.

John ordered in a old port which came out in a 3.5 litre bottle! The I ordered one and it came in a 6 litre bottle! They were huge!

Our main waiter was super camp and super fun! We had a ball!

While John nursed a hangover the next day, I wanted to see inside a church that apparently had an amazing golden interior. Incredibly it cost 10 euros to get in! This was a church! Begrudgingly I paid it while John opted to wait outside. It was so disappointing. The gold was dull and I wasn't allowed to take photos. There was a museum which was nothing exciting but as I walked into another room I realised I was walking on grave-sized boards on the floor. There were three rooms of tombs of monks and nuns from the last couple of hundred years!

Some tombs lined the walls and were named. I guess these were the special ones.

Weirdly, on top of each group of tombs was a fake skull with serious dental anomalies!

Sunday dawned warm and sunny. It was a special day as this was the Festival of Sao Joao. In English, this is St John, so John had to see it of course! This day is the most special day of the year for people in Porto. Locals set up food stalls in the streets (no food handling certification required!), bands play in public areas and people generally just roam the streets having a ball. The really unusual thing about this festival though is that everyone hits each other on the head with plastic hammers! Almost as strange was that nobody could explain why!

Banners were set up in anticipation of the festivities.

Along the waterfront, people decorated their apartments.

Stallholders had piles of hammers to sell. Each one squeaks when you use it and the noise of hundreds of squeaks got louder as the afternoon progressed.

An interesting bridge spanned the Douro River.

By mid-afternoon it was in the high 20's and it was beautiful looking back across to where we were staying from the other side of the river.

Colourful chilli peppers in an Indian grocery store. You won't find these in a Portuguese-run shop!

We had met an American lady named Amy in the Peneda-Geres National Park and we were all in Porto at the same time so we caught up. We each tried a famous francesinha, a sandwich with steak, ham and sausage, slathered in cheese, soaked in a tomato soup and topped with a fried egg! It was an unbelievable combo but it actually worked pretty well! 

As the evening approached, the parties started. Music was going in one particular street and everybody was dancing and hitting each other with the hammers! Actually, the hitting is done very gently. It's more of a tap than a hit. Everyone was so happy yet so polite.

Cars got the same hammer-hitting treatment is they dared to drive through the crowd. It was all done in very good humour.

The noise started early.

As evening approached, paper balloons were lit. Each balloon had a burner anchored in the bottom. It took a few people to launch them
Step 1 - Light the burner.

Step 2 - Have a friend help you hold the balloon straight while the air warms inside it.

Step 3 - Release the balloon being careful to keep it level. Hopefully you then watch it rise up and float away.

As darkness started to fall, the colourful balloons looked stunning. Each time one successfully floated up the crowds would give a cheer,

One of the most entertaining aspects of the balloon tradition is that not every balloon launches successfully. Sometimes the owners don't wait long enough for the air inside to heat up and the balloon just drifts along at head height, endangering all with its low-hanging flame. Other times, the balloons start to go up but breezes blow them back into the crowd. Everyone watches out for each other though and I didn't see anyone get hurt, but I'm sure it must happen. The worst possibility is when a faulty burner suddenly drops from a flying balloon. It plummets to the ground, still alight, so there's not a lot of time for people to get out of the way.

The crowds grew thicker along the riverfront and soon the skies were filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of balloons. It was spectacular!

At this stage John went back to the room. He was still suffering from the big night the night before. I wanted to stay. Several people had told us that the fireworks would go off at midnight and they would be launching from the bridge we had walked over earlier in the day. I was in a prime spot to watch it. The problem was that it was only 10pm and we had already been in that spot for an hour watching all the balloons. I entertained myself for the next two hours just enjoying being part of the excited crowd. I got talking to a young woman in front of me who had come to Porto just to join in the festivities. She got talking to a family who had also travelled for the festival. They had a boy with them who was maybe 7 or 8 years old and he waited patiently for the three hours that I was there. We all ended up playing silly games with the hammer-hitting.

The crowds were amazing.

Just before midnight, an almost-full moon rose over the river.

Finally midnight came. The city lights dimmed, music started paying, the crowd danced along and waiting excitedly, then the fireworks started - further down the river! There were some on the bridge but people seemed shocked that the bulk of the activity was happening somewhere behind us! I'm pretty sure that it was always traditionally held on the bridge and something must have changed this year. What a shame. I returned to the room only to find that John had watched the whole thing from the comfort of our room and it was the best fireworks he had seen. Arrgghh!

I've commented before on how tidy the Portuguese are with rubbish but the streets were covered with bottles and rubbish after the event. To their credit though, the garbo's were out early the next day picking it all up. I love that there were used balloons caught on the crenellations on the rooftops near our room!

That was our last night in Portugal. What a way to finish! We've loved visiting this amazing country and we'll definitely be back one day.

Now we're off to Iceland!

Heather and John