Douro River Hotel & Spa Lamego

... a unique rose port. Yum!! After our 3 hour tour (we were invited to stay longer) we headed down to the pool attached to the campground. 1.30 euro later we ...

After a leisurely morning and a second day of swimming in the huge pool at the regio (entirely on our own) we set off for Portugal to a random town in the heart of the duoro/port making. The drive was extended by a long carrefour stop and we didn't leave Salamanca until nearly 4 pm. An uneventful drive lead us to an hour plus of hair raising mountain turns to ...

... the train station where a group of taxi drivers were variously offering us a lift to Lamego, decrying the parlous state of the bus service and scratching their nether regions. Fortunately for us (Virg) a little flirting goes a long way and pretty soon a jolly fellow from the tourist party made it his mission in life to find out where and when our bus left from (a random place in the road outside the train station apparently).
Lamego, Northern Portugal, Portugal warm

... of wine in my backpack, so Im excited to bring a little back (I wish I could have brought back a case to share!). I left Pinhao, and headed back to Porto to catch my train to Coimbra. I arrived at around 6pm after the nicest train ride yet (similar to the high speed trains they have in France, for those of you that are familiar), and then got checked into my hotel. I then ventured around for a little while and got some dinner ...

... ruins and or land which they could buy. And in the meantime they are also looking for other people who would like to join their project (interested?: http://www.fortunaverde.eu/indexEN.html ). I really enjoyed talking dutch again and to see how my friends where doing really fine! I could relax a bit after the action in Porto and my cycle trip to Pedra ...

... the country hills and away from the tourist areas so the towns were real and authentic with dusty buildings, dogs everywhere and old ladies in black with black scarfs around their heads, great. The terrain was awesome too, it was so rocky and all you could see were crops of old and young olive trees. For lunch David and I 'went bush' and found a rock to have lunch while overlooking rocky valleys. A beer and cheese sandwiches later we continued on to get to the boarder, back to Spain.

... corpse of some martyr). Outside we enjoyed strolling through the well-kept gardens. No sprouts yet on the vines, but that´ll change soon. Back in town we had a great time walking around this small university town with lots of car-free streets. A coffee here, a pastry there, a beer here. We finally took time to chill out. Next up: Porto´s riverside charms and wine cellars.

amazingly beautiful area with a river running thru green hills, dotted with small portugese white washed villages and vineyards which are dug into the siderd of teh hills. the rain didn't stop us from doing a couple of winery tours and climbing up 600 odd steps to see a beautiful church.... although we did find ourselves inside bars and bakeries samling portugals finest ports and pastries .... and the chinese restaurant of course (habits die hard).

... relationship with the local Romans, but on a warm spring day the chirp of crickets and the swooping flight of swallows made the smell of baking bread and the rattle of loom shuttles easier to conjure than the smell of burning thatch and the ring of axe on armor. Only ten minutes down the road, set high in the woods above Braga, is Bom Jesus do Monte. No miracle or vision is attributed to the site but Archbishop Maura-Teles' Baroque church is reason enough for many ...

... was in Quinta do Vallado, Miguel who is a gourmet, love the wines made there. As we got into the winery we discover that they do not have a tourist program. But we were very lucky, because one of the owners were there, and he was very polite to allow us making a quickly visit to their wine "factory", with him explaining the process. And in the end he gave us 4 bottle of his wines. Next stop: Porto