Coimbra

 On Monday, we had breakfast and met our driver in the lobby for the journey to Coimbra. It was about 2 hours away and mostly highway. We had trouble getting out of Pinhão because the bridge was narrow and giant tour buses were trying to pass. Our hotel in Coimbra is on the grounds of the famous Gardens: Quinta das Lagrimas. The garden has a famous love story involving a prince and forbidden love. We are going to explore after breakfast this morning. As I write this, there are mallards wandering around the patio we are eating at like less aggressive seagulls or little dogs looking for scraps. 

After settling in at the hotel, we took an uber to the top of the hill in town where we met our guide, Bruno. This town is also built into a hill. At the top is the university that is partially newer construction without a lot of personality and partially the former palace from when Coimbra was the capital. We toured the old palace and the library which was added on later. The university is really old, founded in 1290. Bruno took us for a tour of the former student jail which had a large common cell for lesser crimes and we went into a solitary cell. If a student was in for lesser crimes they would get taken to class and back. The library is gorgeous but they do not allow photos. We also went into the chapel that is still be used by students and alumni. 

From the university, we walked down hill and saw more of the historic neighborhood, including churches and parts of the medieval wall. Before Bruno left us, we had a convent treat that was specific to that cafe which was connected to a church. It was an almond tart which was so good. Bruno had heard about Trader Joe’s selling frozen pastel de nata and was offended they would try as they aren’t the same. 

After Bruno left us we explored the neighborhood some more and made our way to a Bistro for dinner I had found online. It was really cute and all our food was so good. We had duck, lamb, tomato salad and then dessert. After dinner we walked back across the bridge to our hotel. 

Douro Valley Day 2

 Sunday morning, we woke up on the earlier side to eat breakfast in the hotel and then meet our guide Nuno for our hike. Nuno was a great guide and from a village nearby. He drove us up to a small village to look out on the valley and then we drove a little further up to our starting point. We hiked about 3.5 miles all together (it was very hilly) with stops along the way to discuss the vegetation, the vineyards we saw, the history of the area, etc. After reaching the top of the mountain we were climbing, we walked downhill to lunch. For lunch, we stopped at this structure built into the mountain that had a small oven, sink and area to grill. Nuno’s colleague met us there with a picnic lunch and of course wine. We had homemade jam and homemade port, codfish salad, tuna salad with black eyed peas, egg, homemade bread and cheese. 

After lunch Nuno took us to another winery nearby: Quanta Terra. This winery was different because it combined art and wine. In addition to being a little more experimental with their wine making techniques, the owners also wanted to make art more accessible to the valley so the building was also used for several exhibits. We sat down for a wine tasting which was great. We had so many glasses in front of us, Nuno insisted on a picture. After Quanta Terra, we wound our way back down the mountain in Nuno’s car and went back to the hotel. It was an incredible experience. 

At the hotel, we had time to hang out so Mom went to the pool while I hung out in the air conditioning. After we got ready for dinner, we walked to the train station and ran into Sarah. Our dinner reservation was about a half hour away, so we took the train to that neighborhood while it was still running and took a taxi home. The roads are narrow and curvy here so I’m glad we aren’t driving. 

We had dinner at Castas e Pratos which was in the old train station building at Regua. Everything was delicious. We had duck ravioli, scallops, veal with risotto and sea bass with risotto. We finished with a lemon made of some sort of mousse and a deconstructed tiramisu. 

Today we head to Coimbra for one night. It’s so beautiful here but we have tasted a lot of wine so we are ready for new activities. 

Douro Valley

 Saturday morning, our guide Sarah picked us up in Porto and drove us out to Pinhão to tour around the Douro valley. It’s about an hour and a half by car from Porto so some people come here as a day trip or there are cruises that go up and down the Douro river. Our first stop was Quinta da Foz for a winery tour and tasting. It is a small family owned vineyard that still crushes grapes by stomping on them. We tried a few port wines and a few standard wines. They also had really great olive oil. 

After Quinta da Foz, we went into the town of Pinhão and got on the train that goes along the river. We got off a few stops away and were picked up by a Jeep to drive us up a mountain to Quinta do Crasto for our second tasting and lunch. The views around the valley are so beautiful it is like looking out at stock imagery. Lunch was really good. Sarah was excited for the duck rice. We really liked it and Sarah said it wasn’t as good as her grandmother’s. We tasted several wines and a port wine. What was funny about that wine tasting is that they used larger than normal wine bottles. After we finished lunch, the jeep took us to the river where we met a boat for a brief boat tour. 

Our boat captain took us down the river and pointed out some of the other vineyards and gave us some history of the river and the valley. It used to be significantly lower and narrower but with the help of dams it’s deeper and wider now. It sounds like it used to get dangerous because of the rocks before the dams. The river was used to transport the wine in barrels to Porto. The boat dropped us off back in Pinhão right in front of our hotel but we did one last wine tasting before checking in. 

The winery next to our hotel is owned by the Symington family which is in their 6th generation of ownership and they were originally from Great Britain. Sarah knew that I preferred white wines so this time we got to try more whites including a white port. We liked several of these so I ordered some to be shipped home. Even though the winery is next to our hotel, Sarah drove us because it is so hilly.

We checked into our hotel: the Vintage House which is lovely and went out to a restaurant a few blocks away that we wanted to go to. They don’t take reservations but we were advised to go early. They open at 730 but around 7 people started arriving to get tables. They did take our order early because they had big groups coming. The food was really good. We had veal carpaccio, caprese salad, salmon and steak. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel to settle in. 

This morning we are getting picked up at the hotel to go hiking.