Portugal day 7 - Douro valley and Porto 5/18/16 and Day 6 pictures

First, all of yesterday's pictures are HERE

10:00pm - back at the apartment after a long, great day. CoolTour picked us up in the little minivan just after 8. The tour only had 8 people on it, which was great. We picked up a few other people and headed to the Douro Valley, which is famous mostly for Port, but also other, wines. It took about an hour and a half to get there over some mountainous roads. It was foggy like June gloom. we talked with the tour guide Joanna about all kinds of cultural things. She explained how most people earn about 500euros post-tax here. Minimum wage is 2-3 euros an hour. Her rent is half her income and she has roommates. YIKES.

First we went to a regular winery (i.e. not Port) WAY high up over the village of pinhao. The views were unreal. We tried a few wines as well as their honey and olive oil. If I wasn't facing carrying around a glass bottle to four more stops and checking it in my bag on the way home, I totally would've bought a bottle of oil. 

Then we went back down to the river and took a little boat cruise, it was really peaceful and beautiful and a perfect weather day.

Then we had lunch at a little typical restaurant. It was salad and grilled pork and potatoes and rice and 2 kinds of wine and codfish and coconut pie for dessert. And it was delicious!! We then headed to another Quinta (winery) where we saw port being aged and tried four more kinds. Port is definitely not my thing.

We got to taste the last ports in the family's own home from the 1800s.. They had set up a plate of local cheese, fruit, etc. for us to have with the port. It was just lovely. 

Then we made it back to Porto, which took about an hour and a half. We rested for a bit and since it was such a light walking day, we then wandered around, catching the river around sunset. I grabbed a sandwich for dinner and found a cute pair of earrings at a little artisan shop. We walked past a local ice cream shop and I was going to get some, but they advertised having the "best" chocolate cake so I got that instead. It was meringue and mousse and a chocolate glaze and it was definitely delicious but not as good as the one from Landeau in Lisbon. Sorry Cremosi, it's good but not the BEST chocolate cake. 

Tomorrow we will do a walking tour of the city and some more sightseeing before Liza unfortunately has to leave!