Porto part 2

 

We had another quiet beach day on Friday, as the forecast was pretty good once more. We did have a walk though – there’s a boardwalk that runs for over 10k along the sea front, as well as a cycle path, and we walked quite a way along the boardwalk late afternoon before stopping off at a small beachside bar for a drink where Karol had her first sangria of the holiday! Friday afternoon and early evening is clearly when the Portuguese assemble for a drink after a hard weeks work, as all the bars were busy from lunchtime onwards. However, we didn’t stick around as we’d an early start on Saturday, when we’d booked to go on the Linha do Douro – Portugal’s best train ride according to the travel guide Rough Guides. We’d bought our tickets on Thursday, so duly took the white knuckle service bus to Porto at just after 8 the next morning, and were on our way on the train at 9.10. The Douro Line is 160km of river hugging track from Porto to Pocinho, via more than 20 tunnels, 30 bridges and 34 stations. Predictably we sat on the wrong side of the train to start off with but the guard very kindly told us we should move and suggested we take the place of a young lady to our left, who was very obligingly getting off shortly. This proved to be a good move, and we sat mesmerised by what seemed like hours of fantastic views – terraced mountains flanking the Douro river, which is huge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the countryside is given over to vines for port and wine production, and we played ‘spot the well known sign’ of port producers which dotted the hillsides, including Sandemans, Cockburns, Taylor’s and many more we didn’t recognise. It was a beautiful jouney with almond trees in blossom, orange and lemon trees laden with fruit, camellias in flower, cactus plants and olive trees, with huge areas of wild flowers too. The journey was just under four hours in total, so we got off the train around 1 p.m. in Pocinho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’d debated getting off at an earlier station, Pinhao, a pretty and appealing place where many others had disembarked, as we had heard that Pocinho was underwhelming, but decided to complete the journey. On arrival at Pocinho we rather felt we’d made the wrong call! It’s what might be described as an industrial village – there were two metal chimney belching smoke high into the air as we arrived, along with a fertiliser station, and two very seedy looking bars, and not much else. We decided to make the best of it, and set off in 25 degree heat (apparently it reaches 50 degrees in the summer months) to explore the surrounding countryside. We didn’t get far as we spotted a sign for a restaurant and cafe about 400 metres out of town, so followed it with the intention of getting at least a drink. We decided to go indoors because of the heat, and found ourselves in a beautifully clean establishment, with 3 occupied tables and a further 3 or 4 vacant. We were directed by a lady who was obviously the owner to one of the vacant tables and she then proceeded to talk to us in very fast Portuguese. Just as we were feeling a bit helpless the two gentlemen at the adjacent table asked if we were French, to which we replied, no – English. One of them then proceeded to translate for us, explaining that as there was no menu we could have the meal of the day, which would be fine as long as we liked meat! He also said it was very good, so we readily agreed. We had the best meal of the trip so far in this out of the way place. We were brought bread and olives, local red wine and water, followed by a speciality of the area, a mixed meat (pork, chicken and rabbit) sausage, then a beautiful steak, with a risotto containing chick peas, and a fantastic green salad of what looked like watercress and spinach, but had this amazing tangy dressing. This was then followed by a local ewe’s milk cheese with an orange compote. The cheese was the size of a Camembert – each – and was the consistency of cottage cheese, but with the orange jam was delicious. Neither of us was able to manage all of it, and so we finished off with coffee and tried not to move. It turns out the hostess is called Julinha (known as Julie) and she was very touched when we told her that it was out favourite meal of the trip, and insisted on sprucing herself up for our requested photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trip Advisor are going to get a great review from us to ensure more people make for Pocinho! As we’d taken our time over lunch we didn’t have long to wait for the train back (in fact it hadn’t gone anywhere when it dropped us off, but was still there in the station!) so at just after 3 we set off back to Porto, and then caught the bus back to the site, getting there around 12 hours after we’d left. Considering we’d done little other than sit and eat, we were still both shattered so had an evening in front of the TV (we’re getting hooked on the Nordic Noir series The Legacy in case you’re interested) and an early night. Needless to say we didn’t need an evening meal. This morning was cool and overcast, so we got all our chores done, mucked out our living space, and I even washed the car and the front and back of the caravan! We then went for another boardwalk explore and found that only about 2 miles up the coast we were on the outskirts of Porto with fantastic views towards the city.

We also came across an unexplained phenomenum which we’d like some help with. You’ll see the picture of a large pipe which we found on the pavement adjacent to the beach. Periodically the valve on the top of the pipe would let off steam like a kettle, but we can’t for the life of us work out what it is, or what it’s for! Any help explaining this would be much appreciated! That’s all for now – on to Lisbon tomorrow.