Day 57: Peso da Regua to Pinhao

April 27, 2023

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We had casually wondered about the assiduous collection of passports by every place we have stayed at in Portugal. We can think of various helpful and also malign uses for tracking visitors and knowing where they are at all times. But today we ran into a happy use that we had not anticipated. The attentive staff at the "Original Douro Hotel" in Peso da Regua noticed from my passport that today is my (75th) birthday! They showed up with cake and a candle. So nice!

Of course birthday greetings also poured in from far and wide (one far, one wide, more or less). Here is a shoutout to just a couple, but covering a goodly number of grandkids:

The Original Douro hotel had been renovated in 2018, and remains very proud of the work that was done. They have a video playing about the works, and old doors and such mounted in places of honour. Here is a cutaway ceiling, showing the old beams.

Breakfast at the hotel was very tastefully set out, and covered a lot of the bases without blowing you away. Maybe it was the friendly staff that gave us an extra good feeling about it.

Here is a contrast in oranges - those jumbo ones, and some special miniature ones.

In the hotel gift shop, two interesting books. One is the comprehensive guide to the N2, which we have determined for sure is in Portuguese only, and the other is a series of sketches about Portuguese wine producers. It is way too heavy to carry, but maybe we'll find it from back home.

When Scott and Rachel were in Portugal in 1997, they had lots of photos of donkey carts on the roads or ladies carrying baskets on their heads. We have seen little of that. But here outside the hotel was a lady who at least was dressed in all black.

We took to the streets of Regua, walking the bikes at first. The reason was that at first we had to descend a steep lane to get closer to the river and next we preferred to look around rather than fight cobbles and cars from a pedaling position.

Main street in Regua. Unlike Rick Steves we rather like the town. And look, there is another CTT!

Buildings in Regua can be ugly, but this is a nice one.

The river is placid here, and the area a tremendous playground for outdoor activities.

We expect the big cruise boat came from Porto and will continue to beyond Pinhao.

As we set off ware again blown away by the dramatic landscape. Every angle brings different textures and forms into view. One could shoot dozens of variations of this. Our inclination is not to go crazy, but still to shoot lots!

We have speculated on how in olden times all the terraces were created. We still do not have an answer on that, but in modern times the solution seems to be bulldozers!

Unbelievable colours and textures:

We are heading east, upstream now, toward the town of Pinhao, which is the end of the line for road directly following the river. From there, we will continue for an hour upstream by traditional Rabelo boat. Beyond that point, we understand the river narrows and may become less navigable. However we will be seeing famous wine states (Quintas) all along.

Not far from Regua, which can still be seen in the photo below, is one of perhaps six dams that exist on the river. We assume these are primarily for flood control.

For each of the Quintas along the river there will be a story of which rich family or huge corporation bought them out, and which prestigious awards and lists their wines have been recognized with.

Here is more of what we saw as we rolled along the N222 toward Pinhao.

N222 is generally quite wide, so it does not produce quite the anxiety level when cars are passing. However, despite this carefully chosen photo, there were quite a few drivers out today, including a good selection of careening trucks.

Here we see the fact that the road has no shoulder, and that drivers have to consciously avoid us as they go.

When we ride famous routes on famous rivers we frequently come to tributaries that are themselves rather famous and may harbour great routes as well. A perfect example of this is riding the Rhine, but encountering the tributary Mosel. Someone focussing on the Rhine might be surprised to run into the famous Mosel, at Koblenz. I was thinking this as we reached Folgosa. It is not a tributary river here, but a tributary trail, that runs way south, into a region of not vines but apples.

Looking at the terraces of vines, we generally doubt that they can be tended (or harvested) by mechanical means. However now and again we do see tractors pottering about.

These people are working by hand with hoes. There is no way all this land could be managed this way?

We saw several large river cruising boats along the way, with at least two flying the French flag. But we assume they just go back and forth in this river. There we other forms of transportation as well, such as small river cruisers of the sort we intended to get on, as well as the Douro railroad. We later learned that the railroad travelled hundreds of kms, into Spain, but got largely disused. At first wine would have been transported by the Rabelo boats, with 50-80 barrels at a time, then the rail, and now tanker trucks on the roads.

The railway still runs quite far up the Douro, but is surely for tourists only now.

All along the way it is possible to taste wine and/or stay at Quintas.

A signboard in front of this scene explained just what we were seeing. fact, it was quite complicated, as to who was doing what along here.

Here we and a cruise boat are coming in to Pinhao.

Pinaho was more pleasing in terms of not having high rises, but we found it quite grubby.

At the trains station in Pinhao, as in Regua, there were azulejo panels covering local industry and customs. There were about six, but here are two samples. Those costumes sure are strange!

All around Pinhao are the same terraced vine scenes we have become accustomed to.

It was about two when we fetched up in front of the room we had booked for the next two nights. It was one of those arrangements with a key box and a code we had received by email. These turn put to work fairly well, unless of course you have any questions or problems. We had some. First off, the room had not been made up, and when I phoned and texted to see if and when it was going to happen - no answer. Next, the place was up a long set of steep steps. No apparent place for the bikes, and the room was teeny tiny. We put these issues aside for the moment and headed for the river side for lunch and to the boat docks.

Our Air BnB type room is up those stairs.

There were lots of shady benches and tables by the river, and we happily ate our sandwiches there. In the shrubbery I spotted the bird shown below, who I take to be a "Dunlin"?

The tour company kindly allowed us to stow our bikes at their dock, and soon we were motoring up the river. The company had a slightly convoluted way of providing an audio commentary on what we were seeing, involving an app, Bluetooth, and some QR code scanning, but we were surprised to find it worked. We did learn (or at least hear) a lot about the river, and the Quintas as we passed them.

Beyond Pinhao the character of the river and the land was just the same as on the stretch from Regua, although of course it differed in detail as we motored along. There were one or two spots where it seemed we were looking at the remaining impact of what had been the phylloxera grape pest disaster of the 1860's. This bug, which came from North America, all but wiped out European grape production. The problem was ultimately solved by grafting European grape varieties onto resistant North
American root stock. But pesticide applied to the soil permanently ruined some vineyards.

Here is a bridge of the Douro railway. Look at the terrace walls!

We saw this raptor in flight and then caught him taking a rest. What is he?

Ferdinand de Magellan remains big stuff in Portugal. You often see streets with this name.

While waiting for the boat we met Theo and Gunda, from a town a bit west of Koln/Bonn. They have travelled a lot in Europe, and we enjoyed reminiscing about various spots in Germany, France, and Switzerland. They kindly invited us to visit them at home, and I hope they will not be surprised when we turn up!

We wonder about the labour needed to maintain the vineyards - where they come from, where they live. At this one, it seemed there was some attached housing.

Riverside workers apartments? It's a lovely spot, alright.

We returned to Pinhao and decided to abandon our second night's booking. This was partly because of the uninspiring digs we had landed, and partly because it seemed that cycling in the hills surrounding Pinhao was going tp be just too hilly. But we still had the problem of getting into our place for tonight. In order to rag the bikes up the steep narrow steps, we took off all ten bags and put them in the room first. This, honestly, was enough to totally fill the place. Then just as we prepared to hoist the bikes, which would have gone up up to a high patio, the man from the butcher shop next door offered to store the bikes lower down. Hooray!

One (sort of) bonus for us provided in the room was a bottle of what we presumed was Port. Dodie suggested we just leave it, because we hate wine. But I felt that after all this vine viewing I ought to give it some sort of try. I don't know if this was truly in some sense "Port", probably not. The bottle in translation said it was red wine that was an artful blend of traditional Portuguese varieties. I take it that means plonck. My rating after a brief taste was "yeeech" while Dodie only smelled it. Hold on though, two hours later I tried a bit more, and I think I am getting used to it...

Some of the stairs to our latest place. Stairs beyond are lost in the sunlight.

One thing about our place, if you climb enough stairs you come to a patio with a great view.

Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 2,438 km (1,514 miles)

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Jeanna & Kerry SmithHappy Birthday, Steve! And, thank you for all the work you put into your journal. We are really enjoying it.
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1 year ago

Joni MillerCheck your Whats App for a PM
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1 year ago

marilyn swettWho knew we shared a common birthday, Steve! Hope you had a good one - 75 and still touring!
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1 year ago