Wandergliding

November 10^th-11^th, 2025

After checking out Cockburn’s big wine cellar in Porto, it was time to head inland to see where the grapes were grown and then processed into port and wine. It was about a two-hour drive from Porto and although it rained on and off at first, we were greeted with decent weather in the mid to late afternoon.

One of a few good views on the road to the valley.

This looked like a good spot to stop for lunch...

...with some baguette sandwiches we made in Octi.

Our first views of the Douro Valley.

What a beautiful area.

Couldn't resist doing a "Titanic".

A small cruise ship plying the waters.

Octi by some strangely lovely abandoned buildings near the river.

Although the Douro Valley is mainly known for its port wine, it produces just as much table wine. In Portuguese, “quinta” means winery and Naomi had made reservations for us to stay at the Quinta do Vallado. It was a lovely place, set on a terraced hill lined with vineyards, just outside of a town called Peso da Régua.

At our check-in...yup, we're at a winery.

Now waiting for our tour in the lounge of one of the other buildings.

I'm sure that this deck is packed for breakfasts and dinners in the summer.

Our fancy schmancy room at the winery.

The view from our room.

Looking back towards our building. The next day we went to the spa for an hour in the early evening (part of our hotel package) where we were in a steam room, a sauna and then jumped in the pool before back to the hot tub...this pool was shockingly cold!

Naomi in her happy place.

It is a lovely spot.

The following day Naomi went on a wine tasting tour at the winery while I stayed back at the room and did some work (trying to catch up on my blogging of course). I’m not a big wine drinker so I opted out.

A very nice blogging station, although the window could have been lower to see the views better.

Meanwhile, Naomi went on a winery tour.

Which even included VR googles to check out the whole process from the picking grapes to the production of the wine.

That's a lot of port and wine being made.

And now for her taste testing.

In the afternoon, we hopped into Octi and drove about half an hour upriver to a smaller town called Pinhão. From there we were hopping on a tourist boat for a one-hour jaunt up and back down the river to check out the scenery and see some of the wineries that line the shores. The only other vacationers on the boat were a couple from Boston with their 3-year-old girl and the grandparents from Philadelphia. It was a nice float on the river, but you can’t get too far going just 30 minutes upstream and then back again.

Driving by the big bridge near our winery.

And now passing a dam on our way to our boat ride.

We lucked out again with the weather.

Driving over the bridge to arrive at Pinhao, where the tour boats were docked.

All aboard!

Setting off up river.

One of a number of wineries we saw.

Enjoying the company as well as the sights...

A railway bridge.

Arriving back at Pinhao.

The train station in Pinhao. Naomi liked the tile decorations...

...and for good reason.

Naomi and I had a chill evening in our room with the plan of driving in the morning to Nazaré, the home of some of the biggest waves in the world!

The end of yet another good day.

November 9^th, 2025

For our second day in Porto, we had a couple of activities planned. The first was to check out the Palácio da Bolsa, which I thought literally translated to “Palace of Bags”, but it was actually built in the 19^th century by the city’s Commercial Association.

Some interesting buildings on our way to the Palácio da Bolsa.

Naomi striking a pose.

My turn...

Naomi had purchased tickets for us online, but they did not have a specific time allotted for them, however we had to have a guided tour to see the place. When we arrived, we found out we had an hour to kill before the next English tour, so we wandered around the area and down to the riverfront in some unexpected, gloriously sunny weather.

Hanging out by the palace, before our 2 pm entry time.

It's quite the building.

We had some more time to kill, so we walked down to the riverfront.

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon so there were many tourists and locals enjoying lunch and/or a drink by the Douro River.

The Luiz I Bridge.

Naomi really likes seagulls.

The riverfront is beautiful.

What a fancy schmancy McDonald's!

Even with a view.

The tour was decent with an informative guide, but it was quite a large group, and the guide kept things moving along quickly as we only had half an hour to complete the tour, I gather to maximize the number of visitors to the site in a day.

The central courtyard where the stock exchange used to operate.

This room was used as a court for a period, but now once a year they even do wine tastings here!

Our tour guide explaining the various paintings on the walls and the ceiling.

The painting on the ceiling, which depicts Justice above all (sorry, I couln't rotate the photo on this blog platform).

Past presidents of the exchange...my favourite is the guy in the bottom right hand corner.

The Luis I Bridge made of coins...I couldn't help but joke that the bridge only cost pennies to build.

This room looks to be built mostly of wood, but only the first four feet up from the floor is wood, the rest is hard plastic if you can believe it.

Hard to believe it was plastic...

The paintings are of some of the last members of the Portuguese monarchy. On the opposite wall, we don't have a photo of her, but there was a painting of Queen Maria II, known as the "Good Mother" as she bore 11 children...and died at the age of 34! Oh, and look at that amazing table in the foreground.

My reaction to the Moorish Revival Arab room...the most impressive room in the palace.

Naomi liked it too.

This room with an amazing staircase took around 40 years to construct.

Lunchtime.

After a late lunch, we meandered along the riverfront towards the Luis I bridge and crossed over the river.

About to walk across the bridge to the other side which is not Porto, but the municipality of Gaia (which comes from the Greek word for Earth).

Looking back towards the centre of Porto.

The other activity for the day was to visit a large port cellar. Grapes for port and wine are grown in the Douro Valley, about a hundred kilometres inland from Porto up the Douro River. The wineries there produce the port and wine and in the old days the barrels were sailed down the river to then be stored for years in the cellars in Gaia before they were shipped to their final destinations for consumption.

I wasn't sure what the deal with these boats was. They had 8-10 large barrels on their decks but I think they were just for show, although this would have been the way the port and wine would have arrived from the Douro Valley, where all the vineyards and wineries are located.

See if you can figure out the joke...you might need to click on the picture to enlarge it (which kinda fits the joke too).

The streets on the Gaia were interesting too, but maybe not as intriguing as the Porto side.

That's one spooky rabbit...or a hare, tough to say.

Naomi picked the company Cockburn (“co-burn”), which is one of the largest cellars in the city. We had a 45-minute guided tour, learning a lot, maybe more than we cared to, about port, followed by a tasting of the final product. The amount of port stored in the place was staggering!

We made it to the massive wine cellar.

The start of our tour, the guide is on the left.

She is explaining the geography of the area, and why the Douro Valley is such a good spot for the grapes to grow.

This is the cooper workshop which is still used today. Coopers are the craftsmen who wooden casks and barrels.

These are the old stencils that were used to paint the destination city of a wine barrel.

Don't ask...

The tour guide asked us to guess how many litres of wine/port there is in this warehouse...before she showed us this room. The answer, around 10 million litres!

So take the last picture, multiply it by three rows, and then add a whole other warehouse of the same size next door!

Naomi gives you a perspective of the size of the barrels.

And how about the size of this vat.

"You get to drink from firehouse!" - name that movie. I'd be impressed.

Old "vintage" bottles. To become a vintage bottle, the wine has to pass a number of quality tests with independent, umm, testers. The bottles in the middle are from 1868 and 1875!