Bom Dia

Greetings From Portugal

I am currently in a the picturesque landscape of the Duoro Valley wine region in Portugal. Pinhao is a small village along the Duoro River which we came by via train from the city of Porto. Our train ride of over two hours was met with a dreary day with intermittent rain and drizzle which somehow heightened the scenes outside the windows since I could watch the weather and not be out in it.

Pinhao

Pinhao is a village sitting by my guestimate, in the near center of the Duoro wine region. It boasts a population of 500 people, pretty much all of whom run the wine tourism business that the village gets. A big thing here is boat rides up the river offering wine tastings but also tours to wineries, restaurants and accommodations for tourists and of course those who are employed by the wineries. Most everyone here works seven days a week but then takes three months off in the winter months. A bigger town is 20 minutes drive away. I quickly stepped off of the train and wondered how much renting a tiny apartment would be. This place fast entered my list of where I want to spend several months writing. The only other place on this list is the Island of Patmos however this one may be at the top now due to its all around better accessibility.

We had three hours before we could check into the place we reserved for this visit so our first mission was to find a cafe to sit in to get our bearings. Not a lot one can do with their bags in tow after all so we hoped for wifi, wine and a bathroom to get us started here. Turns out that directly in front of us was such a fulfilled list place in the Imperio 1929 Cafe. I will be writing a whole blog off of our visits there at another time. Suffice it to say, we found our base and our people. We spent the day in boats on the Duoro River and in a winery sampling Port the day away. Now we will be boarding the train again shortly with a 12 minute change of trains in Porto to continue to Faro which is in the south of the country, the region of Algarves.

I suspect that each of our destinations will bring forth a blog of it’s own not to mention one on the wine region since I am a passionate wine enthusiast. Wifi signal was not so top notch in our charming room that had the aroma of orange blossoms billowing in our space through the open window. There also was no wifi on the train to here so I will fill this with some of the pictures that have made me completely smitten with Pinhao. I hope you enjoy travel stories because I live for them.

Love & Travels

Lauri