Porto and a wine river cruise

The river Douro separates the two sides of Porto, Portugal.    One side has the district (originally its own town) of Vila Nova de Gaia that houses many of the famous Port wine companies (Sandemans, Calem, Burmester, Cockburns, Ferreira and others) including the storage and shipping facilities. In classic human style of working around a problem – the industry sprung up on this side of the river to get around the tax the local bishop put on exporting anything from the main town.

 

Ask a local what you should do in Porto and many times you will get the response to take a cruise up the river on a boat and then sample some port at the vineyards at which it is produced.  Never being one to argue with a local, I do just that.

There are a range of people, ages and nationalities on board. I am seated at the table with a lovely couple from Paris.  Dali  (short for Delilah) and Nicola – both work at the Louvre (where they met) and Dali, in her spare time is an English tutor, a translator, a composer/song writer and a jazz singer (as you do).  There is another couple at the table with from Florida.  She speaks impeccable French (8 years of tutoring twice a week).  Other languages – Spanish – “Where did you learn that?”  “We’ve both lived in Florida most of our lives but both from Cuba”

Dali gives me a couple of sites to check out her music – I listen to it that night – and am mesmerised by it.  What a voice and talent!  www.myspace.com/daligroup

At another table are a group I strike up a conversation with and join for the train leg of the return journey home with two brothers and one of their lovely wives.  They, too, are from the US (Southern California) but spend about 4-6 months travelling each year.   Chuck Angyal is a retired eco-architect and Yvonne is a designer and photographer.  They have a great philosophy about life “Our moto in life: collect as many positive experiences and friends rather than personal possessions.”   Chuck has a special place in his heart for New Zealand having travelled there many years ago and been adopted by the locals.  Some of the stories he told sounded hilarious (and just the tip of the iceberg).  You can check out some of Yvonne’s work at www.yaphotos.net

Chucks brother is equally larger than life – very down to earth.  He owned a blueberry farm in the US in a previous life so we set to talking horticulture (wish I had a pocket edition of Carolann with me for this!) and talk on the train journey home about different places we’ve been and setting the world to rights.

There are some marvels of engineering I have seen on my trip so far.  This was a chance to sample another one.  The river Douro has a series of dams and locks.  As the riverboats cruise through it, we ascend the locks.  Nothing special about that – except the sheer height of this one - 35m (the highest in Europe).  The gates close behind us and the water rises at 5m per minute (that’s a huge volume pumping in).  20 minutes later we are 35m above the river point below us and merrily on our way down the next section of river.

A great though short stay in Porto – to be commemorated with a bottle of Vintage Calem port (thanks for the recommendation, Rita (our tour commentator)).  I won’t get to knock the top off until I am safely ensconced and can share it with my next hosts in the south of France.  See you there.