Our final day in Portugal on our 2024 Iberian peninsula cruise had seen us docked in Leixões, the port for Porto, and head off on an excursion that had initially seen us look around the charming city of Amarante. However, what we’d really wanted to see was the Douro Valley and that’s where we headed to next.
Our destination was a vineyard but just before we reached that we had another short stop, and like Amarante earlier in the day this one also featured a river and a bridge. The river, of course, was the Douro, and the bridge that we had a chance to take a look at and walk along for its views through the valley was the Ponte Metálica de Pêso da Régua.
Construction of the Ponte Metálica was ordered in 1863 by King Luís I and was completed in 1872. The bridge is iron, a little over three hundred metres long and eight wide, with six spans over granite supports. For a while the bridge was maintained in good condition but following a period in which passengers using public transport were required to disembark, walk over the bridge, then embark once more for safety the bridge was closed in 1949. Renovation work allowed the bridge to be reopened for pedestrians in 2012.
We enjoyed a stroll in the sunshine along the bridge and a look upstream and downstream along the Douro. The river rises in Spain before meandering through Portugal and by discharge it’s the largest river on the peninsula. From this point over it the view was gorgeous with the winding course flanked by stepped hills given over to growing the grapes for which the region is famous.
On one hill nearby we could see the Sandeman’s Don Statue, a somewhat eerie figure of a caped man, a giant watching over everything in the valley. The Sandeman brand dates back to 1790 and descendants of the family moved to Hayling Island – not far from where we live – and founded the golf club there.
We re-boarded our bus and made the short journey to the vineyard of Quinta da Pacheca. Our timing was such that volunteers were gathering for the seasonal grape-pressing, done by foot, so after a short tour of some of the grounds and cellars we were brought into the large room where the pressing activity was taking place.
It was quite fascinating to see all the wine in the large stone baths and to then see the volunteers enjoying themselves with some grape-stomping. The smell of the wine was as lovely as you imagine.
Our excursion to the Douro Valley included a small port-tasting with some food provided too. The whole point of taking this trip was so we could actually say we’d finally had some port in Portugal which we’d managed to avoid somehow so far.
After we’d enjoyed our drinks we had enough time to take a little look at the vineyard on our own and a chance to look at the vineyard’s shop where we ended up picking up one bottle of ruby port and one of tawny port. My wife prefers the former and I prefer the latter.
The next post in this series of cruise travel write-ups features the short period back on board P&O Ventura in Leixões and the sail away in the evening where we learn some good news about an itinerary change.