We gave ourselves two chores before setting off for Paso da Regua and the famous Douro wine region. First was to find postage stamps. Our phones pointed to a place, closed yesterday, called CTT, as the "post office". As foreigners we do not know all the tricks about how a country is organized, and which business names do what. American readers will laugh to learn that for years when visiting the States we had no idea what "Target" was. As far as we were concerned, Target was a cement company in Montreal. The same ignorance applied to E. LeClerc in France. So CTT can be the post office in Portugal? Who knew!
The second chore was to bolster our food supplies, by stopping at the grocery. We chose the chain Pingo Doce rather than a mini or super mercado this time. Among the large chains, Pingo Doce has a slightly more fun image. The name means "Sweet Drop" or maybe "Gumdrop". Since "doce" means sweet, when we bought a sweet pudding made by Pingo Doce, it was called a Doce Pingo Doce.
Dodie went in as usual, leaving me to watch the bikes and also to not be throwing a bunch of junk in the cart. But now we have a compromise procedure. When the main shopping is done, I will go in with a bit of money and choose some (usually) junk. That's how I got the Doce Pingo Doce!
With a last look at "our" castle, we set off on the real ride for the day. We knew from the track that it would be downhill all the way to Regua. We got that, and also the rather expected dangerous curves upon curves. But within a few km of leaving Lamego we were really blow away by the spectacle of the valleys and gorges, all terraced and filled with vines and olives. It was one of those absolutely WOW situations, something you can not see anywhere else that we know, not even in the Mosel valley in Germany.
There was a nice view of the castle from Pingo Doce.
The terraced vines and/or the olives cover the hills top to bottom. In the strong morning sunlight, even our eyes, let alone the camera, had trouble seeing with good contrast.
Just as I had trouble with the steps at the Sanctuary, I wondered how the terraces are dug out and where you shovel the dirt to. However it is done, it is clearly an immense amount of work. And after that the planting, pruning, and harvesting of vines on the hills is a mind boggling project.
Here is N2 marker 100 - 100 km to the end. It's tempting. We know we could go to Chaves, we could go to Santiago de Compostella! But, better stay on target.
Ah yes, there it is - the town of Regua. Rick Steves is a little down on it, noting that the high-ish rise buildings are out of character with the wine region. We are ok with it, particularly as we will shortly find the riverside parks and cycle path.
There are two or three basic streets in Regua, parallel to the river. The top one has the most businesses, and that is where our hotel is. But we ducked down first to the riverside for lunch. We encountered a bunch of ducks there, most of which we take to be Mallards. However at least one is likely a Teal.
The hotel seems to offer gelato, in some nice flavours, but I have not yet figured out where this is at. Note the reflection of the photographer on the side!
That bottom right offering is interesting because of the local fame of the pastel de nata. The idea of blending them into ice cream reminds of the "Shari's" restaurant chain in Washington State. They pride themselves on pies, but also have pie milk shakes. They throw the pie slices into the mixer with the other ingredients, and it works out great.
It was too early to quit for the day, so we left our rear bags and the hotel and headed off again, north, in the direction of Vila Real and ultimately, Chaves. We new we would not reach these, but anyway we could scout the road for any possible future attempt. Just down the street from our hotel was the train station, which features some frescoes we had read about. They are in the blue tile, azulejos, so common in the country, and they depict scenes from the wine industry here. There are perhaps six panels, but I only shot two, at random.
See the terraces, and the style of the traditional boats, the Rabelos.
There was a church on our street, but it was difficult to get a shot of it, because the street is narrow, and because of buildings in the way. These are the tall buildings that were in disfavour with Rick Steves.
The road to Vila Real to me was not enjoyable. To be sure it had fabulous scenery, and with the sunny and warm weather, cycling itself was a joy. But here again was that phenomenon of a narrow road, with many tight curves, and always climbing. True, drivers are normally patient, but the sound of an engine on your tail, waiting for that chance to blast by, is just not restful, to say the least.
The curvy climb was only 4 km, after which the road flattened and straightened significantly, though of course the traffic volume and road width did not change.
Our GPS Open Cycle Map showed a cycle route called "COR", which I now take to be a rail trail called "Antiga Linha de Corgo" all along the way to Chaves. We tried to spot it, but had no luck. it that dirt track under the bridge?
Off in the distance we noticed these guys doing some spraying. From where they are shooting, I would take it to be herbicide. They need to wear some protection!
After a jaunt of about 8 km, we turned around are returned to the hotel. They had us put our bikes in the gift shop. We like that, because we can visit them any time. There is a practical side to that, because it allows us to gradually install batteries or water bottles, to be ready to leave the next morning all the more promptly.
On the other hand our get up and go attitude is countered by any laid back vacation spirit that may be lurking about. For example the elevator - the slowest one on the planet! Inside they have following messages to calm down any Grampies:
Once our elevator lands tomorrow, we are keen to cycle on the Douro, first east, to Pinhao, which is about 30 kms and where we will stick for the night. After that, we still need a plan. But as the elevator sign said, we will enjoy, because we are in the Douro!
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles) Total: 2,410 km (1,497 miles)
