It’s our second early morning in a row. It is, however, our first genuine certified 100% fresh sunny morning! So, while we have to get up at oh dark forty-five (it wasn’t dark but close enough) we’re out of the miserable rain. We have to be at the 📍Museum of the Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa for our last excursion to the rock carvings at 9:30. So 6:45 wake up, shower, grab breakfast at 📍Princesa do Douro - Pastelaria and hit the road; we’ll eat breakfast on the way. We’ve learned from yesterday that roadwork and harvest seasons make for a longer route than planned.
The sunny, if cold, morning, made for a drive with beautiful vistas on vineyards and pastoral land. We’re on the same road as yesterday but on a sunny day it’s a whole different experience. We arrived at the museum with time to spare. The museum cafe doesn’t open until after the guided tour departs, so we took the opportunity to walk around the museum, which offers a stunning view on the confluence of the Côa and the Douro rivers. Looking at the views it makes more sense why they would have placed this museum in the middle of nowhere.
We are one of three groups heading out. Like airlines, they seemed to have overbooked tours in another language as we had some last-minute additions to our tour. Tours are no more than 8 as only 8 people plus the guide will fit in the 90s vintage modified jeep with seats in the trunk. So on the drive, not everyone gets seatbelts. Not sure what the safety rules are in Portugal and who enforced them but maybe they should send a copy to the public office in charge of the carving sites. We drove on paved roads from the museum all the way to the boat house we were instructed to drive to with GPS coordinates yesterday. Why we couldn’t just start from there in the first place is anyone’s guess. My personal guess is that it makes the whole thing feel more like an adventure.
Anyway, we walked a short distance on well-groomed trails with stone steps (what the carving site describes as rough terrain) and made it to the Canada do Inferno site. Our guide, noting that we’re Canadians indicated that the word “canada” in Portuguese meant “gorge” or “ravine”. So, in short, we drove in an old jeep without seatbelts to go visit the ravine from hell… maybe not the best idea? Our guide did try to reassure us that the inferno in that case was meant to illustrate that the site was really warm due to the schist trapping the heat in that section with less vegetation due to the ravine. You live, you learn.
The site itself had more carvings we could see but the least well defined ones. So we ended on the worst site of the three. We could have skipped getting up early. Yesterday’s Fariseu (site accessible by boat) and Penascosa (second site that day) offered all the variety, beauty and wonder of looking at something tens of thousands years old.
Another ride in the totally safe jeep back to the museum later we got in the car and hightailed it back to Pinhão for a quick lunch and, most importantly, a hike in the sun. The way back was full of trucks transporting grapes to be processed. While it adds to that harvest feeling, it doesn’t help with the scenery as the bed is piled high with crates of grapes making passing challenging on the winding roads. Think of roads with barely two lanes following the relief of hills and valleys with a truck that barely fits in the lane piled high with crates weaving to avoid slowing down in the curves or sliding off the road on roads with a 90kph speed limit that already feels like an impossible speed to achieve, yet having a truck going 50kph but having to accelerate to a 100kph to pass in the shortest amount of time possible. That’s what driving to and from the carving sites was like. I was getting good at it too, at least based on the reducing number of times my life flashed in front of my eyes passing. Sadly it was the last time.
It was already towards the end of lunchtime when we arrived. We headed straight to 📍Cardanho dos Presuntos for their flaming chorizo. Flaming chorizo is a traditional Portuguese dish known as chouriço à bombeiro or chouriço assado. It is prepared by scoring a chorizo sausage, placing it in a special clay dish (assador de barro), with high-proof alcohol in the bottom, and lighting it on fire at the table. Why they can’t just do it on a barbecue and deliver it cooked at the table I do not know. It is delicious none the less.
Chorizo with a side of bread, olives and heirloom tomatoes eaten, we went home to grab our backpack and water and cross the river to the 📍Quinta das Carvalhas for a 10km hike on their domain followed by a glass of port. The cost of the hike was surprising to us: 16€ per person. Our guess was that it’s the price for not having a guide telling us about how they harvest grapes and olives and giving us all the details on the genealogy of the owners. We found the hike on Alltrails and found it to be highly rated. Alltrails was right. The views are stunning, all of the hike is on the paved or cobblestones roads now (following the marked route on Alltrails did have us detour through rows of grapes but we followed the intended route on the way down). We did a hike through vineyards last year in Cyprus and thoroughly enjoyed it. It might be the first full day of sun of this trip, it might be the majesty of the Douro, but we enjoyed that one just as much. We cannot recommend it enough. We thought the glass of porto at the end was a little over the top but well worth it. After all of our tastings we can confirm that we enjoy ruby (large vats, low oxidation) over tawny (small barrel, more oxidation).
After the hike we went back to the guesthouse to recuperate from the 10km walk. Our original plan was to go for dinner at 📍Veladouro. According to our host the place doesn’t take reservations but showing up 30 minutes after opening we learned that it was full for the night despite the large number of empty tables. It’s our last night, we weren’t sure about where else to go, so we decided to give 📍Bomfim 1896 a second chance and order a la carte this time around. It was a much better experience! Placing it neck to neck with our number 1 restaurant of the vacation to date.
Tomorrow we’re leaving the Douro behind and heading to Coimbra and its famous university.