From
here we headed towards Portugal, stopping off for a very good lunch
at the parador in Pontevedra. We broke our journey in a quiet beach
town called Baiona, where we stayed in a little family run hotel with
a very chatty lady owner, who had lived in England when younger and
was keen to practice her English. Her tiny daughter was very
entertaining. Another rather fine sweep of sand here, a popular
weekend destination from nearby Vigo, and with an imposing castle on
a headland — now a parador — and a view to the Islas Cies. We
decided to picnic on the beach and watch the sun go down.
Next day, at
the very last town before Portugal, A Guarda, we drove up a
vertiginous hill with many hairpin bends to the top of a
mini-mountain, Monte Santa Trega, with fantastic sweeping views of
the Miño valley, which forms the border. Here there is an elaborate
early Celtic hill fort/town, with the remains of tightly packed stone
walled circular houses, part of the Castro culture, which existed
across north-western Iberia from the 9th to the 1st centuries BC. A
few houses have been reconstructed to show what their their timber
and thatch roofs would be like – in shape much like similar timber
constructions in the UK from that period. Clouds drifted through the
valley far below. Quite magical, but the road up was a bit much for
Ian's acrophobia and I had to drive down, very slowly, while he kept
his eyes shut.
So, to O Porto:
a vertiginous city, clinging to the steep canyon sides of the River
Douro valley, where every street is a major hill. It is a
spectacular setting, and the famous two level bridge is impressive,
but all in all we were slightly disappointed. Even though it is a
world heritage site, the old heart of the city has a lot of
dereliction, probably because it is unsuitable for a modern way of
life. There seems to be a determined effort to improve things, with
a lot of building work going on, but still many empty buildings, some
even collapsed or roofless. And below, the river wharves are over
touristy, with a lot of touting for mediocre tourist menus and
attractions. Our hotel was up near the station at the top of the
town, in what used to be the main post office, and did a lot of
walking – I'm sure my calf muscles doubled in size with all those
slopes. There are some fine buildings and sights, including the
cathedral, Sé, but like other buildings here, its interior tends to
the over elaborated, showing off the wealth plundered from South
American colonies. São Francisco is an even more extreme example: a
spare and well proportioned Romanesque building utterly buried in
gold statuary and architectural confection.
We spent a lot
of time in the university quarter, which is a bit calmer, with some
nice bars, where we watched a waiter covering about 20 tables with
incredible efficiency, sometimes carrying four or five full dinner
plates. Across the bridge are the old port wine warehouses and
barges that used to bring the wine barrels down the valley to be
fortified here. On top of the hill in the Vila Nova district is the
rather fine old monastery of Serra de Pilar, with an unusual circular
cloister, and great views back to the old town.
Next day we
took off and had a quick look at the nearby beaches, which are very
extensive and a more popular place to live nowadays. Then it was off
up the Douro, where we had booked into a B+B above the little town of
Mesão Frio. This was a very comfortable, modern villa with a very
friendly owner and just five rooms. A terrace had a huge panoramic
view over the valley and the town.
We ate in a
local restaurant recommended by the hotel: we would never have tried
it, having to run the gauntlet of a bar full of old farmers in the
midst of a violent political argument, but upstairs was a little
haven of home cooking, in a room probably unchanged since the 1950s.
After an
evening of heavy rain, the next day was sunny and we did a short tour
of the region, on hairpinned, switchback roads, visiting the hill
town of Lamego and the pretty river port town of Pinhão at the start
of the wine country. This is where the barges set off for O Porto
and is now the destination for big river cruise boats. Later we saw
one of these passing through a huge lock in the river downstream. So
rather a lightning tour of northern Portugal: the countryside more
interesting in general terms than the city and would be worth
visiting again with more time.
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