Portugal - Day 3

September 10, 2025: Day Trip! Today we took a train to the Douro Valley which is famous for its breathtaking terraced vineyards that line the hillsides along the Douro River. Known as the birthplace of Port wine, the region has many historic wine estates (called quintas) where visitors can taste local vintages. Everything I read about Portugal said that it was a definite “must see” for our trip. It required a 2-1/2 hour train ride to get there, but we were not disappointed. The views were spectacular and we enjoyed trying port wines from three different wineries. We arrived in Douro Valley a little before 11:00AM. We were scheduled to do a special tasting at Quintas da Tedo about 15 minutes outside of the town of Pinhão at 1:00PM, so we decided to find somewhere to grab something to eat. We stubbled up a little restaurant called Cardanho dos Presuntos. It was a wine bar, tapas and shop. The cool item on the menu was the flaming chorizo sausage. It was roasted right at our table. We also had their special local tomatoes, some cheese and bread along with some of their wine. It was a beautiful little lunch. We walked about a bit before attempting to get an Uber or taxi to the winery we were supposed to go to, but unfortunately, we were not able to acquire a ride! We tried for 30 minutes and finally gave up and canceled. Instead, we went to a different winery, which had a beautiful view of the river, called Quinta Do Bomfim. This wine estate has been owned by the Symington family for five generations and was originally acquired in 1896 to produce Dow’s Vintage Ports, making it one of the oldest continuously held quintas in the region. It turned out to be a great substitute! Next we went to the other winery that was on our itinerary called Quinta das Carvalhas. It is considered one of the most iconic and spectacular estates in Portugal’s Douro Valley and is nestled opposite the village of Pinhão on the left bank of the Douro River where it spans the entire hillside. By the time we were done there with our tasting we headed back toward the train station. There was a little bar across the street where we stopped to wait for our train. We ran into a couple from London and we shared travel stories with them while we waited. It was an unexpected bonus to our trip.

We rode the train back to Porto and stopped at a famous restaurant that was started in 1962 called Cachorrinho Gazela. This place has been perfecting these bite-sized, crispy baguette-style hot dogs since since they opened. The cachorrinho features linguiça sausage, melty cheese, a buttery finish, and often a spicy sauce for the low price 4.50 Euro. There were a lot of locals there and you could tell this was a place people came to on a regular basis. We loved them! Another successful and interesting day in Porto. Tomorrow we are heading out on a picnic of sorts, so we are looking forward to that.