TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

This is the last stop of the Douro River Valley Tour, a visit to a Port vineyard located in Armamar (Viseu district) along the Douro River and Tedo River just before reaching Pinhao. Maria told us that this estate is a very small, single Quinta A classification. Quinta in Portuguese is equivalent to an estate, hacienda or domaine. Wine estate classifications runs from A to F with A being the highest. You can find more information here: Portuguese Quinta Classification  Quinta do Tedo on a much better weather (blue skies!) day. Picture from wiemax.com Quinta do Tedo From my seat in the mini bus (I was sitting in front), I could see Quinta do Tedo coming into view, the estate is perched on top of a hill and is waiting for us. Maria said the views up there are beautiful. I am sure I will not disagree. This part of the Douro River Valley is very peaceful, raw and pure. It was raining when we drove up the private road leading to the estate but when we jumped out of the mini ...

When I was back in the Netherlands from my Porto and Douro holiday in Portugal last March, I did a quick online research on this restaurant in Peso da Regua—Restaurante Douro In, and found out that it’s actually one of the highly recommended fine dining restaurants in the area. It is good to know that Living Tours offers good restaurant choice to their customers. Douro In Restaurant Website: Restaurante Douro In The restaurant is housed in an old renovated building along the main road just across the flooded boulevard . The classic and modern interior is Philippe Starck, not sure if it’s just influenced or designed by the designer himself but the furniture were suggestive of Starck’s designs. The downside of this restaurant is the (a bit steep) stairway. Not friendly for older people, the disabled and for people like me who have a 60 year old knee. Everything else though was very nice. There is an outdoors terrace at the back and I think a roofdeck as well. As we were ushe...

The next stop in our Douro tour is Peso da Regua (also known as Regua), one of the key cities in the Douro River Valley. We will be having lunch here. Our tasting earlier in Lamego was a just a tease to awaken our senses. Good thing I did not stuff myself with all those presunto. The cultivation and production of Port wine, as well as tourism have been the economic strength of this city in northern Portugal. But before I post an entry about our lunch, I’d like to highlight an awful event that happened in Peso da Regua when I was there. The Flooding The Peso da Regua river boulevard and the shops on it are under water. In recent years, the government has managed to construct dams to control the water flowing downstream in the Douro River Valley. This project has also provided electricity to the area. However, Maria told us that the flooding still happens from time to time here. These pictures do not showcase the worse that had happened here so far. There have been catastr...