"A Beautiful River Valley" a Pinhão Travel Page by Bwana_Brown

The morning of our 11th day in Portugal and our 8th day on the road, 1880 km from Lisbon on our circuitous route, found us at Lamego, in the north of Portugal and only a few kms south of the famous Douro River. The problem we had was overcast skies and even occasional heavy rain, interfering with our plans for the first time in our trip. After our previous day's drive in the mountainous Minho Region (see my 'Geraz do Minho' page) even further north, we had planned on an exploration of the banks of the Douro for this day. There were hints of breaks in the cloud cover so off we went anyway, a short drive north to Peso da Regua on an excellent superhighway as the elevation fell from 500 m down to 100 m by the time we turned off and descended to the Douro River itself (see my General tip for a map showing the location of our river drive). Route 222 is a scenic route that winds along the south bank of the river for 20 km before it reaches the first town of Pinhao, where the River Pinhao joins the Douro. As we rounded each turn, it definitely provided some great views of the vinyards responsible for Portugal's famous Port wine. In the end, the weather actually did not turn out too badly, being mostly overcast with some showers, but also a few sunny breaks. Once we reached Pinhao, we parked the car and had a look at its amazing train station before we turned to retrace our steps along the river. By this time in our trip, the clouds had begun to set in and we had seen enough mountaintop castles for now as well as having struggled around a few large towns trying to find our accommodations! As a result, we had decided to cancel our accommodations in both Porto and Leiria so we could head south and west toward the Atlantic coastline where we would 'wing it' for accommodations in some smaller seaside towns. It was a great decision - both 'Praia de Mira' and Peniche (my 'Ilha de Berlenga' page) turned out to be great choices! This Intro photo is a view of poppies growing wild along the Douro River not far from Pinhao. And, by the way, we did sample some great Port while at our lodgings in Lamego!!