At some point in every vacation enveloped in historic sites, we seem to escape deep thinking and feel light-hearted, like recess back in elementary school.
That's how we felt in "the picture-postcard terraced hillsides that are synonymous with the Douro River Valley."
In other words, we were just in the moment, taking it all in without storing much as essential information to understand what we experienced.
Between 6:30 AM and 8:00 AM, Viking Torgil cruised from Barca d'Alva to Pocinho. Guests could choose to stay aboard and cruise to Folgosa, enjoying a more leisurely breakfast and lunch onboard an almost empty ship.
For those going ashore in Pocinho --- which included Julie and me --- breakfast needed to be completed by 8:15 AM, which was plenty of time for those of us who like to awake early to enjoy early morning views on the river.
Our bus departed on the scenic drive through the Heart of the Douro Wine Region.
Our first destination was the "charming village" of Favaios. It certainly sits in a lovely setting, but in terms of architecture, the village itself wasn't all that charming to me.
The buildings along the cobblestone streets weren't nearly as charming as, for example, Patmos, Greece. In fact, there are many towns where we live with more charming architecture.
A village is more than buildings, however, and the subtle charm would become more apparent as we spent time there. Then again, other than our Viking group, the streets were deserted. Regardless, I doubt that coming upon this village without a guide, you would find it to be intriguing enough to delve deeper.
A new stone building does stand out.
Viking River Cruises probably financed construction of this new communal bakery, whether directly with investment dollars or indirectly by scheduling tours to this remote spot almost daily during cruise season.
We gathered in this new bakery to learn how the locals make the knotted bread that breaks into four rolls, an important product for the village of Favaios.
The tradition of baking bread over wood has carried on for decades in what undoubtedly had been a remote village before a trickle of tourists became a wave when Viking made it a regular stop.
Our local host/guide was quite charming, playing against a bakery chef who for the most part played Cher to his Sonny while kneading dough. There were lots of silly jokes during the demonstration.
We all were offered freshly baked rolls to break one knot off to eat. It was good.
The Favaios communal bakery burns grapevines as well as wood to fire up the oven to bake the bread that is a staple of the local diet.
Upon finishing our post-breakfast snack, we walked to another modern interior, which at least for Viking guests served as an art studio.
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| The local well water fountain for shared public use. |
We were provided papers with the outline of a grape still-life picture that we were invited to color in with a paintbrush using different colors of the village's wine as paint.
Needless to say, I created a masterpiece, while Julie made her best pedestrian efforts to stay in the lines.
Yes, indeed.
Needless to say.
After we finished our fantastic paintings, we were welcomed outdoors for a mid-morning wine break.
In the coming AI-generated leisure age, perhaps this will replace coffee breaks for those who are not too stoned to go to work.
The setting of the village among vineyards is very charming and beautiful, including the view we enjoyed from our patio wine break area.
A local demonstrated how a white hood is draped over the head so that a basket could be hung on his back to tackle the arduous task of harvesting grapes on hillsides.
I offered to buy Julie her own grape-harvesting rig so she could get started at the commune in the lucrative entry-level position of picker, but she declined despite my assertions that it likely would not be in the 80's as it was this day during the actual harvest season in September.
She was also interested in the finished bottles of wine.
Perhaps she'll become a Sommelier instead.
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| Machine for processing grapes, not annoying tourists. |
Our group proceeded to Favaios Tale Centro de Vinificação.
At this winery, a charming hostess talked about production of the local specialty wine of Favois, Moscatel.
What I seem to remember most was after Julie and I sat down, a man who must have been about 6"5" and could have played tackle in the NFL, if he lost about forty pounds, walked in and stood directly in front of me.
He seemed surprised when I poked him and did my best Charades to indicate he was blocking my view. In any case, he moved without further ado.
Blah blah blah, etc., etc., etc. etc.
A little more wine tasting?
Why not?
It's five o'clock somewhere. A little early for California, but was it 5:00 AM in Pennsylvania? Probably.
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| So much wine, so little time. |
Back on the bus, we enjoyed the scenic drive alongside vineyards to the beautiful Quinta Avessada for lunch.
A"quinta," incidentally is a large estate surrounded by vineyards, orchards and olive groves.
As a fan of Zorro since childhood, I would use the Spanish word "hacienda."
It did not conjure up visions of Don Diego De La Vega's hacienda. It looked like a deluxe steakhouse.
Staff ladled serving bowls from two huge tureens of creamy golden soup.
The backstory of this soup is that at one time, a particularly hard year led to such devastating deprivations that much of the population considered moving away rather than facing a long winter.
The mistress of the quinta told them she would keep them fed through the winter if they would stay. This soup, served with local bread and wine, kept them in the community and alive until the next harvest.
It was a very good meal, including the soup, even if in retrospect I no longer remember exactly what else was served.
We had time to look around the grounds of the bucolic quinta.
We enjoyed our scenic drive to Folgosa, where Viking Torgil had sailed in our absence and waited for us.
Julie snapped a photo out the bus window of a cork tree with the number 3 on it. That number is the singles digit in the date its cork was last harvested.
That way, they know when cork can be harvested again. It usually takes 7 to 9 years of growth before cork can be re-harvested.
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| Train Station in Pinhão |
Upon boarding in Folgosa, we were soon taking in the views on the Sun Deck, cruising again.
From our perch, Régua looked like a nice port town, but Julie and I were content to enjoy the Sun Deck, taking a break inside only for happy hour to learn about our next day's plans, followed by dinner.
We awoke the next morning in Régua, eager for what turned out to be the most physically strenuous excursion of the trip.
