Canals, Trains, & Boats

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20 - 21 September


Saturday was the end of our first week at the villa and our first ‘weekend’. Naturally we had to leave paradise for a weekend adventure tour so we were off early to Figueia da Foz on the coast about 60 kilometres South of Porto. One of our group had suggested this destination from the commentary in one of the Portugal travel book. “The Foz” was described as having a beautiful beach and many shops and restaurants. From the villa it was about a two hour drive and we set off in two groups planning to meet for lunch.

One thing about Portugal is the obvious investment in infrastructure including an amazing network of new highways and freeways, most of which are tolled, but the tolls are minimal and probably and efficient and fair way to pay for them. After all“user pay” is supposedly one of the more fair forms of taxation. The area of Northern Portugal where we are is very mountainous and the Portuguese seem to be bridge builders extraordinaire. These new highway bridges are magnificent structures.

Along the way in our group decided to take a side trip to a small village called Aveiro. It was described in one travel book as “the Venice of Portugal” although another book seemed to emphasize the industrialization of the region. So with conflicting descriptions we took our chances expecting either something pretty and charming, or grubby and dirty. Entering Aveiro we were greeted by a broad green boulevard and streets lined with many little shops and stores. We soon found a parking spot and began to explore this boulevard but it was only a few moments before we discovered a small lane leading away from this area. Because this lane looked some pedestrian friendly it became our path to wonderful sights and tastes.

We had gone only a couple blocks when we stopped into a small café for a ‘snack’ as we had left the villa fairly early and with minimal breakfasts. Here we found coffee, not expresso, and the most wonderful pasteries served by a friendly bi-lingual (Portuguese/French) Portuguese gentleman. It’s difficult to describe the pasteries because I haven’t had anything like them before, although I’m not much of a pastry person. The croissants with cheese and ham were the most delicate, light, and flaky things I have ever had. Everyone else was equally impressed with their selections too.

Further down the lane we came to a large square with a towering church on one side, a magnificent old administration building on another side, and a gleaming new glass building on the other side. The roadway continuing downhill on the other side gave glimpses of color and more sights further along where it intersected with a busy traffic circle. The walls along this roadway had beautiful colourful decorations on them. I’m not sure if the walls had been decorated to complement a small bakery on the opposite side of the road or whether a baker thought the location complemented his baking. The bakery windows were full of delicate, colourful, (and no doubt rich) cakes, cookies, and pastries.

Just beyond the traffic circle we found “the canals of Aveiro” lined on both sides by a broad cobblestone pedestrian walkway with a blend of old and new buildings housing everything from ‘the big M’, familiar franchised stores, and small old shops and restaurants. This area of Aveiro around the canals with the pedestrian walkways and limited vehicle access is difficult to describe. Even the camera doesn’t seem to adequately capture the sights and beauty. My limited vocabulary can hardly begin to describe this place. Sorry folks, but it’s one of those times when you have to see it for yourself.

You just have to see and experience for yourself the small cobbled lanes with young families playing, and fascinating little shops lining the way under blue skies and sunshine. It’s difficult to capture and describe what is probably the atmosphere of the area that makes it so pleasing.

But time was marching on and we were to meet the other group of travellers in Figueia da Foz for lunch. Instead of returning to the freeway to continue our journey we followed one of the secondary highways. As we continued South it began to cloud over and before long rain drops were splattering on the windshield. The secondary highways are naturally not as fast as the freeway and by the time we reached “the Foz” the other group was already having lunch and the rain shower had stopped.

It didn’t take long to find the other group and the beachfront restaurant there were in. They had described the restaurant to us, given us a general indication of where it was, and how can you miss a building decorated in blue and white mosaic tiles ? The restaurant, Café Delores was quite small, not much more than 30 seats, but despite reserved signs on a couple tables we were able to be accommodated. The other group had ordered the daily special which turned out to be far more food than they had expected but they said it was excellent. For us the experience was far more like less than expected and somewhat disappointing. Perhaps that’s the chance you take when being adventurous with food in a different country where you can’t really read the menu and guess somewhat at what you are ordering.

The skies were lightening somewhat as we left the restaurant and made our way across the wide, (nearly desserted) sandy beach to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean. Leaving the beach there was a small market nearby but it failed to offer much interest. A beachside place doesn’t seem very interesting without sunshine so we decided that we might as well continue back North to Porto where we had planned to overnight on this weekend adventure. Back at the car it seemed that almost simultaneously as the car doors were opened, the clouds broke and the sunshine poured through. Tempting, but probably some sort of trick, so we piled in anyway and headed off to Porto.

Under gray skies and with some rain we drove to Porto. This may be seeming a little gloomy but we had already had a full week of sunshine, blue skies, hot days, and into every week maybe a little rain has to fall. Before leaving the villa someone had made reservations for the group at a hotel in Porto. The Ipanama Park Hotel turned out to be one of Portos’ five star hotels with a weekend special. I doubt if during the week you could get into this hotel for €85, or about $120 Canadian. We were in for probably about half price. The hotel was what you would expect for a five star establishment. Lots of bright shining brass, polished tile, and impeccably dressed, courteous and attentive staff, most of whom spoke English. It was nice to be in such luxurious surroundings but it had been a long day for us and we had an early start planned for Sunday morning. We discovered the hotel also offered a breakfast brunch, included in the cost, which began at 7:00AM. That meant we might have 15 or 20 minutes to take advantage of perhaps some croissants, cereal, and juice before we had to run so the plan was to be ready to run and making the best of brunch at 7:00 AM.

Sunday morning was gray and overcast. It had rained overnight but the positive was that the skies seemed to be lightening. We all met for our brunch and what a surprise ! Instead of the usual continental breakfast of rolls, cereal and juice what was laid out before was a veritable feast. Fruits, cheeses and juices of all types. Fresh filtered coffee eggs scrambled and poached, bacon, sausages, and waffles. A variety of cereals and breads and buns. Unfortunately is was eat quick and run ‘cause we had an 8:00AM meeting at Sao Bento railway station. As it turned out we could have eaten more leisurely as the driver to Sao Bento only took about 10 minutes and our train was leaving until 9:15AM. We had signed up for a tour, and I suppose the tour guides wanted everyone to be at the station early because there are always those who are late. So we had about an hour and a half to kill at the station.

The Portuguese railway system seems to operate on three levels of service. Inter-urban, Inter-regional, and national/international. We were to be taking an inter-regional train to Regua. The national/international trains are the newest and most modern high speed electric trains. Our inter-regional train, a service level down, consisted of older coaches, comfortable enough for three or four hour journeys and pulled by an older diesel locomotive. Service at this level was simply a guy pushing a cart of goodies, (pop, water, chips sort of stuff) on a small cart like you see on the airlines.

Our train ride, passing through 10 tunnels took about two hours. Like the roadway infrastructure investments similar investments seem to be being made in the rail system. The ride was smooth, comfortable and without any jerkiness. At Regua where the sun was now shining most of the passengers got off and were herded and loaded on to a number of different tour busses. Our group ended up being taken to a winery to visit a wine shop for about an hour to kill time before continuing our tour. Obviously not just to kill time but an attempt to extract Euros from the tourists. This was not a winery tour, just a visit to a retail wine store.

Back on the bus and we were taken to a dock area along the Douro River where we were to be boarding a boat for a cruise of the Douro River from Regua back to Porto. One of the highlights of this cruise which included lunch was passage through two locks on the river. Boarding the boat we were assigned our table for lunch and as we stepped aboard we were met by stewards offering trays of assorted snacks and trays of port. (Well fortified port it turned out to be ! !)

Everyone on board and the cruise was underway in quick time. Lots of open upper deck chairs for watching the scenery as we floated past, an open bar on the second level, and by the time everyone was getting settled the call to lunch on the lower third level. It seemed that the whole crew was pressed into service to serve lunch to a couple hundred people in a timely manner. First glasses of wine, followed by soup, a main dish of roast pork, more wine, followed by desert of rich chocolate cake. (and maybe more wine)

After lunch it was sit back in the sunshine and watch the world go by. All along the Douro River there were a number of sandy beaches, some maybe only 50 - 100 feet, others a couple hundred feet of sand or more. We passed villas and terraced hillsides, small communities, obvious resorts or resort communities, marinas, and monasteries. As we cruised downriver we met other cruises coming up from Porto and we were accompanied most of the way by a much smaller cruise ship less than half the size of our boat.

About an hour and a half after lunch we came to the first lock, the Barragem de Carrapatelo. Exiting from this lock we were 75 metres lower than when we had entered at the top of the dam. (roughly 225 feet !) Our liquid elevator took about 20 minutes to drain us down to the lower level. As we entered the lock there was a large sign indicating the temperature was 28C. The day which had started with gray skies had improved considerably. Fortunately there was cooler air-conditioned space on the second level deck to take refuge from the heat once and a while.

The scenery was wonderful as we continued on to Porto passing under some of those impressive bridges of the new freeway system. I call it a ‘new’ freeway system as we had driven past areas where the roadway was under construction and on all the freeways we drove the pavement seemed new and there was no evidence of cracking, heaving, or repairs of any type.

As we approached the second lock, Barragem de Crestuma Lever, it had become somewhat overcast and there was a cooling breeze blowing upstream. The temperature here as we entered the lock was only 20C. This lock was far less dramatic than the first with a drop of only 14 metres.

Shortly after clearing this last lock the skies opened and there was a sudden deluge. Naturally this caused a flood of people seeking shelter in the second deck lounge which soon overflowed to the third deck dining area. We are finding the Portuguese people to be a friendly and happy bunch of people. It wasn’t long before there was some sort of sing-a-long coming from the dining area and people were either singing or clapping along. With all of us now crowded inside both the temperature and humidity raced up and you were soon torn between being inside and hot, or cooler but potentially wet outside. Fortunately it was a brief deluge and had stopped in about half an hour.

Not much longer and we were docking in Porto. A quick dinner at a little spot along the waterfront then a taxi back to the area of Sao Bento where our car was parked and we were on our way back to the villa arriving “home” about 9:30 or 10:00PM.
A great weekend !

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Photos

Aveiro
The boulevard entering Aveiro

Aveiro lane
One of many decorated lanes

Aveiro canal
The canals of Aveiro

Canal Boats
Colorful boats for canal tour

Aveiro wall
Decorated walls in the laneways

Figueia de Foz
The big sandy Atlantic beach

Figueia de Foz restaurant
The entire building is finished on the exterior with these tiles

Sao Bento
The station interior

All Aboard
The train car interior

Ridin' the rails
Our train rounding a corner in the Douro valley

Riverboats
Our cruiseship

The big lock
Approaching the first lock

Going Down
Inside the first lock to go down 75M

And away we go
Leaving the first lock

Benedictine Monastery
Perched on the valley hillside

Douro river beach
One of many river beaches

Bridge over the River Douro
One of Portugal's many fine bridges

Comments

[ann]

Writing's of the Journey through Protugal
Hi Kane, Wonderful to read about your travel plans and all the sites the group has been able to view, descriptive, factual,and overall entertaining. Lovely to read your enjoyment! Annie B