Along the Duoro

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This being May Day it was a public holiday and everything was very quiet.

We spent most of the day driving along the course of the Duoro river from Porto. In a way the river is a series of lakes as it has been dammed in five places with hydro electricity schemes. However locks enable pleasure and working boats to travel a considerable distance upstream.

For the first 100k the river runs in a deep gorge and we had spectacular views as the road runs into the mountains. Then the landscape opens out and you arrive in the area where the port wine grapes are grown. The vines seem to be terraced on every area of the hillside.

We then headed south and are staying in wet and cold weather (the van’s heating system is coping well) at Guarda, at 1000m, the highest city in Portugal.

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