The first thing we need to do was to negotiate the narrow streets that the bus driver had so expertly driven along at life-threatening speeds. I was nowhere near as brave as the bus drivers and crawled along the narrow streets, thankfully negotiating them without incident!!
The road along the Rio Douro was absolutely beautiful. It twisted and turned, staying close to the river then turning inland, before returning to the river further up the road. All the while, we were travelling through small villages and stunning scenery that was saturated by terraced vineyards.
The road rose to heady heights looking down steeply on the vineyards and river below. As abruptly as it would rise, it would then return down to the river level.
Our first stop for the day was at a roadside cafe, Senhora do Monte. For the princely sum of €3 we got two excellent (large) coffees, one paux au chocolate and an absolutely delicious cheesey, hammy, tomatoey, mushromy slice - best food deal of the trip so far!!!
The road from Porto to Peso da Regua is only around 150kms or so, but it took us around 4-5 hours because we kept stopping for the limitless number of photo opportunities along the way and also because of the twists and turns in the road. There are no real straight sections of any note, so progress can be very slow, especially in a campervan.
Scattered along the road there are glass encased figurines of Jesus, Mary or some other saint. There are also a fair number of statues of Jesus or some other biblical figure in amongst the grapevines looking down over the valley.
As we drove up the the river we arrived at a small place called Entre-os-Rios and saw a tall, beautiful statue of an angel on the side of bridge on the other side of the river, so decided to stop and investigate.
We found out that the monument was erected in the memory of the 59 people who lost their lives on 04 March 2001 when a bus and three cars plummeted into the Rio Douro below, when the 100+ year old Hintze Ribeiro bridge they were travelling on collapsed.
From Wikipedia - 'Fast waters and a storm at the time gave no chance for an immediate rescue, and the victims drowned. Although the site of the accident was more than 30 kms away from the sea, the strong river current meant that bodies were found as far away as the north coast of Spain and one even in France.'
The monument is beautifully designed and stands atop of a peaceful underground chamber with the photos and names of those that lost their lives that day. A beautiful remembrance for such a tragedy.
As we continued up the road towards Peso da Regua, we were continually pointing out things to look at - the homes, the terraced hillsides, the staggeringly beautiful views up, down and across the river...... there's just so much to look at.
The way they have grown the grape vines in places, specifically designed to provide shaded areas of coverage to sit in or park their cars - very clever and looks so beautiful.
Peso da Regua is a largish town and is kind of a junction as it sits alongside one of the main north/south roads, the A24. From the we had to leave the beauty of the Rio Douro and turn right and head south - dammit, we were really enjoying the slow pace of the back roads.
We stayed at Penacova tonight, a very sleepy little town nestled alongside the Rio Mondego.
There's not an awful lot to say about Penacova and to be frank it doesn't really have a lot going for it other than its quiet - which we really like!!!
It's time to just chill - read, write a blog, listen to music, enjoy family, walk along the river, swim in the river or walk through the little town. Whatever! The peace and quiet is very welcome.
It's our last full day in Portugal tomorrow, so we're planning a trip to Coimbra in the morning before heading to Lisbon for our last night in Portugal.
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