On Friday, I head to the Douro Valley with friends Nick and Ivan. It is the first trip there for all of us and we have booked the Vintage House Hotel in Pinhão, thanks to a recommendation from my Montreal Shirleyfest friends, Bennet and Bonnie.

Living near Sonoma and Napa wine regions, I’ve always wanted to see the Douro Valley wine region. It is the oldest demarcated wine region in the world.

Our car trip from Lisbon takes us first to the little town of Coimbra.

Coimbra is the Cambridge of Portugal — the home of its most venerable university. The university’s highlight is King João’s Library, one of Europe’s best surviving Baroque libraries, displaying 40,000 books in 18th-century splendor.

The doorkeeper locks the door at every opportunity to keep the humidity out of this 300-year-old temple of thought. The interior is all wood. Even the “marble” on the arches is painted wood, since real marble would add to the humidity. The resident bats — who live in the building, but not the library itself — are well cared for and appreciated. They eat insects, providing a chemical-free way of protecting the books.

Before visiting the library we have a wonderful lunch in the courtyard of Sapientia Hotel and have our first pours of wine from the region.

After lunch, we get our allotted 15 minutes with a small number of people in the library. It is beyond impressive. After that, we visit the palace.

And now we hit the road to Pinhão.

We reach our hotel in Pinhão around 7:30 pm and enjoy dinner on the patio. The air is delightful. It reminds me of Hawaii with the palm trees and the water.

Of course the Douro River is the eye popping beautiful feature of this region. The Douro River carved deep valleys out of the land and then wine growers transformed the mountains into soil and walls and planted vines. Terraces were built to expose the vines to the rays of the sun which give the grapes the warmth that the wine craves. People think of Douro Valley for wonderful ports, which is true, but the region also has amazing whites, reds and rosés.

The next morning we enjoy a boat cruise on the Douro River.

We enjoy it so much, we plan to take the train into Peso da Regua and then take another boat trip upstream back to our hotel. We have a cute local train ride to Peso da Regua.

Before checking out boat options, we find that we are steps away, after alighting the train, from a beautiful restaurant called Castas E Pratos.

We enjoy lunch, then walk to get boat tickets. To our surprise, no boats are running because a helicopter has crashed into the Douro River. It is a tragedy, as 5 firefighters returning from an assignment were killed in the crash. Portugal has declared a day of mourning. The river at that point is quarantined for retrieval purposes. An extremely sad and shocking turn of events.

We return via train to our hotel.

An outing at the pool is relaxing until I get stung by a “vicious” bee. Actually the hotel was quite nice with ice and medical cream immediately supplied.

It did not deter us heading out at night to Casa Do Arco for an amazing dinner. Our taxi drives up and up and up and soon we are overlooking the whole valley.

The husband and wife team of Ana and Marco present us with an amazing well-paced dinner, paired with exquisite wines from the region. There are only 4 tables in this restaurant. We feel so lucky to be there.

The next day we are up for hiking and decide to hike up to Quinto do Seixo (home to Sandemans, a well known winery).

We reach our destination and find we are the only people there.

We have an outdoor tasting and enjoy the private attention.

Later we have lunch on their patio before returning to the hotel.

At the hotel we are able to arrange a second boat trip. The weather is fine as we enjoy two more hours on the water.

After the boat trip, I decide to take advantage of the hotel’s offer of a port tasting at Quinta da Roêda (Croft Port).

The story of this winery is quite convoluted, as it begins in York, England in 1588. They now consider themselves the most distinguished of all Port houses since they are the oldest firm still active today. As I take a seat on the patio, I find myself with Andreas educating me on the various vintage and aged ports as well as their newest offer…port tonic.

Apparently millennials are not drinking much port wine, but do like cocktails, so Croft has recently come out with this product combining tonic and pink port. They give me a can to take home. I’ll try it and let you know how it is. Meanwhile I enjoy the traditional tasting.

Returning to the hotel, we decide to walk to our dinner at Quinto da Rosa Vinho (Cozinha da Clara). It is a gorgeous evening and the walk whets our appetites.

It is a modern looking restaurant with a beautiful terrace over the river. A delicious meal ensues.

We order 3 different desserts to have on the terrace.

We walk home happily in the dark.

Monday after breakfast we drive to a lookout point and I am so glad we do. I will let the photos from there speak for how amazing the views are.

Our return to Lisbon is punctuated by a visit to the marvelous town of Óbidos.

Óbidos is a charming medieval village. The quaint village dates back to Portugal’s Celtic period, and was later taken over by the Romans in the 1st century AD. The Moors took it over in the 8th century, and finally Portugal’s first king, Afonso Henriques, conquered it in 1149. King Dinis and Queen Isabel spent their honeymoon in Óbidos in 1282, and the king ended up giving her the entire town as a wedding gift. The walls surrounding the village today were built in the 1300s, and although they were partly damaged in an earthquake in 1755, they were completely restored in the early 20th century. Óbidos was actually an important port at one time, but the river silted up in the 16th century construction of monuments, such as the landmark aqueduct. Now it sits as a pretty little village welcoming many happy visitors. We walked the ramparts which is not for the faint of heart!

With one last coffee and gelato we wave goodbye to Óbidos and head back to lovely Lisbon. I highly recommend a visit to the Douro Valley. I really like where we stayed. My room had a patio overlooking the river and because it was on the ground floor you could just walk out onto the promenade and stroll along the river. I thought the Douro Valley would be similar to other wine regions I have visited. It is not. It is much more about the geography and the history and the river than the actual wineries, even though they are beautiful with amazing wines. Do yourself a favor and head there at the next opportunity.

Once again thanks for reading along!