My Return From Porto & The Douro

“There is something about the longevity of port that naturally helps to vinously place our lives in perspective.”
--Andrew Hawes

Last night, I arrived home in Boston, returning from an amazing journey to Porto and the Douro region. I'd long yearned to travel to Portugal and that desire became a reality last week. As I mentioned last Monday, I visited Portugal as part of a FamTrip, accompanying both a small group of people from the Boston area and a second small group from Brazil. The trip was lots of fun, fascinating and educational, exciting and delicious, informative and beautiful. I want to make some brief comments and observations here, though please note I will be providing much more detail in the near future in a series of articles about my experiences in Portugal.

We had a full itinerary, most days the activities ranging from 9am to Midnight. We saw and experienced so much, yet it was like a chef's tasting menu, enticing small plate tastes, showing the great potential of the chef and making you yearn to experience all that the chef had to offer. I still want to know and explore more about much we saw. I am far from being sated of Portugal, desirous of sampling all that fine country has to offer.

I traveled through the Douro region by van, train, boat and on foot, ranging from Porto to Bragança. There were so many highlights, from the Castle of Bragança to the Sephardi Interpretive Center. We stayed at superb hotels, from the Douro Palace Hotel to the Pousada de Bragança. And the scenery was breathtaking, one of the most beautiful vineyard regions in the world. As the foliage had turned, there were wonderful colors everywhere, spread across the steep, terraced vineyards and mountains. No photo can properly do justice to the beauty of the Douro.

I was especially excited to visit wineries including Quinta do Vallado, Quinta de Covela, Caves de Murganheira, and Cockburn's Port. Portuguese Sparkling Wines, wines from the Vinho Verde DOC, Port wines, and more! In the two photos above, you can see my purchases, a couple 30 Year Old Tawny Ports, a 30 Year Old White P ort and a Sparkling Rosé. I easily could have bought several cases of wine but the logistics of getting them home with me weren't easy or inexpensive. I know what to seek out in the U.S. though, and hopefully can find them here.

So much delicious food, from multi-course dinner to ample platters, and this certainly was not a region for vegetarians. Lots of pork, like the above platter of various pork parts, like ears. There was also plenty of beef, venison, wild boar and more. As expected, salt cod was ubiquitous though at certain points in our trip we also enjoyed some amazing local seafood, from razor clams to pike. We also devoured lots of various sweets, from the famous pastel de nata to other tasty concoctions. I only gained about 3 pounds in Portugal, a miracle considering how much I ate but which is likely due to all of the walking we did.

The people of Portugal were wonderful, so genuine, welcoming, knowledge and and filled with passion. Marta and Ricardo, our two main tour leaders, did a great job of guiding us through our travels, answering all of our questions, and assisting us in anything we needed. Our main drivers, including Rui, Alandro, and Miguel, not only transported us around the region but also knew much about the history and culture of the area. Each tour guide was had was a font of valuable info and helped to imbue a passion within us. I also need to give a shoutout to Sarah, Jennifer, Joyce, Denise and April, fine and fun women, other attendees from the Boston area, who traveled with me in the same van for much of the trip. They helped to make this an enjoyable trip

Well, I now have a few thousand photos to sort through, lots of notes to review, and I have plenty of story ideas worthy of a myriad of articles. I'll certainly be busy, but reliving so many fantastic memories of Portugal.

I'm also fortunate that I'll be making new memories next month, as I will be returning to northern Portugal! I don't have much detail yet, but I'm sure it will be another amazing journey.