Vila Real, Portugal

Ola from Portugal!

It has been quite a journey getting to our inn tonight. But, let me start at the beginning.

Here are a few pics from this morning before we left the inn at Cudillera.

Entrance to the inn.

Mural on the wall.

Front of the inn.

Tide has gone out.

Today we planned to go to Pico de Europa to hike the Ruta del Cares, one of the most beautiful routes in the National Park. It is known as the divine gorge, carved out of the side of the rocks and surrounded by mountains over 2,000 meters (6,500') high. However, it rained last night and the forecast was for rain today. The trail is treacherous and narrow with steep drop-offs, so we decided it was a no go in rainy conditions.

The clouds were low and we wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.

Very poor visibility.

As we moved out of the mountains and headed south to Portugal, the sky began to clear for a beautiful day.

The Montes de Leon mountain range.

Going through the mountain in another tunnel. This one was very long.

A unique bridge.

And the scenery changes as we get closer to Portugal. We went through a very flat, desolate looking area too but I didn't take pics.

Now we're getting into the vineyards.

We drove through the Douro valley on our way to what we thought was our accommodation for tonight. 

Forgive the streaks in this photo. It is bugs splattered on the windshield.

The vineyards are beautiful.

The river Douro is one of the major rivers of the Iberian peninsula flowing across northern-central Spain and reaching it's exit point at Porto.

I'm just amazed by the way the vines are planted. It makes such a varied tapestry.

Our GPS took us about 30 miles out of the way in our search for the inn. That's 30 miles each way. We ended up on the tiniest road going through a little village. At times it didn't seem like the car would even fit. Then we were taken onto a dirt road through a vineyard to the Quinta de Santo Antonio. Unfortunately, it was the wrong Quinta de Santo Antonio. We finally made our way back to Vila Real where we got directions for the right place. We've had lots of fun when it comes to finding these last minute bookings.

The Douro valley is the most prominent wine region in Portugal.

The river Douro has about 6 dams from Porto to Pinhao, the end of the Douro valley.

A river cruise boat.

Our room

View from our room.

Dinner was quite an experience! First they brought out a port sangria.

These photos are all taken from our table. This is the house we're staying in and we're the only ones in it.

The first course of tapas

And bread

And more tapas - the one in the back center is grilled veal that was melt in your mouth tender.

And a bottle of local wine

And more tapas

Then when we were full, a plate of salad. 

And a main course of female pig knee, potatoes, rice and cabbage. Then she kept trying to get us to have dessert. There is no way we could have put another bite in our mouths.

The end of another long day.