We walked down the hill to Living Tours. (Everything in Porto is either downhill or uphill .) We got on our bus with a group of about 25 people). It was a good hour drive into the Duoro Valley, but absolutely beautiful! There are hills and hills and valleys with terraced vineyards.
We first stopped at a winery (I believe it was called Croft) where we sampled 3 port wines - a white, red and rose. They were all good, but I especially liked the white. The outside terrace was absolutely gorgeous. It was a large terrace covered with wisteria vines. Through the wisteria, you could see the surrounding countryside of vineyards, olive trees and some citrus trees.
The bus then took us to the village of Pinhao and we boarded a boat. Again, the scenery was breathtaking! We went to another winery for lunch which was amazing. First a piece of rustic bread with a slice of cheese, then carrot soup. For the main entree, I had fried hake fish with potatoes and the potatoes seem sweeter here. Scotty had a veal stew with potatoes. During dinner, we had a choice of red table wine or white table wine. Then we were served a small dessert plate with a creme brulee, a marinated pear, slices of pineapple and a small piece of chocolate cake accompanied by a red dessert wine.
And THEN we we received another glass of alcohol - a schnapps like drink. With full stomachs and tipsy walks, we boarded the bus. We took a small pit stop at the city of Amarante. Amarante has an interesting legend involving a phallic symbol and as we got off the bus, there were ladies selling phallic shaped pastries!!
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