We started our day having continental breakfast in our hotel.

Then we met our tour guide at a location 15 minute walk from our hotel, and had a family of 4 in our group (who were also from California). We drove west for over an hour. During the drive the tour guide explained how the mountains make the temperature in Duoro Valley magnified from Porto (ie warmer if it is warm in Porto and colder if it’s cold in Porto).

One also fun fact he mentioned was that cork is something that is highly manufactured here from Cork trees (around 60% of world market.. 20 % is the definition of a monopoly).

The first stop (1.5 hours away from Porto) was a winery called D’Origem. It is a direct to business winery (only 30K bottles of wine produced each year, but they do deliver to the US… 100 euros for 6 bottles, including shipping). They first explained how they make olive oil, and then how they make grapes (grape stomping season is in September). We then had breakfast, where they served a white, rose, and red wine. Really liked the rose, and we bought a bottle for our boat ride.

Next stop was the boat ride at Pinhao town, where had a scenic view of the valley (it was an hour ride but it went fast thanks to the rose).

After, we went to another winery called The Vintage Boutique Winery. They served us lunch (pork and risotto), plus a red and white wine. For desert we had a chocolate cake with a 10 year port pairing. Later they took us to a room where they gave us a 20 and 30 year. It was sweeter as the years increased. A fun fact is that apparently ports can age in a bottle, as long as it air tight.

Beside the winery was Ferdinand Magellan’s house frontage. (But not his really house).

Afterwards, we stopped at a town called Amarante, where a saint called Sao Goncalo was from (aka Portuguese Valentine. Their popular baked good is a penis shaped baked good. We also tried some ham from the region, in addition sampled what they call “green” wine, which is less alcoholic because of its young age (it is not actually green). It wasn’t really good (even our tour guide mentioned that).

Last stop was at the chirch of the above saint, Monsteiro De S. Goncalo.

We then rested for 3 hours at the hotel to get ready for a night out.

First had dinner at this steak place where we tried a Portuguese style steak called Pinhão. Details here:

Vaccarum

Afterwards, checked out a bar called Ferro (near the train station, Sao Bento). Slightly grimy, but still I could see it being an ok place to chill (the 2 rooms are small, and there are 3 (3rd one wasn’t open yet since it usually gets busy around 2am allegedly), but crowd seemed ok).

We then ventured off to the street where most of the bars and night clubs were at, Candido dos Reis. Went to a 3 room club called Plano B. One room was dedicated to techno. It gets busy around 2am. I would come back. Also crowd was my type lol.

Afterwards, went to one more club called Hors Extra. Music was meh (also a 3 room club, but had no electronic music).

Haha on a side note, the street adjacent to Andido dos Reis was full of strip clubs.