Day 3: Quinta Port Houses in the Duoro Valley

Today, we woke up to brilliant sun shining through our window... perfect for a day of driving through the lush vineyards of the Duoro Valley. We rented a Toyota Yaris from the car rental place across the street from our hotel, and Shane being the only one of us with enough video gaming experience to navigate the harrowing streets of Porto (as well as the only one of us who could officially claim to drive a stick shift), expertly drove us out into the country side, where the sun shine gave way first to rain, and then to a dense, thick fog.

A lovely scene of the Duoro river and a port quinta, the winery house.

After some unintended detours through winding, narrow, hillside roads, we finally found our first stop, the quinta that makes Fonseca, one of the most popular ports exported to the United States.

A free, self-guided audio tour gave us the chance to roam and take in the scenes of the beautiful, terraced vineyards, blooming with baby grapes.

The long (2 hour plus) drive and a few glasses of port before noon whet our appetites for a big lunch, and we found ourselves at the modern, river front restaurant, D.O.C.

We settled ourselves in for a 4 course meal, prepared by one of Portugal's finest chefs. My favorite course was the grilled octopus, which was unbelievably tender, with a nice crunchy char on the tentacles.

After what turned out to be a 2 and half hour lunch, we managed to roll ourselves out of the restaurant and only had time to visit one more quinta for just a few tastings of port, before it was time to return to Porto.

There were a few hairy moments getting back into the city, but Shane handled it with precision and quick reflexes, although he later confessed to us that he hadn't been that nervous in a long time. Could have fooled us!

After dropping off the car, we ventured out to a lookout point to watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.

Jack set the self timer for this shot and then had to run on the edge of the stone wall to jump into this shot...

After snapping photo after photo of the swift moving colors shifting across the sky, I turned around and found this rustic stone wall covered with colorful graffiti. I love photographing graffiti when I travel because I find that it sheds a little bit of insight into the local culture in a vibrant and informative way.

Since we'd had such a huge lunch late in the afternoon, none of us were too hungry, so we grabbed some crackers, nuts and a wedge of cheese at a grocery store and picnicked on the lovely patio of our hotel, under an almost full moon.