Boats on the Douro

We left Porto today but not before one last look down by the Duoro river at the lovely port boats. These boats are called rabellos which means "little tail" because of the long wooden pole at the end. Rabellos are flat bottomed boats with a very shallow draw which was necessary as they were used to carry the full, heavy barrels of port down to Gaia on the south bank, opposite Porto. The barrels were stored down in Gaia rather than up the Duoro because it was cooler. Ruby port wine was stored for up to 4 years, tawny for considerably longer.