Douro Valley

The view we were privileged with at breakfast this morning, across to the iconic Sandeman logo, created in 1928, of a figure in a Portuguese student's cape and Spanish hat, holding a glass of port/sherry.

The Douro is the third largest river in the Iberian peninsula, but more famous for being the oldest demarcated wine region in the world, and now a Unesco World Heritage site. Such different scenery to the Alentejo, and weather, though the woman we spoke to said this weather - cold and rainy - was very unusual for June, as were the very hot days they'd had earlier.

Then travelled on to Vila Real to see the Brazilian family we'd come to see, and now, many hours later, safely home.

Gratefuls:
- as ever, Mike's driving, some of the roads in the valley were quite scary
- utterly grateful for the overnight stop in Peso da Régua, where we had a good sleep and a good meal with, yes, a glass of port to end with
- feelling the whole trip was worthwhile