DAWDLING down the DOURO
Considered the most scenic of Europe’s cruising rivers, the Douro offers an almost non-stop show of beauty, says David Wickers
The Rio Douro, the ‘river of gold’, is really a river of green. Since the 18th century, the riches of this ribbon of fertility in the far north of Portugal have come not from precious minerals but from the vineyards that blanket the hillsides. Scenically, it is the most gorgeous of Europe’s cruising rivers.
In June, I sailed aboard the Douro Splendour from Porto. The ship was moored on the Gaia quayside in front of the port warehouses, the names of which (Croft, Graham, Taylor, Sandeman and others) recall the 250-year-old British involvement in the trade. On the opposite bank, the Unesco-listed buildings and cobbled alleyways clamber up the slope from the quayside to Porto's granite cathedral and the nearby São Bento station, the interior of which is a beautiful showcase of blue tile murals depicting Porto’s monumental moments.
After a day in town, we set sail, soon shaking off the urban outskirts and passing through the first of five locks, the Crestuma, and then a second, the Carrapatelo, the deepest in Europe. The approach into its dark mouth felt like entering the very jaws of hell. Our ship, like all Douro vessels, is narrower than those on other rivers, built to within inches of the width of the locks. I could touch the sides of their dripping wet walls from my cabin window.
On day two I woke to a slowly moving pageant of steep hillsides, wearing rows of emerald vines like coats of corduroy dotted with white walled estates, or quintas, the names of their dynastic owners often in big, bold, standalone letters. The most iconic branding was a towering black silhouetted figure of the Sandeman, wearing his familiar long cloak and jauntily tilted fedora, raising a glass to passing cruisers.
We visited the ancient 6th-century castle and walls of Castelo Rodrigo, where persecuted Jews took refuge during the Spanish Inquisition. From its hilltop location, we gazed across fields of olives grown since Roman times and almond trees first planted by the Moors. Favourite souvenir? Almonds either coated in sugar, spiced, gingered, salted, embalmed in coconut or dipped in chocolate. Small wonder Castelo Rodrigo is known as ‘the village of the happy tummies’. Other excursions included the 18th-century Mateus Palace, with its distinctive facade that is spiked by rooftop pinnacles, and formal gardens depicted on those once very familiar curvaceous bottles of rosé. At Lamego, we saw the Shrine of Our Lady of Remedies, a Baroque masterpiece that stands at the top of a flight of 600 stone steps, a challenge for pilgrims who climb up on their knees. Highlight of highlights was the Spanish city of Salamanca, a two-hour coach trip from the turn-around border village of Vega de Terron. The route first snaked up through the high, wild, rock-strewn landscapes of one of Europe’s most remote corners, a region roamed by wild boars and wolves,
overflown by eagles and vultures. Known as the ‘golden city’ due to its sandstone buildings, Salamanca has two cathedrals, a university founded in 1218, a colossal friary, a Roman bridge, a magnificent Baroque main square and, curiously, a brilliant museum (the Casa Lis) devoted to Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
And so back to Porto and a fitting finale: a tour and a tasting at one of the port warehouses, and dinner at a restaurant owned by another, at Taylor's Infante Sagres hotel.
SHIP SHAPE
Portuguese owned and crewed, the Douro Splendour is exclusively marketed in the UK by Riviera (rivieratravel.co.uk). It carries 126 passengers. The cabins on the upper two decks have floor-to-ceiling windows that open halfway, effectively turning the whole cabin into a balcony. One week costs from £1,300pp, including flights, transfers and guided excursions.