One observation and note from yesterday’s drive: Although we saw one hydroelectric dam, in this part of Portugal they seemed to have made a real effort to develop alternate sources of energy. We saw several fields with large arrays of solar panels and there were many very large wind turbines whenever wind was a big part of the geography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today we have had very windy changeable weather. One minute it was bright and sunny – the next minute it was a light shower – then back again. Now (later in the day) it looks like we might get some of the rain which has been predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We spent the morning walking. There is a walkway which runs along the river Douro. The views from this walkway are great – both up and down the river as well as the hills on the opposite side. There are homes and terraces of grapevines all the way to the top of the hills. Initially, we walked quite a distance downriver. We were bundled up (The beach at Lagos seems far away.) and it was a very pleasant walk. After our ritual coffee, we walked up river including crossing a footbridge to the other side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesse and Laura had made a reservation for a late lunch at a winery-themed restaurant which they had heard about. It was an excellent meal. FYI: I had a tasty vegetable soup and a delicious spinach salad with cheese, honey, pearl, walnuts and sundried tomatoes. I also indulged in a glass of wine (which may explain my participation in the afternoon nap today.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walking around all of the smaller towns, you can plainly see that it is not the high-season. The concession stands, tours (including the boat tours here in Regua) and some of the restaurants are closed. It is easy to imagine how busy everything might be in June or August. But, because we have had good luck with the weather, the slower pace of the off-season has really suited this trip with the kids. For example, we can safely let Sage run ahead and not worry about her telling the pigeons to “go away” at the top of her lungs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rain did pick up in the afternoon. However. we did not have far to go. Our goal was to visit the local museum which is only a couple of blocks from our Air B & B. This museum’s focus is on the Douro river valley and it’s place in the port industry. I did not have high hopes for this museum but, once again was happily surprised. The museum told some of the history of the valley and had displays of cave drawings found locally. They had lots of information on the port trade and the growing of grapes. This was more interesting than it sounds and we could have easily spent more time there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you walked through the museum, in one section they had glass walls allowing you to see how they work to restore and preserve their artifacts and the records that they have collected. In the end I could not help but be impressed by the work that they are doing and by the artistic talent reflected in the whole museum. As a bonus, we also received a glass of port as part of the price of admission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because we had eaten a large lunch, we picked up some groceries and went back to our Air B & B and cooked our own dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One observation and note from yesterday’s drive: Although we saw one hydroelectric dam, in this part of Portugal they seemed to have made a real effort to develop alternate sources of energy. We saw several fields with large arrays of solar panels and there were many very large wind turbines whenever wind was a big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/77tozero.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}