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The Douro valley, 8 days / 7 nights cruise |
Leaving Porto, the boat passes under some of the famous high level bridges. The urbanisation of Porto is quickly left behind and the steep banks have villages and riverside homes.
As the journey across Portugal takes place, the boat is raised by a series of locks, some being the highest in Europe. These locks and the dams through which they go have tamed the river from the dangerous rapids which sank many yachts when the river was used for wine transport.Later the railway line runs alongside the river for its journey upstream. The arrival of the railway resulted in all the wine being carried by train and the carriage downriver by ship stopped. In recent years, the wine has been moved downstream by road tanker. The river passes through the demarcated port wine region of steeply terraced hills and mountains and white painted quintas to Regua, the important Port Wine town. The boat passes Pinhao to which the Port Wine trade is slowly moving. Soon after Pinhao the schist soil ends marking the end of the demarcated Port Wine region and the scenery turns wilder. The boat reaches the Spanish border town of Vega Terron for a tour to Salamanca before returning to Portugal. On this cruise ther are many tours visiting the places of interest near to the river. |
| Index of Douro cruises | Accommodation in the Oporto (Porto) area |
| Pousada de Porto - Palacio do Freixo |
| Hotel Infante Sagres |
| Pestana Porto Hotel |
| Douro Cruiser, 8 days / 7 nights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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