Upon leaving Porto, Charlie and The Beast went their separate ways. Chris and Steve wanted to stay on the coast and head south but we wanted a few days inland to see some more of the River Douro and also the River Tâmego. We read about a town called Amarante, which is on the gorge of the Tâmego and sounded interesting, so we decided to head there. This town has old pagan roots and has a feast day which is celebrated every year – on the first weekend in June unfortunately, so we missed it. On this day the unmarried youths in the town exchange phallic-shaped cakes as a token of their love and in the hope it will find them a partner. We wondered if any of them offer spotted dick!
We found a nice campsite a kilometre outside the town, which was right by the river and was really cheap. The site is on a steep embankment in a bit of forestry area and had access to the river, so we took a walk to the town along the riverbank. Just outside the site a traditional folklore band were arriving as they were playing a concert there that night. There was probably over 20 of them in total and they were dressed in a mix of Morris-dancer type clobber and modest Amish attire. The site was also doing a barbecue hog roast ,so we were tempted to stay, but we opted to go and explore the town instead.
Along the walk we passed grape fields and a quinta (a rural vineyard house typical of the area) before we got down to the riverbank again. There were kids swimming and diving into the river and we stopped to watch a junior water polo competition also going on in the water. Just before we reached the town we saw a couple of tiny puppies that Angie fell in love with. The owner invited us to pick them up, which Angie obliged, and he told us they were only 2 weeks old.
As we got to the town we had a beer in a square next to the Cathedral de São Gonçalo, which is the central point for their quirky phallic cake tradition. After a couple of beers there we walked across the bridge to the other side of the town and found a great restaurant called O Pescador. The jolly owner welcomed us in with a beaming smile and showed us to a table. The food on everyone’s table looked amazing, especially the people who were sat close by to us, so we asked the waitress what their dish was. She told us it was a cod dish typical of the area so we ordered that to share – it was massive! The food was amazing and we were completely stuffed after, so we left the restaurant and washed our dinner down with a few glasses of vino verde on a terrace bar on the river opposite to the cathedral and the bridge, which both looked stunning lit up in the dark.
The next morning when we were packing up to leave we met a lovely woman from Brazil, called Fatima, who was walking her dogs past our pitch when she stopped to admire Charlie. She really liked him and wanted to know lots about him. She told us that she used to drive a similar van and loved driving it because the big steering wheel made her feel like king of the road. I told her Angie says the same all the time! When we started telling her about our trip she was equally as interested and so we took the opportunity to ask her if she had any tips, as she lives nearby in Porto. She gave us a load more recommendations than we could have possibly hoped for – enough for several trips around Portugal, in fact – and she even went back to her car to fetch her more detailed map which she kindly said we could keep after she’d circled all her favourite places on. After we said our goodbyes to our new friend we thanked Charlie for once again introducing us to the nicest people and we headed off to the closest circled place on our new map, a beach on the River Douro called Rua do Areinho.
We drove down some cobbled small backstreets and came to the river that was lined on one side with a good sandy beach. We could tell right away it would be a great place to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, especially as the morning mist had cleared just as we were arriving, so we parked up and found a spot close to the water. We went for a dip and it was a nice change to swim in a calm river compared to the often ferocious Portuguese sea. The only waves came when someone on a speed boat or jet ski went past. We spent a nice relaxed afternoon there (apart from Michael who saw a stray jellyfish and crapped himself) and we toyed with the idea of staying there for the night and doing some wild camping by the river. Instead we opted to move on and see another place so as the sun was going down we packed up and got Charlie on the road again.
Posted with Blogsy
Charlie's Travels 