A train trip up the Duoro river
Our train getting ready to cross the river to switch sides.
The Duoro river is famous for producing Portuguese olive oil and port. You can take a train ride up the river, go by tour boat or drive. In keeping with the theme of this trip, we took the train. It’s not a fast train and at times is very slow. We left the train station at 9:20 in the morning and reached the end at nearly 1 pm.
Alternative mode of travel 1.
Alternative mode of travel 2.
Before getting into the specifics of that trip, I want to try to communicate the beauty of one of the most famous and photographed train station in the world. It is called Sao Bento. The entire lobby of the station is covered with tile pictures. Nothing can really capture the beauty and intricacy of the tile work but here is my attempt. Not only is this probably the busiest station for tourists, you can see from my photos there were plenty of others taking photos.
The journey made a long day. Our plan was to take the train to the end of the line then go back a few stops to the town of Pinhao for lunch. Oddly, there is nothing at the end of the line other than a train station at Pochinho with a small shop where you can get a snack, a cold drink and a quick shot if you need one. When we went to the counter to get cold water, there was a guy at the end of the counter having an espresso, a cigarette and a couple of shots of vodka before the train pulled out again.
The train is an old train built by a train company founded in the 1800’s. It has been refurbished and was comfortable enough but the track was rough. It had old fashioned windows that you could open from the top and push down. Signs warned people not to hang out the windows but several people ignored that. With windows open it was extremely noisy but allowed a cool breeze on a hot day on a train with no air conditioning.
Barry looking out the window and the interior of the train.
Although this train trip is touted in all the guidebooks and is listed on the “must see” list from the tourist office, the views were mostly the same the duration of the trip. It is September and Portugal, like most of the world, is having a drier, hotter summer and fall so much of the scenery is brown. The level and size of the river varies as there is a series of dams.
We stopped for lunch at Pinhao where we had a 2 hour layover before the final leg back. It was a nice place and the food was excellent. We lunched on a terrace overlooking the water. Here are some photos of Pinhao.
One of the tiles at Pinhao station. Most smaller stations also have a lot of tile work as well. More photos in the gallery.
We’ve found that there are lots of English and even more Americans in Porto and on our trains. We spent quite a bit of the journey back with a group of 3 from Florida. We compared travel notes as they also sold everything after early retirement to travel the world. Two of the 3 were lawyers and one had decided to stay in Porto. It was a nice distraction.
