We took our time leaving Pousadela, squeezing in a leisurely (cake-filled) breakfast, one last dip in the pool, and one last awful game of billiards. But then we headed south to our next stop, a winery and villa called Covela, just at the beginning of the Douro Valley. As we learned at our wine tasting, the grapes and wines grown near Covela are mostly used to make fresher wines, like vinho verde, because the land is marked by granite and that affects the soil. The "true" Douro valley is known for port wines, and the soil there is distinguished by schist and sandstone (and drier climes).
We stopped for lunch in Guimares at a place known for roast suckling pig. It was a local place on the second floor of a building, and no one spoke English, so we were uncertain about the quantity of what we ordered. As it turned out, we got one sandwich and half an order of pig, which was enough to feed all of us. We also ended up with an entire bottle of wine, because I don't know the word for glass and he misunderstood me. C'est la vie. It was a boozy affair (for me).
Chocolate croissant with a topping of nutella: breakfast of champions!
meat pastries shaped like piggies. Liesl thought it was a little too much.
Our next stop was the town of Amarante: we needed a few groceries for our next stop, since it was a house and not a hotel with a restaurant. And also, more importantly, Amarante is known for its penis-shaped cakes. Apparently penis cakes are gifted to young women to make them lucky in love, and slightly older women to make them fertile. We had to get ourselves some.
Thus refreshed -- we did a taste test of multiple cakes from three bakeries -- we headed to our winery and house. It started raining quite heavily as we arrived, which was a bummer since we couldn't figure out how to get into the house/past the driveway gate at first. But eventually we made it in, thanks to the arrival of our excellent host, Orlando. We dropped our bags and headed directly to the winery.
The winery was beautiful, even in the rain. We got a tour of the vineyards, saw the room where they make the wine and bottle it, and learned about their process.
And we tasted the wines, of course. Three whites, a rose, and 2 reds. They were delicious.
Orlando was kind enough to offer us food that the winery had left over from a luncheon they'd hosted that day: roasted goat, potatoes, rice, bread and cheese, melon. Thank goodness, because it was late, the kids were starving, and I was too tipsy to cook much. And it came in this delightful picnic basket.
When we arrived home, the kids had been plotting various hiding spots, and I had to find them. Found Seb in a couch, found Liesl in a closet, but then they hid again and I could not find Liesl hiding on the tops of these chairs. They were delighted.
Steve, post-drive, wine-tasting, and dinner.
The main floor of the house was gorgeous, with huge windows overlooking the Douro river and surrounding hillsides. It was a bit of a shame that we couldn't see much because of the low hanging clouds, but it was still delightful.
It was cold and raining, and the pool was unheated, so it did not get used. Sad.
The next morning -- the rain had stopped, so we returned to the vineyard for a couple more photos of the amazing approach road, and then headed along the Douro.
