we escaped the towns and were sur-
rounded by miles of open hills cov-
ered in terraced vineyards marked by
stone walls.
The Douro is the world’s first offi-
cially demarcated wine region. The
entire area is a World Heritage Site
and dedicated to the making of port
wine. We stayed two nights at a small
estate, Casa da Azenha nestled in a
valley a short distance from the river
in Lamego. The Casa itself was beau-
tiful, with gravelled walkways shaded
by balconies and vine covered pergo-
las, and a swimming pool surrounded
by fruit trees and flowers. The staff
were so welcoming that they allowed
us to relax with them in their own
living area during the evenings, they
prepared special breakfast foods and
desserts at our request.
Our “day off” we took a short loop
through the hills to the ornate Casa
de Mateus, where we walked the
gardens and had lunch. I reminisced
over days of misspent youth when the
height of sophistication to impress
your girl was a bottle of Mateus Rose,
the bottle featuring a picture of the
Casa on the label. Hey, girls much
preferred it to Budweiser, it was rea-
sonably inexpensive to be affordable
on student’s budget, and a cut above
Boone’s Farm!
TRAVERSE 82
The afternoon was a wine upgrade,
spent learning how port wine is made
at Quinta Depot Bonfim. In the car
park, aka parking lot, Leslie surprised
everybody by offering that anybody
could put their junk in her box – sev-
eral of us volunteered - and that was
before any tasting! Seriously, though,
Brian enforces a strict rule of no
drinking until the motos are parked at
the end of the day. We bought sev-
eral bottles to take back to the Casa
Azenha. On the way, we were fasci-
nated to watch large river tour boats
go through the locks at Barragem de
Ragua. Brian’s day was once again
extended by leading One of Our Num-