Transfer to Porto

After enjoying another evening and breakfast at Calheiros we took an Inntravel arranged taxi to Porto for a few extra days stay at the Hotel Pestana . We'd arranged a trip to the Graham port lodge for a tasting that afternoon and so wandered over the river and a walk alongside admiring painted walls:


See the album for the rabbit! I'd rather gone off the sweetness of port but the tasting and introduction to the lodge was much enjoyed! That evening we ate at Jimao Tapas e Vinhos close to the hotel - busy I'd recommend booking (which we did).
Oh and at lunchtime we ate at da Terra - a vegetarian restaurant with a serve yourself infinite buffet!

Around Calheiros

A final day of the manor houses' walk was a very gentle walk around Calheiros with grandstand views of the house:


For the rest of the day we enjoyed walks around the grounds with extensive gardens.

Up to Paço de Calheiros

More on that even more receded holiday in May! The next day's walk was a very gently affair, we arrived at the final manor house around lunchtime. If you do this spend more time in Ponte de Lima - where by the way the lamp posts play brass band music at you - I think this was set off by motion detectors and they seemed to be still activating late into the evening, if you're allergic to brass band music walk down the middle of the road!



A slightly ascending route and we ended up in a wonderful room for 2 nights in the manor house - the picture is a view from the terrace outside the room. Extensive grounds and the house is worth the look around. There were quite a few groups for the evening meal in a grand dining room!

A day in Ponte da Lima

(this is getting a bit drawn out.. sorry for the delay in adding updates!)
The next day was around Ponte da Lima, we took it gently around the town. But we did include a visit to the Vinho Verde visitor centre - with tasting!



That evening we ate at Casa do Provedor where I risked the local speciality of sarrabulho - pigs' blood rice and quite enjoyed the experience!

Into Ponte da Lima

The next day of our Minho holiday was the longest (17km) but probably the flattest! Ascent through vineyards and then down to the river Lima and along an Ecovia into Ponte da Lima


A pleasant walk but on a very hot day, a cafe was advertised in the instructions but we were too early in the season and it was closed. Eventually we reached the town and walked though the wonderful Plane tree avenue pictured above to our destination for the evening Mercearia da Vila a hotel rather than a manor house in an old grocer's shop (that website is all in Portuguese!) We ate out that evening at Taberna Cadeia Velha close to the river and lovely views of the setting sun!

Starting the Caminho

We left the Quinta da Malta - taking the packed lunch in a monogrammed bag and after a taxi transfer to the Santuario Nossa Senhora da Aparecida (a place of pilgrimage) we followed the Caminho de Santiago for the rest of the day. Fairly gentle and flat meeting a few fellow walkers en route who were mostly intending to walk a little further than us that day - onto Ponte da Lima - we were taking 2 days over that.
I think we got to our stop that night early afternoon Quinta do Sobreiro - we were the only guests that evening but were well looked after. It was a very hot day so we stayed in the shade the rest of the day.

An introductory walk

The initial walk was a gentle affair around Durrães as far as the Ponte das Tabuas - a bridge on the Caminho (pilgrim) trail to Santiago - a route we met a few times during the holiday!

It was a gentle walk I think we regularly beat the Inntravel timings by quite a bit this week. We were back at the Quinta da Malta for lunch and enjoyed a gentle afternoon with another bottle of local wine! We also had a look around the farm associated with the manor house with lots of organic produce which was used extensively in the food. We were a day behind some other walkers and during the afternoon some others arrived who then were a day behind us. Another relaxed evening meal before thinking about the first transfer walk.

Manor Houses of the Minho

We're recently back from 10 days in Portugal - as ever an InnTravel walking tour! The photo album of the trip is here.
We travelled to Porto via Brussels and then tram and train to Durrães where we spent 2 nights at Quinta da Malta one of a number of manor houses which formed the stops for the trip - family homes rather than hotels but we were well cared for. .

We arrived for an enjoyable meal with lots of local wine and a gentle inspection of the huge gardens to the house.