Guimarães

 

Cruising up the Douro River

We began cruising the Douro River this morning. Wine has been produced here since 200 AD and port since 1600. England lost their supply of French wine in the 17^th century, when war broke out. Portugal became a key supplier of wine, but the wine would spoil on the ocean voyage. Adding a grape spirit to the wine would stop the fermentation process leaving residual sugar. It was then aged in barrels creating port wine. In 1756, they began the regulation of wine and port to ensure its quality. There are grape regions along the Douro. The area around Porto gets the most rain and is called Baixo Corgo. The Cima Corgo region is upriver, has over 400 steeps hills, and has warmer summers and colder winters. The largest region is the Douro Superior region with temperatures of 20 to 95 degrees. Here they harvest the grapes at night because of the heat. This has the greatest variety of wines produced from three different grapes.

Guimarães Castle

In the afternoon, we bused to the town of Guimarães. Here was fought the battle that resulted in the nation of Portugal when King Afonso fought against his mother Theresa of Leon in 1128. He went on to defeat the Moors in Lisbon and another battle against Leon, creating the Kingdom of Portugal. The borders between Spain and Portugal are the oldest in Europe. Here we saw castle, originally built of wood in the 10^th century, then rebuilt in stone 14^th century. Portugal’s dictator, Salazar reconstructed it in the 20^th century.

Tapestry in Ducal Palace

We toured the Ducal Palace built by the Braganza Family in 1421. The family was the royal family from 1640 until 1910. In the waiting room were two large tapestries. The tapestries are modern copies of the original which were discovered in Spain cut into strips. 

Catherine of Braganza

In another room was the portrait of Catherine of Braganza who became the wife of the English King. She brought with her to England, the practice of afternoon tea, fork utensils, and marmalade. Queens, New York is named after her. We walked to the Center of town, where we saw the arch where the King of Portugal was officially acclaimed. Our bus descended to the river on an extremely curvy road, but our riverboat wasn’t there. The river current is strong from the three months of rain. Our riverboat had trouble approaching the lock below us. We admired the huge river perch that a fisherman showed us while we were waiting.

Local Fisherman's Catch