Northern Portugal

by Lincoln Betteridge

I guess many people from the UK tend to travel to the south of Portugal. Living as I do in the north of Spain, it is much easier for me to travel to the North, just jump in the car and off I go. Actually this is more or less true, they have built some good new roads across the North of Spain that offer good driving, for the most part they are free, and they also pass through some interesting areas and cities.

To digress for a moment, an option for some would be to fly into Zaragoza then drive across as I did. There are flights from Stansted to Zaragoza and then one could hire a car. The road passes through Leon which is worth a visit and then one could follow the Duero river right through to Oporto. The Duero river now offers some of the best wines to be had in Iberia and there are many bodegas that are well worth a visit. As I had rented out a small house in the very north of Portugal I actually went up through Galicia, ignoring the Duero and then dropped into Portugal from the very north of the country.

The North is very green. Many of the roads are very narrow and one needs to be careful when judging distances. The house we chose for example wasn't that far from the sea, but when we actually drove along the narrow roads it actually took forever to get there! There are many tiny roads, many tiny villages and something that is most uncommon in Spain is the fact that there are many houses scattered across the fields outside of the village. A Spaniard would never consider living outside a village.

Although many Portuguese would not like me saying this, rural Portugal is probably 50 years behind rural Spain. One can still see farmers walking their cattle down the roads. I saw few tractors and those that I did were small and old fashioned, much of the work being done by hand. Basically it is green fields, small villages, bright whitewashed houses and in general much more sun than in the UK. Of course, if it is sun you are after, then head down south.

One last word on logistics. Two of us drove across from Zaragoza. We picked up the last person in Oporto. It may seem a long way from the north of Portugal to Oporto, particularly after what I have said about the roads, but there is a toll motorway running right down the middle of Portugal, once one gets on it then the going is actually very good. The person flew in from Liverpool so this is an option for those of you in the North. Don't try this unless you rent a car, you won't get anywhere on public transport.

One of the first trips was down to Oporto to pick up the third member of the party. The airport was easy to find, nice and modern with good access to the parking. We then used the faithful Tom-Tom to take us to a car park within the city. As the city is not large we chose one outside the centre to avoid traffic issues. The city is well worth a visit, in particular the area around the river. The city is on high and there are spectacular views of the river and one of the main bridges. One can see the bodegas across the river with names of all the famous manufactures of Port clearly written on the roof of each bodega.

One can also see the typical boats that were used to transport the wines up and down the river. The older boats have sails, the more modern have engines. A trip up the river in some sort of boat is one of the obligatory excursions from the city and there are numerous companies offering the service from the quayside. We went down to the quayside via some of the larger streets and climbed back up via a stairway and smaller streets that start from the base of the large iron bridge. One other item of interest: the food. We found that in many restaurants they offered half measures. Do not doubt whether to take a half or a full measure, always go for half. I am a big eater and my son could eat for England; even he could not finish his half measure. Through all our stay in the North we found the food to be good and the measures very generous. Take some loose fitting trousers.

There is a National Park in the North of Portugal that is well worth a visit, called the Peneda-Gerês National Park. Again the roads are narrow and one needs to plan with plenty of travel time. Many of the villages are tucked away in the hillside and are most picturesque but my favourite has to be Soajo. It is famous for the stone huts that are used to store the crops, but it is also situated in a beautiful spot perched on a hillside. The views from the town itself are well worth the trip there, but we chose to walk up into the hills and managed to get some splendid views looking back. The walk may appear long from the photographs, but was probably little more than half an hour.

Of course if one goes to Portugal, one should hit the beach at some point. This is of course a real sea and very different from the large lake that is the Mediterranean sea. The waves come in with force and I for one could feel the full force of the Atlantic Ocean beating on the sandy beaches. I hate busy beaches, in fact I hate busy anything. I always look for empty roads, empty towns to visit and empty beaches. It must also be said that I can't just sit on a beach, I have to be doing something. The following route we did quite comfortably in one day, but of course if you are one of the people that do like to enjoy the sun you may want to split the following into a couple of days. We dropped down towards the coast making our first stop a place called Ponte de Lima. This town is in fact not far off the main North-South motorway so as long as one can get on this motorway one should be able to get there fairly quickly. We found it a nice place to make a first stop, sit in one of its numerous cafes and the town itself is well worth a walk round. Even the post boxes are like in the UK so there is no excuse for not sending the postcards one bought some days previously but had not had the chance to send. The beach we chose was Afife beach. It is supposedly one of the best but it was hardly packed as the following picture shows. In addition the beach was many miles long so even if the area around the car park was full a little walk would easily provide a quieter spot.

As we wanted to be on the beach in the morning, we actually came back on ourselves to the third stop of the day in Viana do Castelo. The easier option perhaps would be to hit the beach in the afternoon then get back onto the motorway a little further North. We on the other hand enjoyed a morning on the beach then had lunch in Viana. The town has an impressive castle that is well worth a visit. It also has pleasant streets to visit. It was probably the most touristic town we visited with many, many shops selling souvenirs and many restaurants. There are quite a few restaurants strategically placed on the main street between the castle and the centre of town, but for those who can wait a little then on the other side of town there are some smaller streets with a large selection of restaurants. The biggest car park is around the castle itself and it is a good place to start the visit. There is also a nice church just off to one side of the castle and another one on top of the hill that offers excellent views of the town and castle below.

I liked Portugal. The people were very friendly, the food was good once we got used to the portions and there was little traffic in the area we visited. As one can see from the photographs there are no large numbers of people even though we went in a holiday period and to the most commonly visited towns. I can only assume that the vast majority of people must visit the South. These days there are much more exciting destinations on offer and prices are dropping all the time. However I would recommend this area for anyone. As I mentioned earlier, there are flights into Oporto that, if bought well in advance, are relatively cheap. This destination is perfect for a week away from home in a place it doesn't take forever to get to!

First published in VISA 97 (June 2011)