Blog Two – Murca, Douro Valley

Published by Alastair Reid on September 15, 2018September 15, 2018

Bairro do Casal, Murca, Douro Valley [12-15th September]

The second stop on our itinerary has provided the hoped-for contrast to the hustle and bustle of Oporto. Bairro do Casal is a few lovingly restored and refurbished village houses, together with a few ruined ones, in the hilltop village of Murca – get off at the second last train station heading from Oporto up the Douro Valley, then get someone else to drive you up the constant hairpin bends till you reach the impossibly narrow streets at the top end of the village!

The population of the village is circa 70, and it is incredibly quiet, even quieter than Seton Place. Even the cicadas seem to have had their communal volume control turned down. Anabela who runs the lets has restored and refurbished a few village homes to a very high standard, added a freezing (welcome in this heat!) swimming pool, and she runs the place with the help of Aida. They are very friendly and extraordinarily helpful.

We were greeted with glasses of illicit village port wine – the vineyards overproduce, and only so much can be certificated as genuine port wine by the Douro authorities, so the villagers take the excess wine, stop the fermentation with added spirit to fortify the wine, then bottle it young and drink it/give it to visitors as a sort of “port that cannot speak its name”. You’ve probably already guessed that it is ruby red, strong and fruity and absolutely delicious.

We have encountered a slight problem with our objective of not drinking every day. Today seemed like a good day to try, as we took a jeep with guide into the Canada do Inferno – the hillside upriver can be 10 degrees hotter than the station we got off at, and that was 35 degrees. There by the River Coa we saw 13000 year old rock carvings/paintings, after climbing up and down steep “stepped” pathways – even Martina our guide was sweating, though she did it much more decorously than we did. She asked us to try to identify some of the animals depicted by the people who lived here so long ago. Many of the carvings were of bulls, but they didn’t have willies, which confused me for one. So, basically they were cows.

We then visited the futuristic World Heritage museum to see the carvings put in a global context, and a beer was necessary to aid the cooling process. Then off with a maniacal taxi driver to a vineyard, where a brief tour was followed by a tasting which involved six normal glasses each in around 45 minutes – and no spitting out. You can see the way things are going.

Our hosts have so far run us here from the station, made us four delicious dinners and two lunches, instantly provided six cans of Superbock when requested, and every night they clean the pool with a fab wee robot. This initially disappointed Fiona (absence of shirtless pool man) but she does admit it is intriguing to watch. Every morning they hang fresh warm bread on our door, to add to our daily breakfast– cheeses, ham, fresh melon and watermelon, yoghurts and more.

They have fixed up rock carvings/museum and vineyard tours, and they both seem genuinely concerned that we enjoy everything about a place that they clearly love. After four days here, we can see why.

My dozen favourite images from our stay in the Douro Valley are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image.

Image Gallery