douro

Sending you on a train to nowhere in deep Douro wasn't enough to prevent you from returning.

I was wondering the same thing about the road crossing the Douro between present-day Vila Nova de Gaia and Porto.

The grapes should ALL be from the same Douro region, I don't think you'll get much more information than that.

After some time in Barcelona, head to Madrid and if you fancy it on to the Douro valley in Portugal, then Lisbon and over towards Cadiz.

I'd suggest back up to Tangiers, then do Lisbon, Douro and northern Spain.

One of these days I should get in my car and drive all the way to the Douro just to fetch a bunch of tomatoes, I guess.

You can't compete aganst the steam engine and the railway making communications and sharing of goods and raw materials something ridiculously cheap compared to the previous times, even by boat in both UK and Spain where the big rivers like Douro and Tagus could sustain a lot of transport.

The two cities have so much in common: similar temperatures, they're both famous for their bridges (Porto actually has several), the fog that rolls in regularly, and even their most iconic bodies of water both have "gold" in the name: the Golden Gate and Rio Douro (which means "golden river").

Similar to "Pico Tres Mares" (Three Seas Peak), in Spain: > The Pico de Tres Mares (Three Seas) got its name because it is the source of three main rivers which flow from it into three different seas - the Híjar, tributary of the Ebro which flows into the Mediterranean, the Pisuerga, tributary of the Douro which flows into the Atlantic and the Nansa which flows into the Cantabrian sea.

- I don't think there's any real evidence of a bridge that crosses the Douro/Duero river there.

It surged from its normal winter level by seven meters - our car disappeared entirely - it's nowhere downstream of us that we've been able to see, so it's probably in the Douro.

Now last two months we had an abnormal rain season with lots of snow and rain, so dams and water reservoirs are getting more water, and rivers Tagus and Duero-Douro could carry more water to Portugal as the dams upstream are getting full, like it should for this time of the year.