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A leisurely day in Pinhão
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Monday 20th November 2023
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A number of events and
excursions were offered today (see programme above), but
we decided to take a day off and please ourselves. The ship
was due to stay here in the quiet town of Pinhão
all day and overnight, so there was no pressure to do anything
in a hurry. |
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When our ship arrived
here late yesterday afternoon, there were two ships already
docked in the prime location, so we went to the second best
location (as per the blue arrow). As we disembarked this
morning and headed off by ourselves, one of the staff members
told us that the ship would shortly be repositioning to
the better location (as per the red arrow). We were glad
he told us. We might have thought that the ship had left
without us otherwise! The town is relatively small and was
easy to navigate on foot, so we were able to cover most
of what is shown on the map, including, in the afternoon,
a walk across the Douro via the road bridge (bottom right
of the map). |
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Walking
up into the town itself, we were surprised to find so many buildings
in need to extensive repair. |
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We walked along one
side of the Pinhão River and saw people kayaking.
This was one of the activities we declined to take part
in, but seeing them here, Bruce thought it might have been
fun. Geoff disagreed! |
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The buildings
facing the station were in better condition than most in the streets
behind them. |
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The Pinhão Railway
Station is the highlight of the town. The station building
is in immaculate condition, with dozens of beautiful images,
created from decorative tiles, all over it. There is a regular
train service along the Douro valley linking the town to
Porto. As the number of photos below suggests, we spent
quite a bit of time here. |
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Geoff took photos of
the artwork. These three are the first three on the building
above, looking left to right. |
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The next
four images are from the entrance to the station (see above). |
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This
strange vehicle was exhibited inside the station building. |
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These
three images are from the right hand side of the building, from
left to right. |
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The artwork
continues on the track facing side of the building (more or less
in order from left to right). |
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We were rather hoping
to see a train arriving, but there wasn't one due for at
least an hour, so we began making our way along the line
and down to the river bank. |
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We ambled
slowly back along the river bank to where we expected to find our
ship. |
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This
is the road bridge that we decided we might walk across after lunch. |
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Before too long, we
spotted our ship at its new location. We were just in time
for lunch. |
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The view
from our cabin towards the bridge that we intended to cross on foot
a bit later. |
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The dessert
served at lunch came with the world's largest blackberry! |
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After lunch, we set
off towards the big bridge, but as we were approaching it,
we heard the sound of a train, so we turned left instead
of right and hurried back to the station. |
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| We were lucky. We saw this train leaving
the station heading east. |
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About
ten minutes after that, we got really good views of another train
going west. |
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With that excitement
over, we finally did walk across the rather narrow road
bridge and were rewarded with some good views of the town. |
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Having walked to the
other side, there wasn't much there that we could reasonably
get to on foot, so we paused for a few more photos before
walking back. |
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It was the captain's
gala dinner in the evening. Geoff really enjoyed the various
types of fish served with a saffron risotto... |
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...with
coffee and Portuguese brandy to finish! |
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