Douro Museum

Every day several cruise boats or trains go from Porto to a town called Peso da Régua, and back as a wonderful day trip through the beautiful Douro Valley. We are staying a short distance away from Régua, (20 minute drive from Lamego), so we decided it was time to visit the Douro Museum in that town to learn more about this area.

Wine (especially Port in this region) is a way of life in the beautiful Douro River Valley. The Douro river flows for over 900 km/557 miles from north-central Spain all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and is the lifeblood of the region. Port wine was traditionally floated down the river in flat-bottomed boats to be cellared in Porto, but these days much of the river traffic is cruise boats.

The museum tells the story of port and the harnessing of the river to make the transportation of the wine to Porto, from the valley where the grapes are grown, easier and safer. The museum is in the center of town and is housed in an old wine-related building that has been renovated.

At the entrance, there was an old rabelo shipping vessel that used to carry the wine barrels down the river. Such an interesting flat-bottomed boat!

We were fortunate that the lady, who we paid our €6 to, spoke English well and had time to give us an excellent introduction to the museum. Once again, we were the only people there.

The two floors of displays were wonderful. There were a combination of photos, artifacts, short historical film clips and models, accompanied by information in good English.

We watched a few short films showing how the rabelo boats were made, how the dams were made and the challenging process of taking the boats down the river, especially before the dams were built.

We really enjoyed our time in this museum. It was the most informative and interesting museum that we have visited so far.

It was a nice warm day so after a tasty bbq lunch in a local Portuguese restaurant, we went to walk on a riverside walking trail, under 3 large bridges that go over the river. One is really high - 90m!

On the way back, we visited the train station. The train line from Porto through the Douro Valley and on to Spain was an engineering masterpiece when it opened over 130 years ago, crossing the country with 35 bridges and 23 tunnels. In the summer, tourists can take an old steam locomotive (1925) with its 5 carriages on a section of the railway line from Régua to Tua.

Oh, I should mention that when we got back to the car, we found a little €2 surprise - a parking ticket! Now we have to figure out how to pay it...Read more