It’s Thursday so it must be Pinhão, on the beautiful Douro River.  We left our hotel in Ponte de Lima this morning (first pic above), packing all suitcases into our bus – with Fernando’s help (second pic), and then traveling two hours to Régua, where we boarded a boat for a lunch time cruise to Pinhão (third pic shows artists on board).

Pam and I lucked out with a sumptuous suite in the newly refurbished Vintage House Hotel (pic four) with stunning views of the vineyards from the balcony (last photo).

A new addition to the art tour itinerary this year: Ponte de Lima, up near the northern border with Spain in the Minho region of Portugal.  Famous as the oldest continuously inhabited village in Portugal and one of the most picturesque.

While the centrepiece is the old Roman bridge (ponte) over the River Lima, the town is also on the Camino de Santiago, which we non-painters can now claim to have walked (about 200 metres of it).

The painters spent the day by the river while we explored the town, the lovely museum (dedicated to St Francis’ Third Way), and the quite stunning gardens on the other side of the river.

Oh, and we also had lunch accompanied by some bottles of excellent vinho verde .

Porto September 20

Couldn’t upload photos last night.  Here are a few pics from yesterday in Porto.

What a glorious city.  Painters all down in the Ribeira by the Douro while non-painters wandered across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia for some port wine tasting and a leisurely lunch.

Left by bus for Matosinhos and a seafood feast at S. Valentim before continuing on to Ponte de Lima, in the Minho, for the first of two nights at the Axis Golfe resort.  All tucked up by 10.30 pm.

(No photos tonight because this program won’t upload. Hopefully tomorrow.)

First day of the tour.  Painters at work near the Cathedral.  Later, dinner for 20 at Taylor’s Port wine lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia (Barão de Fladgate restaurant).  Just really classy service, delicious food and terrific wines.  Porto is such a beautiful city.  A great introduction to Portugal and our tour.

Here we are in Porto.  First achievement: getting to Santarém railway station by taxi from Óbidos for the first time in 6 years without the driver getting lost!

Our hotel – the Teatro – is so named because it’s in Porto’s “West End” theatre district and the hotel is pretending to be a stage.  Do not enter the front door (see photo) wearing sunglasses.  We tripped over chairs and stumbled our way to the rooms which we finally found with the help of a torch.

Everyone has arrived, except for one who is still in Melbourne having just been released from hospital.  A few adventures for those who went elsewhere in Europe before flying to Porto.  Score to date:  2 lost credit cards; 1 lost (and refound) mobile phone; a delayed Rhine cruise due to a prior boat ramming the dyke and releasing a flood (captain allegedly having enjoyed too much wine); and one broken ankle (now in a €600 moon boot).

It all starts for real in the morning.

The Teatro Hotel (Porto) foyer is the pic above.  Don’t forget your seeing eye dog.

Hi

This is my first ever blog.  I’m intending to run a commentary, with lots of photos (I hope) and general observations, on this year’s Artists Tour beginning on Sunday, September 18, 2016, in Porto.

This is the fourth tour Pam and I have organised with our friend and art tutor, Ev Hales, but the first to venture beyond Portugal with a brief foray into Spain (Salamanca and Mérida).

But that’s not all.  We are also including Morocco this year so I will create a new blog when our tour moves there on October 4.

Hope you enjoy following along with me and the group (22 of us on the first leg).

Paul Adams

Óbidos, Portugal, September 13, 2016