Porto-Douro: linked for the better

Programme

Profile

Customer : automotive sector
Reception : Vinitur
Rua Dr. Afonso Cordeiro, 679, 3°K
4450-007 Matosinhos
Tel.: +351 229 399 410
E-mail: info@vinitur.com
Internet: www.vinitur.com
Group size: 35 people.
Duration of the operation: Three days and two nights.
Purpose: reward trip for car dealers.

They have researched

Portuguese Tourist Office
3, rue de Noisiel. 75016 Paris.
Tel.: 01 56 88 31 90
E-mail: info@visitportugal.com
Internet :www.visitportugal.com

City of Porto website
www.portoturismo.pt

More

• The welcome.
• The diversity of the architecture.
• Port wine.
• The landscapes of the Douro Valley and the atmosphere during the grape harvest.
• The cost of living.

Practical Guides

Porto, Ulysse Guide
Portugal, Lonely Planet
Porto, Le Petit Fûté

Flight plan

Porto is served by TAP Portugal with four daily flights from Orly Ouest and one flight on Saturdays from Paris CDG. These services are operated by Airbus A319 and A320 in two-class configuration, with 14 and 15 seats in Business Class and 113 and 143 seats in Economy Class respectively. Flight time: 2 hours.

Day 1: Arrival at Porto airport. VIP reception on site, followed by lunch in a seaside restaurant. Your choice of guided tour of the historic centre or private boat trip on the Douro. Dinner in a restaurant overlooking Porto. Night at the Infante Sagres hotel.

The hotel - Infante Sagres

Located close to the historic centre, the Infante Sagres, open since 1951, has long been a benchmark. Affiliated with the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, the establishment blends contemporary elements with an eclectic neo-baroque decor: Persian carpets, Chinese porcelain, rococo stained glass windows. The hotel has 70 rooms, including two presidential suites, as well as a restaurant and bar. It is equipped to meet the needs of medium-sized incentive operations. Its three private areas can accommodate from 20 to 130 guests.
Praça D. Filipa de Lencastre, 62 4050-259 Porto - Tel: +351 223 398 500 - E-mail: bookings@hotelinfantesagres - Internet: www.hotelinfantesagres.pt

Porto - True urbanity

Porto's historic centre's winding lanes lead down to the Douro and the lower town. This is where the city developed during the Middle Ages, around the quays of a river that links it to the vineyards planted upstream and opens wide the gates to the Atlantic. Today, many restaurants are nestled in these medieval arcades, topped by buildings whose narrow façades pile up balconies and drying clothes on every floor.

The Cais da Ribeira is the place to be. Portuans love it, both for the friendly atmosphere of its terraces overlooking the river, and for the views it offers of a multi-faceted city. Mixing different eras without obscuring the layers of its urban history is part of the magic of Porto, one of Europe's most beautiful cities for its architecture and river atmosphere. Its greatest charm lies in its authenticity: since the working classes were not forced to leave the city centre, the city lives to the rhythm of its people's daily activities, in contrast to the historic districts colonised by upmarket shops. Here, the smell is more of grilled sardines than the latest fragrance.

Architecture - The mark of iron

"Porto has laid its Eiffel Towers horizontally", wrote Paul Morand in reference to the city's two metal bridges. The first to be built, the D. Maria Pia railway viaduct, the work of Gustave Eiffel, consists of a 160-metre arch supporting a deck spanning 350 metres. The second, the D. Luis I bridge, a 3,000-tonne giant designed by Teofilo Seyrig, an associate of the master, is even more impressive. These spectacular structures linking Porto to Vila Nova de Gaia, on the left bank of the Douro, have revolutionised trade between the two cities. Previously, people crossed the river using a barge or a bridge made up of boats held in line by piles, which rarely withstood the river's violent floods... The upheaval was also formal, because at the end of the 19th century, iron was being used for all types of building - markets, department stores, stations and banks. But it was the bridges that made the biggest impact, with their lace-like structures.

Baroque - A wealth of art and gold

Renouveau - Design capital

The city's exceptional architectural heritage defines a romantic and picturesque Porto, where granite meets azulejos, baroque rubs shoulders with derelict shops, and the decrepit buildings of the historic quarter tend to convey the image of a city where time has stood still... But this is not the case. A dynamic student city with a strong sense of identity, Porto does not cultivate nostalgia at all costs, as shown by the opening of art and design galleries. The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art and the Casa da Musica are among the symbols of this renewal. The former, completed in 1999 and designed by Alvaro Siza, a native of the country and a major figure in architecture, presents little-known works from the 60s and 70s by Portuguese and international artists such as Richard Serra, Rauschenberg and Boltanski. Delicately set in an enchanting 18-hectare park within a 1930s estate, it has become Portugal's most visited paying museum. Designed as a lively venue for a variety of events - conferences, concerts, theatre, cinema, circus - this sober building, partly buried to minimise its impact on the landscape, bears witness to the architect's particular attention to context. In a completely different register, the Casa da Musica, erected in 2005 by Rem Koolhaas, is like an unstable UFO, as if it had landed here in a hurry. This fantastic music box, whose asymmetrical facades seem to defy the elementary laws of gravity, has earned its reputation thanks to its excellent acoustics and a high-quality programme ranging from symphonic music to hip-hop. Open to visitors and available for private hire, the Casa da Musica is well worth a visit to explore its many interior spaces. Unique sensations guaranteed.

Day 2: The group is split up to travel to the Douro Valley, either by train, in a private carriage, or by helicopter. Visit the Quinta da Pacheca and take part in the grape harvest. Return to Oporto, free time, then transfer to vintage cars for dinner at Taylor's winery.

Douro Valley - A terroir on a human scale

Porto and the Douro are inextricably linked in the hearts of the Portuguese people. The most famous of them all, the filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, who celebrates his 104th birthday this year, readily recounts that when his father gave him his first camera, he immediately went to film the river... More than just a river winding through deep canyons, this is a landscape shaped by man... since Antiquity. In fact, this area that joins the Spanish border is unique: wine has been produced here for 2,000 years and port since the 18th century. In the narrow valley of the Upper Douro, the steep hillsides screen the Atlantic influence and create a continental climate less than 100 km from Porto. Freezing winters, torrid dry summers: this violent contrast lulls the vines, which also benefit from the characteristics of a schist terroir. Beyond these particularities, it is of course the work of man that gives this region its emotional dimension, with its 360 villages clinging to the rock and encircled by terraced vineyards. Their stone retaining walls, elegantly following the contours of the land, bear witness to the hard work that went into building them. The titanic scale of this work creates a majestic landscape of unreal proportions... In other words, a magical place, a quality that the poet Miguel Torga translated as follows: "The nation must consider the Douro as its sacred Olympus (...) forged by man, the officiant with calloused hands who presses the shales until they sweat".

Quinta da Pacheca - A family story

The origins of this estate date back to the 18th century. But it has been best known since the early 20th century, when Dom José Serpa Pimentel decided to turn it into a quality wine estate. Today, his great-grandchildren run the estate with the same commitment to excellence. Now transformed into an elegant 15-bedroom guest house, the family home also includes a restaurant serving subtle local cuisine. As for the cellars, they can accommodate meals for up to a hundred guests. During the grape harvest, the quinta offers groups of up to 30 people the chance to help press the grapes barefoot in its granite lagoons - a unique experience.

5100-424 Lamego - Tel: +351 25 431 3228 - Internet: www.quintadapacheca.com

Alternative - Casa de Mateus

Located in Vila Real, Casa de Mateus - a manor house and chapel built by Nicolau Nasoni between 1732 and 1750 - is the jewel of the valley, the masterpiece of Portuguese Baroque. Set in landscaped grounds planted with centuries-old cedars and cypresses, this complex, which can be made private for receptions and seminars, expresses all the formal liberties that architects of the period took. Spectacular pediments, cornices crowned with statues, geometric staircases, a succession of porches dramatising the perspective: everything is done to multiply the play of light and create a dreamlike image, rounded off by a pool lined with camellias where the buildings are reflected.

5000 Vila Real - Tel: +351 259 323 121 - Internet: www.casademateus.com

Pinhao - To the rhythm of the grape harvest

Backed by vineyards on the edge of a meander in the river, Pinhao is located in the heart of the wine-producing region. Here, everyone has lived, lives and will live by wine. Outside the grape harvest, the village is peaceful, as soothing as the lapping of the Douro on the quayside of its small port. The village wakes up in mid-September with the flood of lorries taking the freshly picked grapes to the nearby quintas, ready to be pressed. This mechanised operation has replaced crushing by foot in granite vats known as lagares. Because grapes don't wait... Even so, the technique is used for the best crus.

Port - Child of protectionism

In Vila Nova de Gaia, the cellars of the major port wine houses offer tastings and dedicate a space to the history of this wine. Here you can learn that it was a British invention, born against the backdrop of the Franco-English conflict. 1667: anxious to support the kingdom's economic development, Colbert played the protectionist card by taxing English products imported into France. Charles II, King of England, returned the favour by, among other things, banning from British tables the clarets that his subjects loved. The result was port, a "mutated" wine that English merchants cut by adding brandy to stop fermentation so that the beverage could tolerate sea transport. How do you choose the right port wine? As there are many counterfeits, it is important to check that the bottle bears the seal of the Port Wine Institute. As for the rest, ruby or tawny, vintage or vintage, it's a question of taste, circumstances and means.

Day 3: Breakfast at the hotel. Departure for Guimarães. Guided tour and lunch at the Pousada de Santa Marinha. Transfer to Porto airport.

Guimarães - Birth of Portugal

Around thirty kilometres north of Porto, Guimarães is considered to be the cradle of Portugal. In fact, it was in the keep of its castle overlooking the town that Alfonso Henriques was born in 1109 and raised, the Count of Portugal who was determined to free the region from Spanish suzerainty and who became the country's first king in 1139. As a result of this glorious history, the town - which today has a population of 160,000 - has been the focus of special attention, and many remains from the medieval period have been preserved. These include the castle (10th and 11th centuries), where the king was raised, and the palace of the Dukes of Braganza, dating from the 14th century. Restored and transformed into a museum in the 19th century, it recreates the luxurious life of the princes of a dynasty that ruled the kingdom until 1910. Elected European Capital of Culture this year, Guimarães is bustling on all fronts: music, cinema, photography, visual arts, architecture, theatre.... So it's great to wander around this city, where modernity takes pride of place in a setting of Gothic churches, pretty squares and old stately and popular homes. 

Pousada de Santa Marinha - Converted monastery

Flanked by a beautiful Baroque church, this former medieval monastery dominates Guimarães and the surrounding area. With 51 rooms, including two suites, and a gourmet restaurant, it is distinguished by the size of its public areas, offering several lounges, a cloister and a large terrace suitable for groups of up to a hundred people. An 18-hectare park with a swimming pool completes this charming offer. Portuan architect Fernando Tavora was awarded the national architecture prize for the quality of his restoration of this complex, which was acquired by the State to house a pousada.
4810-011 Guimarães - Tel: +351 253 511 249 - Internet: www.pousadas.pt