266 Port anD the Douro
Ferreira’s Quinta do Porto, Sandeman’s Quinta do Seixo and Quinta de la Rosa all follow
in fairly quick succession before the train arrives at Pinhão.
Pinhão owes its existence to the railway and the station, with its remarkable panels
of azulejos illustrating scenes from the Douro, is the only building of any note. It is also
a passing place on the single track railway where the ‘up’ train meets the ‘down’ train.
At vintage time, the station platform frequently resembles a cocktail party as wine-trade
visitors and Port shippers converge and exchange invitations and the latest vineyard
gossip. Pinhão’s position is spectacular and there are many famous Port quintas within
easy walking distance from the cobbled main street, especially since a new footbridge
has been built over the mouth of the River Pinhão. The town itself is a disappointment.
Once described to me by the late Bruce Guimaraens, not inaccurately, as a ‘one horse
town where the horse left’, Pinhão has nevertheless improved considerably in recent
years. A four-star hotel and a number of local quintas offering accommodation make
this a good place to stay. Rather like Vizetelly, who described nineteenth-century
Pinhão in some detail (see page 301), first-time visitors still gaze in some amazement
at the antics of local dogs, which have a propensity to stand on one leg and scratch
themselves with the other three.
Upstream from Pinhão, the train passes a succession of the most famous estates.
Royal Oporto’s Quinta das Carvalhas faces Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim. Croft’s Quinta da
Roêda, Quinta da Romaneira, Sandeman’s Quinta do Vau, the Symington’s Quinta da
Vila Velha, Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos and Quinta da Tua can all be seen clearly from
the train. The hamlet of Tu a is the next important stop and the station is always a scene
of confusion as railway passengers alight to buy bread from the little motorised cart that
sits on the platform before returning hurriedly to the train. Tua used to serve as a junction
for the narrow gauge train that crawled up the Tua valley and over the planalto as far as
Bragança but, sadly after a number of serious accidents, the line has closed.
Continuing on the Douro main line, the train passes an abandoned halt called Alegria
(‘happiness’), presumably named because of the relief felt by the boatmen at having
descended the rapids of Valeira immediately upstream. Quinta do Castelinho can be seen
on the opposite bank. The train proceeds beneath the 1970s dam and emerges from the
tunnel in the forbidding chasm where Baron Forrester drowned in 1861. The water no
longer smashes over the rocks but Cachão de Valeira is still a sinister place with lofty grey
mountains reflected in the jet-black waters of the river. Storks, herons and the occasional
bird of prey can be seen hovering above the crags. Cachão de Valeira marks the boundary