The opposite of relaxed

Following breakfast at the Hotel we packed the car and headed off with expected soon. Our plan was to spread the one and half hour journey over several hours by changing our route so the we could see more of the Douro Rive. But first we needed to find a Supermarket and one was located on Google and so of we go only to find its in one of the huge malls with multi story car parks and there were cars waiting to enter so likely to be busy so we changed our plans and later located a much smaller out of town  supermarket which answered our requirements and so spent a short while topping up and buying some baguettes for lunch.

So off up the A2 motorway which really great views except for when the rain came pouring down and restricting our speed and so we decided to change our plan again and get off the motorway and take country and main roads only somehow with poor road signage and not the best map in the world we got slightly lost but eventually sorted it out where we were and where we should be . The rain stopped but there was a lot of mist as by this time we had reached a height of over 3000 metres over large hills or mountains , whatever, but still an enjoyable journey.

We drove thro a small town right but the Douro river and shortly afterwards located a nice place to stop for our lunch and watched a few river boats go by and then it was getting towards 2.30 pm and the SAT NAV said we were 45 minutes away and so that's fine. Clearly the SATNAV was having a very bad day as it did recognise the Hotel we intended to visit and so off we went and started climbing all over the hills again and Jen suggested it was cutting out a bend in the river but not the case as we ended up in a town right up in the hills with no sight of the river which is strange ass our Hotel is supposed to be right next to the River.

So back to the drawing board and we checked with TOM TOM Sat nav on the phone and it laughed at us and told us we were at least 30 minutes from where we should be and to get us back on the correct road it took us the shortest route using single lane farm tracks and also main roads and finally we located the Hotel and checked in. The Hotel is much larger than I thought it was and called Douro Royal Valley Hotel and Spa and it is in a fantastic location overlooking the river which also our room does as well.

So after a short rest we went off for dinner and the restaurant is quite busy and we tried a bottle of nice local red wine and learnt from the sommelier that there are over 35000 wine producers in Portugal of all shapes and sizes. Some catering for very local needs and others making millions of bottles for EU and other markets, most interesting. Jen had the chicken with pasta which I also fancied but they confirmed there was quite a lot of garlic in so they suggested a steak and fries which was OK and it came with a salad which I had not expected buy thought I would try only to discover part the way through it contained red onion another no go for me, tomorrow I will pay for eating it I think.

In the late afternoon we watched some of the large river cruise ships go by and took some photos.