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| Mateus Palace |
I think the first glass of wine I ever drank was a Mateus
rosé and who didn’t have one of those funny shaped bottles with a candle stuck
in it in college or graduate school? (Am I dating myself?) When the ship docked in Régua, we had the opportunity to tour the Mateus
Palace, the image of which is on every bottle of Mateus ever sold. Imagine our disappointment when we discovered
that Mateus wine is made in southern Portugal and that the image of the Mateus
palace on the wine label was licensed from the family. The good news is that the funds thus provided have enabled the establishment of a foundation to preserve this beautiful ancestral estate, an
exquisite example of Portuguese Baroque architecture.
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| Ornamental Gardens, Mareus Palace |
The palace is set in large grounds with extensive ornamental
gardens around it, including the biggest camellia trees I’ve ever seen.
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| Camelias at the Mateus Palace |
Unhappily, we couldn’t take pictures of the interior, which is decorated with beautiful wooden ceilings with carved ornamentation and even more elaborate pediments over the doors – ornate but otherwise unadorned, they are absolutely stunning against the plain white walls and complement the furniture beautifully.
Only the public rooms are available for viewing as the family still lives in the house in the summer.
I wish you could have seen it.
I should also mention that as we’ve moved up the valley,
we’ve started passing through locks, one of which has a lift of 115 feet. Indeed, the river is running so high this spring that the captain
had to lower the wheelhouse in order get the boat under the superstructure of
the lock. Further inland, the river has
narrowed and the hills steepened – in some instances, we’ve barely had enough
room to pass through.
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| The Tallest Lock on the River |
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| Vineyards in the Douro Valley |
The landscape has grown steeper as the river has narrowed. It is still so early in the spring that the vines are just beginning to leaf out. This rocky ground is, of course, perfect wine country, but it is otherwise a stark environment.
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| The Viking Torgil |
