In the city of Porto, in the Douro River Valley, northern Portugal

 "The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth."

-- Joseph Conrad
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(in northern Portugal) The Douro River Valley could as easily be called the enchanted valley, such is the beauty and magic that its landscapes offer. The Douro River, rising in the Sierra de Urbión in Spain, crosses the Numantian Plateau in a pronounced bend and flows generally westward for 556 miles (895 km) across Spain and northern Portugal to the Atlantic Ocean at Foz do Douro. As far as Aranda de Duero, Spain, it is narrowly confined by its banks; it then widens across the broad plains of Old Castile. Beyond Zamora the river narrows again, and when it reaches the border with Portugal (which it follows for 70 miles [112 km]), it plunges about 1,250 feet (380 meters) within 30 miles (48 km) in a series of gorges and rapids. In Portugal, between Peso da Régua and Porto (Oporto), the river has considerable barge traffic, taking the wine from the port-wine area to Vila Nova de Gaia; from Pedorido to Porto there is some coal traffic. The river-mouth is silted, and the artificial port of Leixões (erected in 1892 and further developed in 1916) has grown up to the north of the estuary.

+ The rest of the world is beginning to discover what the Portuguese have always known -- that the Douro region is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. One of the world’s oldest demarcated wine regions (since 1756), the Douro Valley showcases steep terrace vineyards carved into mountains, granite bluffs, whitewashed quintas (estates) and 18th-century wine cellars that draw in visitors from around the world. Come for the ports and wines, scenic roads, pretty villages and great regional restaurants.

+ Departing from Porto where the river flows into the sea and where the Douro wines (table wines and Port wine), produced on its hillsides, also end up, there are various ways to get to know this cultural landscape, listed as a World Heritage Site: by road, by train, on a cruise boat and even by helicopter. None will leave you indifferent.

+ Provided here is a view of Porto, the country's second largest city. Porto, which is found along the Douro, two miles (~3 km) from the river’s mouth on the Atlantic Ocean and 175 miles (280 km) north of Lisbon. World-famous for its port wine, Porto is the commercial and industrial center for the zone north of the Mondego River. (The historic center of Porto was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.)
+ This city's charms are as subtle as the nuances of an aged tawny port, best savored slowly on a stroll through the backstreets of Miragaia, Ribeira, and Massarelos. It’s the quiet moments of reflection and the scenes of daily life that will long remember: the slosh of the Douro against the docks; the snap of laundry drying in river winds, clinking port glasses, etc.