Finally we have found a brilliant aire outside of the Algarve, €3 per night with electric or free without, on the side of the River Douro with a great view and a 3km cycle/path. The town has lots of tourist boat trips, the train through the valley, douro museum, wineries or just the town to wander and it's cheap but good cafes.

After a good walk round town and a visit to the museum we headed back to the van for an afternoon of sunbathing .

We decided to drive through the Douro Valley to Pinhao so that we could stop at some of the Quintas (wineries) for a tour and tasting. The drive was stunning and we can understand why the boat and train trips are so popular (but you can’t hop out to the Quintas on those). Pinhao train station was spectacular with all of it’s blue tile town settings.

From Pinhao we left the river and drove through the hills to Ajilo (about 12km) and were right in amongst the vines. The vines were built in layers through the hillside to make the best use of space, but this means that the crops have to be manually collected as well as maintained. At collection season all the locals come together (and take holiday time from work) to complete the laborious task of collecting grapes. It is mainly Port that is made here but there are a few reds too.

Given we were in the middle of nowhere we decided to return the way we’d come, which we were pleased we did as the view back was quite different and just as stunning.

Quinta de Tedo parking looked Motorhome friendly so we stopped there for a tasting, which was very good and the staff were very friendly and informative.

As we had a good night last night we thought we’d stay at the same aire again and then start making our way to Santander tomorrow for our ferry on Saturday!!