Day 8 - Saturday, October 26, 2024 - Pocinho

 It must be quite a challenge scheduling all the cruise ships that are going up and down the Douro River as it is very narrow in many places with no room for two ships to pass. Before one of the locks there was only about 20' on each side of the ship to the boulders on the shore. We wonder how much dredging it took to make the river navigable for the cruise ships. Several times we had to stop in a wider part of the river and wait for a ship coming downstream. The river doesn't appear to be used for commercial shipping with just a few pleasure boats.

In the afternoon we went to the Coa Museum which was created to highlight the exceptional Paleolithic carvings that have been found in the Coa valley. So far, 1500 have been found dating from 12,000 to 18,000 years ago. We had a very good interpretive guide at the museum who showed the types of implements that would have been used at the time and how they would have been constructed. The museum had replicas of many of the carvings which are in a not particularly accessible area.

We have been impressed by all the stone walls everywhere that don't use any mortar. We can see why the Portuguese stone masons are in such demand in the US.

Coa Valley

Stone walls

David with olive tree


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