Eating along the Douro, slowly

The Douro line is one of the great European rail journeys and almost nobody plans a holiday around it. The track leaves Porto's São Bento station, follows the river inland for a hundred kilometres, and finishes at Pocinho after passing terraces cut into schist since the 18th century.

Start in Porto with a day that ignores the port lodges entirely. Eat at a tasca near Bolhão, buy tinned sardines from a shop that has sold nothing else for eighty years, and cross to Gaia in the evening when the light is on the far bank.

Peso da Régua is the practical base for the middle valley, but Pinhão is the prettier one — a tiled station, a river quay, and quintas within walking distance that take visitors without an appointment in the off season.

The food is heavier than coastal Portugal: posta mirandesa, roast kid, bean stews built for a hillside working day. The wines that pair with them are the still Douro reds, made by the same producers as the port and still underpriced abroad.

The last stretch to Pocinho is the reason to keep going. The line runs almost at water level, the terraces close in, and the train empties until it is you and three people going home from work.