RIVER OF GOLD
Was this a river, or a slender lake? Our ship seemed to be gliding into a dead end, the steep banks of the canyon closing to a point on the near horizon.
Suddenly, an opening appeared in the scenery and the river followed sharply to the right. The landscape changed just as abruptly, from deep gorge to yawning valley striped by hundreds of rows of terraced vines.
After a day’s sailing out of Porto, I became used to illusions like these along the Douro, where the waterway seemed to have nowhere to go through the vertical topography until another hidden corner introduced a different and equally captivating panorama. Geographically, the Douro is spectacular, and not just on a
