Last days in Portugal - Douro valley and bird watching

8 -9 July
The Douro valley is Portugal's premier port and wine growing region, so we had to check it out. The Douro river is set in a spectacular deep gorge, with grapes growing on the steep sides, almost on bare rock. Lots of hairpin bends to cross this river. For a change we spent a day on trains as this is the best way to view the scenery. We started on a small railcar which took 2 hours down a steep gorge to the main river, and then trips on bigger trains along the Douro. A very enjoyable day with fabulous vineyard scenery along this very wide river.
10 July
Our last day in Portugal turned out to be one of the highlights. We drove through the Parque Natural de Douro Internacional. We took stops at three viewpoints to watch huge birds of prey soaring up and along the cliffs of the upper Douru river. Great views looking across the river to the high plains of Spain which we were about to enter.
We crossed the Douro over a hydro dam into Spain and wound back up to the plateau, where for the first time we saw extensive beef cattle farming.