Tag Archives: casals de loivos

Douro River at Pinhão

Douro River at Pinhão
“Douro River at Pinhão” — The Douro river bends past the town of Pinhão, with hillsides covered by vineyards.

I am going to use this post to give a shout-out to Portugal Green Walks, the company we used to organize our May walk in the Douro Valley hills. (I have no financial relationship with the company — just a pleased customer.) We spent a week in this region, walking on six days between cities in a loop that started and ended in Pinhão, the small town along the river bank near the lower edge of the photo. They could not have come up with a better conclusion to the walk. On the second-to-last day we rounded a hill and soon came upon this spectacular view of the Douro River and Valley.

A few minutes later we arrived at our lodgings, checked in, and walked out onto their terrace overlooking this view, where we enjoyed almonds from their orchard and a glass of wine. We truly felt that we had arrived as we sat and took in this remarkable scene. We were not quite finished yet — the next morning we had a short, easy downhill walk to Pinhão, where we began our trip back to Porto.


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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Window with Wrought Iron

Window with Wrought Iron
“Window with Wrought Iron” — Wroght iron casts a shadow below a window in Casals de Loivos, Portugal.

I photographed this window on the morning we departed Casals de Loivos on the final day of our one-week walk in the hills and vineyards of Portugal’s Douro Valley region. We took a brief walk thought this small village before walking the steep trail downhill to Pinhão, where this segment of our trip would end.

Our arrival in Casals de Loivos was a spectacular conclusion to the walk. We stayed at an inn with a terrace overlooking the Douro Valley and the winding Douro River far below. This window, with its wrought iron grate and fascinating shadows seems to me to capture one of the kinds of light we saw here — bright, brilliant, high angle light that somehow manages to not be harsh despite being intense.


Leave a comment or question using the form. (If you are reading this on the home page, click the article title to see the full article and the comment form.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.