Quinta Das Alfaias

A quinta is a country inn. In Portuguese, alfaias are small tools for agriculture. Quinta Das Alfaias is "an enchanted oasis" for peregrinos and anyone else looking for a spectacular place to stay.

Teresa and João bought the property several years ago when they were looking to move out of Porto but stay close enough for their children to complete school there. They renovated the main house and added a second building with guest rooms and a place for the maid to live. It is now an awesome bed and breakfast "quinta."

As mentioned earlier, I had booked a night at this quinta (using priceline.com) before we left the USA to be sure that we had a good ending to Day 1. If at all possible, I will stay here every time I walk the Camino. The hospitality is amazing. The grounds are spectacular. The food (home cooking) is like nothing else we found on the Camino.

We had booked a double room for 85€ but were given a suite (door upstairs).

When we arrived, we asked for water and were given a cold 1.5L bottle to enjoy on the veranda. After a tour of the house and property, I asked for a glass of wine and was given a bottle to share with Allie!

We were invited to enjoy dinner with two couples who were staying there, too. What a good decision!  Teresa did the cooking and entertaining. João's role seemed to be confined to the yard.

Our first course was (razor?) clams in garlic butter. As Teresa said, "you can taste the sea." I loved them. Allie dug right in and finished hers, too. The portions were huge.

The main course was "duck rice." It is an old family recipe and involves roasting a duck, making rice, then combining them with a sauce in the oven with some Portuguese cheese on top. Shortly before serving, thin slices of "ham" (more like prosciutto) are added to get crispy on top. It was heavenly - served with fresh green beans from the garden.

Of course, the whole meal was accompanied by wines from the Duoro region - vinho tinto and vinho verde. The tinto we enjoyed was similar to the ones I drink in Corvallis. Vinho verde needs some explanation. I'll leave that to Wikipedia. I tried to like it when Matt and I were in this region a few years ago. I again tried to like it this time. It has a slight effervescence. The flavor seems similar to pinot gris. As it turns out, the name just means "young wine" and can refer to white, red or rosé versions. The ones I've tried have always been white. I think I'll stick with vinho tinto.

I had never seen raspberries the size of large blackberries (or marion berries) before. But our desert was fresh raspberries from João's garden accompanied by ice cream. It was incredible.

Although after-dinner liquors were offered, we declined and went to bed very content.

In the morning, we were treated to a very nice breakfast.

After breakfast, Teresa called a taxi to take us to the central Camino route in Arcos. We said "Goodbye" and were on our way.

Total price (including lodging and dinner and breakfast and assorted hospitality): 120€ cash