Original subtitles

Join us on a wonderful journey through some very British parts

of Portugal, from the stunning Douro Valley in the north...

I can never get enough of travelling in this train

and observing this beautiful landscape.

..to the magic and mystery of Sintra in the south.

It's a journey that binds together the countries

of Portugal and Britain.

We'll travel along rivers and through vineyards,

making a very British tipple.

Foot treading continues to be the

method of reference to make the best port.

Across water and land...

..and up and down the seven hills of Lisbon...

In Portuguese, train driver actually means brake-keeper.

..we'll explore the traditions...

The Portuguese are the only ones in the world

that use the tiles like this to

cover the outside of the buildings.

..try to uncover the secret of custard...

The secret is kept hidden here.

SPEAKS PORTUGUES

..and discovered the links that have bound our seafaring

nations for centuries.

Codfish is my life.

It's a way of keeping the tradition.

This is no ordinary railway journey,

this is one of the most scenic

railway journeys in the world - Portugal.

It's mid-winter high in the hills

of the Alto Douro Valley.

We're about to embark on the Douro line,

one of Europe's most scenic railways.

In cloudless summer months,

these fields bake in 40 degree heat.

But today, a cold, damp mist envelops the land,

creating a strange beauty.

Our journey starts in the small town of Pocinho.

We're travelling on newly refurbished Swiss Schindler

carriages from the 1940s,

pulled by a class 1400 diesel engine,

designed by English Electric

and built in Portugal in the late 1960s.

Our train leaves at 11:08.

The Douro Valley really is really nice, it's...

I love water, I love the vineyards.

And just a trip down Douro Valley

can't be complete without having some good food and great wine.

From Pocinho, we'll travel along the Douro river

through Portugal's port wine country

past Pinghao and Peso da Regua,

heading west to the city of Porto.

In Porto, we change trains and

travel south towards Aveiro and onwards

to Entroncamento

and then onto Lisbon, where we will change trains one more time.

And from Lisbon, we take a short ride to Sintra,

where our Portuguese rail adventure ends.

Leaving Pocinho, we are soon descending

through the terraced vineyards of a region

almost entirely shaped by British tastes.

Drinking the wine and drinking the port

and then actually coming here and seeing all

the vineyards, definitely made me feel

excited when I travel along on the train.

For over 400 years, these vineyards,

or quintas, as they are known,

have been making our favourite after dinner tipple - port.

So this line was very important for the vineyard, because it offered

a safer route from the production site,

so Porto, where it was exported worldwide.

Until the construction of the line in 1875,

the port was taken downstream on boats,

which were often destroyed by the Douro's rapids.

For Hugo, this line is more than

just a way of getting port to market...

..it's a symbol of Portugal emerging into the industrial world.

It was a very important piece of engineering.

Until then, most of the lines were built

either by British engineers or by French engineers.

And so, this line provided the opportunity for Portuguese

engineers to show their expertise, to show their skills

and to prove that they could also be a valuable asset

to place Portugal in the path of what was then considered progress.

150 years later, few of today's passengers

appreciate the line's contribution to Portugal's engineering prowess.

They've come along for the astonishing views.

I think the scenery is beautiful.

And all of the vineyards that you can see,

and the granite

you can see back there,

it's beautiful, just beautiful.

Our first stop is the tiny station of Quinta de Vargelas,

once exclusively used by port makers Taylor's,

who can trace their roots back to English merchants in 1692.

In charge today is David, a sixth-generation winemaker

who honed his winemaking skills in Australia and the US

before gaining a degree in oenology.

The vineyards of the Douro Valley

in this mountain landscape

are unique for their ability to produce grapes

which have tremendous amount of concentration

and ripen naturally to very high sugar level.

It is that high sugar level which gives the uniqueness

for the port as a style of wine.

But there is something else about the grapes here that makes them

almost unique, and that's the fact

that every one of them gets stamped on

by a human foot in these

large vats called lagars.

The human foot has got that ability

to reach every single grape.

A machine tends to have a repetitive movement

and there'll always be some berries

that will escape being trodden.

And that's why foot treading

continues to be the method of

reference to make the best port.

But don't worry, it's not sweaty feet

that give port the distinctive taste we all love,

it's all in the quality of the soil.

One of the characteristics of the Douro Valley,

that it produces these grapes with

so much colour and so much tannin, which gives port

its extraordinary ability to age.

However, that is why the traditional

foot treading is so important,

because the skins are so full of all of this

colour matter, that the physical action

of the foot treading releases all of that colour.

When we finished filling each lagar,

at the end of the day, a group of 20 people

will come in for the initial treading,

what we call the cut,

and we'll have one person who will be commanding the cut,

making sure that everybody is doing the treading to step.

Um, dois, um, dois.

Esquerda, direito.

And this treading will go on

in this very rhythmic,

systematical way for two hours.

And that's important to keep this rhythm,

because that is going to ensure that

this initial treading will reach

every grape that's in this lagar.

So far, all this grape stomping

has produced nothing more than wine.

What turns it into port is a magic ingredient

first added to stop the wine going

off on its long journey to Britain.

What makes port different to wine

is that, halfway through the fermentation,

we run off the juice and we add an aguardente,

which is a neutral wine spirit,

which is going to stop the fermentation.

So all of the sweetness in every glass of port

is the natural sugar which comes from the grape.

Adding a bit of spirit during fermentation

gives port quite a punch

but it also allows it to age for decades,

creating a truly vintage drink.

Port wine, being a fortified wine,

will be able to go into these barrels and age

for many years until we decide that they're ready for bottling.

Normal wine will normally be bottled

two, three years after it has been made.

Our port wines will age from anything from two years

in the barrel before going into the bottle.

But we have ports which we age for over 80, 100 years

as these delicious, very old tawny ports.

The downside of this ageing process is that makers like David

might never live long enough to taste some

of their greatest blends.

So the vat lodge is located right alongside the railway

and that is to allow us in the old days to load the young

ports onto the railway carriages,

to go to our port lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia,

opposite the city of Porto, to go into the next stage

of ageing of our port wines.

Sadly, our train no longer carries port,

but it is taking us to the city

that gave the drink its name, Porto,

and to a train station that looks more like an art gallery.

We're now 35 miles into our journey

through the cool, late winter grey

but very beautiful Douro Valley,

travelling through Pinhao,

towards the historic city of Porto.

I can never get enough of travelling

in this train and observing

this beautiful landscape.

It's quite an amazing experience.

After Pinhao, our train continues

to head west past Peso da Regua,

a major hub of the port wine industry in the area.

We then head towards Porto...

..and in Porto, we'll change trains

to continue our journey south towards Aveiro.

As our train winds its way through the Douro Valley,

we follow the path of the river for another 40 miles.

This railway is really beautiful because it hugs the river,

it goes along the river, very near the water.

I think this is a really special place to be, yes.

But two and a half hours into our journey,

we say goodbye to the Douro to cut inland.

After three and a half hours,

our train pulls into Porto's incredible

Sao Bento Station, a place

that looks more like an art gallery.

Most stations in Portugal are decorated with tiles,

but none is as highly decorated as this station here in Sao Bento.

This is my home station

and for those who live in Porto, they feel very proud

about the station, about being one of the most beautiful in Portugal,

one of the most beautiful in the world.

Created in 1905 by the artist Jorge Colaco,

the tiles give anyone waiting for a train

a graphic history of the country

and a clue to why Britain

and Portugal became so entwined.

You can see the arrival of the Portuguese King John, the first,

accompanied by his wife Philippa of Lancaster,

and they got married here in Porto

and those titles, they represent that arrival

and that moment of Portuguese history.

Philippa's betrothal to John The First

ensured British blood would flow in the veins

of Portuguese kings for centuries.

Portugal's love of tiles or azulejos, as they're known,

began in the 16th century, when King Manuel The First

decorated his palace with them.

From that moment on, everybody started to copy him.

But sadly, after 500 years, that urge is on the wane,

something Porto artists Alba and

Marisa are keen to stop.

We just are a little bit tile activist.

Can we say that?

So we are tile activists and we want

to preserve this art, and we should do more.

Sometimes in the city, when a building is being rebuilt,

the tiles are thrown to the garbage in the construction works.

The tiles you see on the train station,

on the chapels, they are protected.

But those tiles from the private

buildings are losing the tiles.

The Portuguese are the only ones in the world

that use the tiles like this to

cover the outside of the buildings.

It was something that the Portuguese middle class did to show others

that a wealthy family was living in that house.

There are different types of tiles in Portugal.

We paint reproduction of traditional

patterns from Portugal.

You see them from close, they have some mistakes,

the imperfection on the tiles makes them unique.

This one here, those lines were painted freehand,

so people in the old days,

they paint the tiles fast.

So I think those little mistakes

are amazing.

Drab when they are first painted,

the colours only come alive

when the tiles are fired in a kiln

at over 1,000 degrees centigrade.

It's very rewarding when you're working in something

that will last hundreds of years,

that is rewarding.

Your work is there for, you know, forever.

You will be gone and your work is still here.

I think that is rewarding, I think.

Time to leave Porto's Azulejos behind

and head to the city's busiest station,

Campanha, for the next leg of our

journey south to Lisbon.

We're catching the 1038 intercity

service pulled by an 85-ton

CP class 5600 electric loco

with driver Victor Manuel at the controls.

You can go to almost 220km per hour,

but on this journey, the maximum is 200.

We start travelling from Porto

in the north of Portugal

and we arrive in Lisbon,

350km approximately distance between both towns.

Unusually, as a boy, Victor never

wanted to be a train driver.

I have to admit, he was not my dream to become a train driver.

My wish was to become a geography teacher.

But being a train driver, I have the opportunity

to at the same time fulfil my curiosity about landscape.

Most of the time when I'm driving, I have to look

for the track, you know, the signs and all.

But some brief moments, I'll be able

to look at the window and see how things run.

I have to say, in these five years that I'm in this service,

I'm never tired of looking outside.

Pulling out of Porto, we cross the

Douro River for the last time on the modern

Pont de Sousa Bridge, built in 1991.

But just downstream, we can see

the old railway bridge it replaced,

the iconic Ponte Maria Pia...

..designed by a Frenchman by the name of Gustave Eiffel,

he of the more famous tower.

The line between Porto and Lisbon dates back to 1856

and is known as the Linha do Norte.

Since its inception, it's been the backbone

of the Portuguese main line.

It serves passengers, it serves freight

and it's quite a very busy track,

considering it serves all sorts of services,

like this long distance services, urban trams, regional trains.

And so it's completely overwhelmed with traffic.

And that is the reason why Portugal is currently now investing in other

tracks that can be exclusive for passengers

and leaving this one just with freight.

High speed tracks will make the distance between the Porto

and Lisbon considerably shorter,

around an hour, an hour and 15 minutes.

But for us, speed is not the key.

35 miles into our journey on the Linha do Norte, we arrive

in Aveiro on the shores

of the Rio de Aveiro Lagoon.

Aveiro is a landscape dominated by water.

This area is known as the Venice of Portugal.

The traditional moliceiros are colourful, gondolas

decorated with different scenes depicting local life.

Today, tourists are their main cargo,

but in days gone by, they were laden

with that other mainstay of English

Portuguese trade, salt...

..produced by evaporating sea water in the lagoon.

Antonio is one of the few remaining

"marnotos" still working the lagoon.

But working the salt harvest season from April to October

in this environment is tough and unpredictable.

In the Middle Ages, the Portuguese

traded their salt for cod caught by the English fishermen.

But the discovery of Newfoundland in the 15th century meant

the Portuguese could catch their own cod

preserved with salt from the marshes.

Marta runs one of the few remaining

family businesses in the Aveiro area

that still produce salted cod, known as bacalhau.

Codfish is my life and I'm in a way,

I'm glad for it because it's a way

of keeping the tradition, not only

the tradition of the family,

because my father always worked on codfish,

but also a tradition of the people and of the country.

Because codfish is very important to the Portuguese people.

It's like a symbol of the way we are,

we are a country of fishermen.

The process of salting and drying the cod

has always been done by women.

In the ancient times, the men lived

on the boats for fishing the cod

and women stayed at home and take care of the family.

Just as it was done hundreds of years ago,

the cod is put in salt on the boats

and when it arrives in the factory, the salt needs to be washed out

before the drying process can begin.

So what the team is doing now is putting the codfish

that is already washed in the trays,

and now these trays are going to the driers,

where the cod the will stay for almost one week

so the water that is inside the cod can come out.

The wet cod is then kept in the controlled environment

of the dryers at a temperature of 20 degrees centigrade

until the fish is completely dry.

Rock hard, it will keep like this for months

until it's ready for cooking

using one of what is claimed

to be over 1,000 recipes.

My favourite dish is the cod boiled water.

And then with oil and garlic and pepper,

for me, it's the best.

Energised after a traditional dish of bacalhau,

we're back on the train and continue

our journey to Lisbon.

For the next hundred miles,

our intercity train travels through the beautiful

Portuguese countryside and all we have to do

is sit back and watch that beauty speed by.

We got first class tickets and the

chairs are much comfier than our plane seats

so we're very happy with the train.

Yeah, we are a little jet-lagged,

was hoping we could get some sleep

but the views are very beautiful, so.

Train is by far the best way to travel, I think.

It's much more civilised,

you get to see more, you get to experience more.

So if I have a choice between flying and train,

I will always get the train.

And if you love trains, then the next stop, Entrocamento is a must,

as it's the site of the National Railway Museum,

a building housing a British

locomotive with a dark secret.

We're on the second leg of our

scenic railway journey through Portugal.

Our CP 5600 locomotive is hurtling

down the Linha do Norte

from Porto to Lisbon at speeds of

around 200km an hour.

After Aveiro, our train continues

to head south through the Portuguese

countryside, past Entroncamento

and onwards to Portugal's capital, Lisbon.

I think we are lucky to have this railway

between the Porto and Lisbon.

It is a great way to commute between two cities.

And furthermore, you can see some

beautiful landscape out the window

throughout the whole of the journey.

TANNOY: Next stop, Entroncamento.

We've travelled 130 miles since

we left Porto and now arrive in Entroncamento.

It's the centre of Portugal's railway network

where two major train lines meet,

the Linha do Norte and the Linha do Oeste.

A fitting place for the nation's much-celebrated railway museum.

The museum is home to 15 beautiful steam engines,

among them Portugal's oldest locomotive,

the CP 02049.

Built in 1856 by William Fairbairn and Sons in England,

the saddle tank Loco was nicknamed andorinha - swallow.

The Swallow works in the

construction of the Douro lines.

It was the first one to run in the Douro,

after open to the public.

It transport workers on the vineyards

and also do the line between the cities in the Douro margins.

But the jewel in the museum's crown also has a British connection -

the royal train used by the last kings of Portugal,

pulled by a Manchester-built locomotive.

You will notice that many advises

was wrote in English because many

things that we have in Portuguese

Railways was bought in England.

Modelled on the trains used by Queen Victoria,

this is a palace on wheels.

This is the Princes' salon.

Here travel the prince and all the guests.

The sofas remind us,

the gentleman clubs.

I can imagine they having a port

or wine and have a cigar

and look at the beautiful view.

This special train have special

things, like this lavatory that you can make

this movement to put off the water.

And here you have the Queen's Room.

This part here is for the maids of the Queen.

There's also a special place for the Queen's convenience.

I was surprised.

You have here a private toilet for the Queen.

A time capsule.

Nothing has changed here since Royal bottoms

sat on its thrones.

This is original.

All the things that you see here is not renovated.

So this saloon is like the...

..as bought in 1877

for the 14th anniversary of the prince.

But for all its splendours, this train has a dark past.

On the 1st of February 1908, King Don Carlos and much

of his family journeyed in it to their deaths.

One thing that this train reminds us

is the last trip for Don Carlos, the day that he was murdered.

And all the ministers that go on this trip

say to Don Carlos to stop the trip

because someone in Lisbon, someone wants to kill the king.

But Don Carlos didn't want to end the trip,

so they came to Lisbon and he was murdered that evening.

The King and Crown Prince were killed as they arrived in Lisbon.

Portugal became a republic two years later in 1910.

They may be gone, but the lines they travelled on live on.

As we are nearing Lisbon, you can see how the landscape changes.

Now, we can see that the plains of the Ribatejo Province

near Santarem, and you can see it's a very rural area,

lots of productions going on here, mainly rice.

Rice is probably the biggest production here in this region.

After three and a half hours, our train arrives at its terminus,

Lisbon's Oriente Station.

But our Portuguese railway adventure continues.

We're off to take a ride on one of Lisbon's famous trams.

Lisbon is the city of Seven Hills.

Comparisons are often made with San Francisco.

Even the suspension bridge crossing the river Tagus

looks rather familiar.

Joana Andreia has been a tram driver in the city for four years

and works on the iconic number 28 route.

But with Seven Hills to contend with, she doesn't do much driving.

In Portuguese, tram driver actually means brake-keeper.

So we don't steer.

Everything we do, actually, is to put some energy, take some

energy to drive it, and then everything else,

it's brakes, actually, we have lots of brakes.

This is a brake, it's also a magnet brake and emergency brake.

And we have a cool thing here in trams that is to help

us on braking, it's sand.

So if you press it...

..you can hear the sound of sand release.

These old wooden trams are equipped with a total of five different

brakes, plus the sand that gets dumped on the tracks for better

grip, especially when it rains.

We don't drive fast, but the tram is always moving.

And the thing is, it's everything made of iron.

The tracks are made of iron and the wheels are made of iron.

So we need to increase traction to brake.

That's why we need the sand.

I love driving trams because it's part of Lisbon history.

We have the opportunity to get to the old part of town every time

with the old folks that thrive here, even before I was born.

So it's a very nice job. I love it.

Driving through the city is a challenge, of course.

We need to pay very attention. We're always alert,

but with practice, with experience, it becomes very natural.

And we do things without thinking and it begins to be very fun.

We're tram drivers, it's a fun job.

Lisbon's historic trams are popular with tourists, but also

with the locals, who still use their beloved electricos.

Julia has been taking the tram to visit her grandmother

since she was a child.

I really love the tram. I think it's my favourite way

of moving around in Lisbon.

When you go on a tram, you can feel the city's energy.

But like when you go on a bus, it's much more artificial.

Or when you go on the subway, you can't see the city.

So I think it's my favourite way out of all the options.

And when it's in the summer and you can open the window and feel

the fresh air, it's really, it's really wonderful.

As our tram rumbles on through the narrow streets of Lisbon's

old town, taking tight turns and climbing steep hills,

we travelled past countless bakeries.

But there is one that is special, Pasteis de Belem,

the pastry shop where the original recipe for Portugal's famous

custard tart is kept in a safe.

A recipe only known to six people.

Here to tell us more is a veteran of the custard tart business,

Maria Dulce.

This secret is kept, like you can see him here,

for... since 1837.

So I don't know it.

And I work here for 45 years and I don't know anything

about the secret.

Incredibly, these tarts are the by-product

of an ecclesiastical laundry.

In years gone by, the monks of the Jeronimos Monastery used

egg whites to starch their habits,

which meant that they had a lot of egg yolks to use up.

The result was the custard tart.

When the monastery was closed, the recipe was sold

to the Antigua Confiteria, the old pastry shop in Belem,

who have kept it a secret ever since.

So whilst other bakeries make custard tarts, it's only

here you can buy the original, called Pasteis de Belem.

The difference between Pasteis de Nata and Pasteis de Belem,

is that so, so big that you have to try them and tell us.

Every day, 20,000 creamy delights leave the production line.

These are all done by hand, not by machines, because machines

cannot replicate the measurements and cannot replicate

what the ladies do too.

Machines cannot replicate a woman's hand.

With a gentle caress, ramekins aligned with puff pastry and filled

with the secret custard mix before they're baked at

400 degrees centigrade for about 30 minutes.

The temperature, the turning, everything you see is part

of the secret, you know?

Now we are going to try and see the secret room, OK?

KNOCKING

Hola...

SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

Well, it was worth a try.

Now the baking is done, the cart with a tray is coming here

to the table, and we will spill the trays

over the table to cool them and everything begins again.

Filled with custard tarts, we head to Rossio,

one of Lisbon's oldest train stations, for the last

leg of our railway journey through Portugal.

We're catching an Urbano, a commuter train.

The 40-minute ride will take us to the magical palaces of Sintra.

A place of stunning castles and exotic gardens that once seduced

English romantics like Lord Byron.

We're at Lisbon's Rossio station, ready to board an Urbano,

a commuter train for the third and final leg

of our railway journey through Portugal.

Our train speeds at over 60mph through the Rossio Tunnel.

2,850 yards long,

this is the start of the Central Line.

The urban landscape of Lisbon's outskirts is in direct contrast

to the magical place where we're heading -

Sintra, our final destination.

Looming high in the surrounding forest are the ruins

of the Moorish castle, dating back to the eighth century,

when Portugal was part of a vast Muslim kingdom.

Maria has been digging deep into the castle's past.

What is great in this castle is that we found lots of vestige

from other times since the Neolithic until now.

So this says to us this place is very special,

because all populations start here.

So in 5,000 BC, they were here.

Then the Moors were here, then the Christians were here.

So this is a place that has this mystique,

embracing all the culture that passed through this place.

In the 12th century, the Christians took the castle from the Muslims

during the Reconquista and turned it into a fortress.

The Moorish castle was very important from a strategic point.

It's very high, as you can see from here.

And you can also see from each towers,

almost a 360 viewpoint.

So it was perfect for defence and nobody could attack a place

so high with such boulders in the way.

As you can see from here, you see all the land

until the Atlantic Ocean.

On clear days, you can see all the palaces

that surround the Moorish castle.

And the most important, the way to get to Sintra by train.

We can see the railway station from here.

Inspired by the Moorish architecture of the fortress,

the area around Sintra is dotted with fairytale-like castles,

exotic gardens and opulent palaces...

..like the Quinta de Regaleria.

De Monteiro hired Italian architect Luigi Manini

to realise his vision for a place unlike any other.

The palaces of Sintra were a magnet for romantic Englishmen

like Lord Byron, who took a particular shine

to Monserrate Palace, the private retreat of Francis Cook,

a wealthy English merchant.

It's a house made to enjoy the park.

It's a house that has large windows.

It's very open, very in harmony with the park.

This this thing, it's very important in most parts.

You see the columns, the arches are the same

outside and inside the house.

This harmony, this continuity between the exterior and interior

are the main thing in the Monserrate architecture.

Nestled between hills and the Atlantic Ocean,

Sintra's microclimate produces above average rainfall.

Perfect for an English garden to thrive.

The garden was built by 100 men that constructed here.

The first one in Portugal had brought trees

from all over the world to do here a little piece of heaven

to Francis Cook and his family and friends.

They came here to enjoy the outside, the outdoors.

They are English people, they love the outdoors.

And in Portugal, they can have an English garden

in the Mediterranean climate.

And that is the main thing that the Cooks love here.

Byron called Montserrate, with its enchanting gardens,

"a glorious Eden" and "the most delightful palace in Europe".

The glorious palaces of Sintra will always be a fitting end

to anyone's journey.

And what a journey!

On our 270-mile train ride through Portugal,

we travelled through one of the most stunning

wine regions in the world,

crossed rivers and lagoons, and savoured some of the most

traditional culinary delights along the way.

Our Portuguese voyage from north to south

has been a truly magnificent railway journey.