Casa do Mestrinho - Peaceful garden overlooking the river, 9 km from Porto!

29/5000
Independent house with private garden.
Casa do Mestrinho is a licensed accommodation (License 2832 / AL) housed in an old house, with garden, located next to the river Douro, in Avintes (Vila Nova de Gaia), 9km from Porto.
This is the perfect place to explore the beautiful city of Porto while simultaneously recovering energy! It is an excellent compromise between city and country vacations.
Here you can sleep peacefully, prepare your meals and enjoy them in the shade of the vine, sunbathing, reading, rest and stroll through the garden with views over the Douro (shared with the owners and other holiday accommodation).
Down the street, 20 meters from the house, you will find Areinho de Avintes, a huge river beach with lifeguards, enclosed bathing areas, support infrastructures, picnic park and bike path for cycling, running or walking.
Thanks to its location, the house is a good starting point to explore the city of Porto, the excellent beaches of Vila Nova de Gaia and the beautiful towns, villages, mountains and natural parks of Northern Portugal. It is 5 minutes from the motorways that connect the North (coastal and inland) and the South of the country.
This is a home for those who enjoy living in harmony with the cultural and natural heritage. With it, we help to appreciate a forgotten historical site that has been reborn for decades. The site of Espinhaço and the village of Avintes has a history of centuries linked to the exploration of the Douro River, agriculture and supply of the city of Porto. Despite the proximity of a large city, Avintes has its own identity, with its festivals and pilgrimages, warm, friendly and generous people, its famous bread, taste for theater and culture, multiple cultural and recreational associations ... The proximity to the river Douro and the existence of a large ecological park (Gaia Biological Park) provide beautiful walks and contact with nature.
In the surroundings of the house, the antiquity of the space of narrow alleys, alleys and stairs, distances the traffic and its noise; the proximity of the agricultural and ecological reserve attracts birds and insects that the admirers of nature can hear and observe here. To these sounds, those of the neighbors, of the people who pass in the street on the way to the old grocery store, come and talk with each other.
In the garden and vegetable garden (of 300 m2) we produce vegetables, fruits, teas and aromatic without using chemical products. We love plants, flowers, being outdoors and breathing fresh air.
In the restoration of the house - largely made by ourselves - we try to preserve as much as possible the originality of the 16th century building. XIX, maintaining walls, wooden beams, the old floor of long and wide boards, the elegant window frames, the walls in the partition, the guillotine windows. So we wanted to preserve the history and identity of the building, reduce waste production to the maximum, reuse existing materials, use traditional techniques of conservation, restoration and construction. Again we just added a more functional kitchen and bathroom, a greater thermal comfort through the renovation of the roof, a brighter room with more attic windows and a glazed door overlooking the garden.
This is an ideal house for families with children, for lovers of calm and nature. Here you can always count on our support to help what you need!

Description of the house
The house is distributed over two floors, situated at the bottom of the kitchen, the toilet, the dining room and the living room and in the upper two bedrooms and a small space with cots and toys.
Rooms feature ceiling windows with a sun light and a light-insulating curtain. Thus, with the help of curtains on the door flags, the rooms may be completely dark. The beds are double and have good quality mattresses and clean linen provided once a week.
In the contiguous space, there is a small work space and storage, lit by a window overlooking the river Douro.
The kitchen is equipped with fridge, dishwasher, toaster, coffee machine, microwave, stove, oven and all utensils so you can make and serve your meals. Oil, olive oil and some basic seasonings are always available.
The kitchen has a small table for breakfast but there is a larger table in the dining room and the garden offers a pleasant dining area with shady views of the river!
The living room has a sofa bed and TV and a large number of itineraries and tourist guides of places to visit in the north and center of the country.
The bathroom has a shower cubicle and the water is heated by a thermo-accumulator (cylinder). There is also a washing machine, hair dryer and first aid box. Washed towels are provided weekly.

Children
The House of the Master has received many families with children and she is welcome! The house has baby cots, toys and a highchair for meals.
The garden provides a healthy outdoor area for play and sunbathing. However, we ask that children do not remain in the garden without adult supervision because there are unprotected gaps and stone walls. We recommend the use of the lawn area for leisure and play.

Other amenities
The house has free internet access and cable TV.
The heating of the house is electric but of low consumption, made through radiating plates of 400W installed in all the compartments.
The house has vacuum cleaner, iron and ironing board.
Wi-Fi and television

Safety
First aid kit
Fire Extinguishers
Warning: do not leave very small children alone on the outside!

Grocery and supermarket
Beside the house there is a typical grocery store where you can stock up on some basic commodities; to five minutes by car, there are large supermarkets and all kind of commerce.

Location and surroundings
Casa do Mestrinho is located on the left bank of the river Douro, in Avintes, Espinhaço, an old fisherman's place, with semi-rural characteristics.
Built 20 meters from the Douro River (National Ecological Reserve), there is an extensive leisure area with a river beach with delimited bathing areas, lifeguards and support infrastructure, where you can enjoy the sun, beach and swim .
With a picnic area, pedestrian and cycle path (under construction), an anchorage, pier and fishing, this is the perfect place for hiking, running, cycling, fishing and water sports.

Avintes is a village with its own identity. Suffice it to say that it is considered the capital of amateur theater and is the site of the country with the highest concentration of cultural, recreational and sports associations. In Avintes breathe another air!
In general the people are friendly, helpful and welcoming. In this traditional village there are still good relations of neighborhood, conviviality, cooperation and solidarity among people.

Ridge
Espinhaço is a site with history! It began to be inhabited mainly from the séc. XVIII by fishermen. Nowadays it is a very quiet place of simple and extremely friendly people!

Access and parking
The house is located near the main motorways that connect the north and south of Portugal. Pedras Rubras Airport is 30 km away. We advise you to use the car since public transport is time consuming and scarce. There are parking spaces on the street, free of charge.
For those who want to leave the car and use public transportation, it can be parked in Vila Nova de Gaia and from there you can easily visit Porto and the north of the country using the metro, train and bus.

What to visit
From here we strongly recommend the visit of:
- Biological Park of Gaia (2Km)
- Beaches in Vila Nova de Gaia (14 Km)
- Porto - World Heritage Site (8 Km)
- Serra da Freita - Mountain (53 Km)
- Guimarães - World Heritage Site (60 Km)
- Alto Douro Wine Region - World Heritage Site (100Km)
- Peneda-Gerês National Park (district of Braga) - National Park (120 Km)
- Archaeological Park of the Côa Valley (Vila Nova de Foz Côa) - World Heritage Site (200Km)
And much more!

History
The House of the Master was built in the 19th century by a man nicknamed "Mestrinho", a master builder who was known to have fallen from bridge D. Luis when he worked on his painting and survived!
In the three houses of this building, before we bought it, there lived 3 families composed of almost 20 people! This place was, for about 40 years, very populated and full of children.
Since we bought it in 2001, we have been busy with its restoration, the arrangement of the exterior spaces and the renovation of the dwellings. This work has been done mostly by our own hands, with a lot of passion and enthusiasm and we hope it will feel when staying here!
Restoration
In the restoration were used materials compatible with its conservation and respect for its originality.
The rule of thumb was to conserve and reuse, based on love for the past and respect for the planet. The materials used in the recovery have always been chosen as ecological criteria. Some examples are the use of lime mortars, lime paints or water paints, natural pigments, recon