Rabelo Boat on the Douro River
One of the most popular symbols of Porto is the Rabelo boat. These flat boats, nowadays laying quietly by the riverside, used to be the nautical horses that carried barrels of Porto wine from the Douro valley vineyards to the Port Wine cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia. For centuries, when there were no suitable roads or a single railway alongside the vineyards, Rabelo boats were the most efficient and reliable mode of transportation, if not only for their exclusivity.