Porto and port....

We were invited to a tour of the bridge. Le capitaine had a very cute smile.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a fairly relaxed day cruising on the river and through another lock, followed by a tour of Porto where we visited a church which was almost totally covered in gold leaf inside. Apparently over 200kg of gold was used. Pretty OTT for my liking - aside from the gold leaf the carving was extremely ornate. 

Looking across the river from Porto to the twin city of Gaia
- the quai where some of the  cruise ships depart.

Beautiful!

We also visited the stock exchange. Why the stock exchange you ask – apparently there was a time that Porto was the capital, then it moved to Lisbon, the stock exchange was supposed to come back to Porto so the stock exchange was built, but it has never been used as such. Some beautiful marquetry floors and one room with beautiful tile work and frescoes. 

This room in the stock exchange palace was amazing
- there was a collective gasp when they opened the door.

Another winery tour and tasting on our way back to the boat. Very civilized here - sitting at tables rather than standing at the bar. I'm not too keen on the port wines, I could only drink a small amount, but Rob likes them. Tempting to buy a bottle but would be a pain to pack and carry onwards to Paris.

Some of the lights of Porto. Not really a lot to look at.

We also did a tour of Porto by night visiting the railway station which we'd already seen – we could have passed on this tour.

Is the sun over the yardarm?

So the river cruise is not quite as planned but we are still having a great time. The food on board is amazing, though I wasn't too keen on the portugese cod dish last night but they made up for it with the portugese egg custard tart.  The staff are fantastic – we have a couple of favourites.

This was the huge dish of paella we had 2 nights ago. Our favourite waitress Lidia.

Yesterday was a bus trip in the morning to a village high up in the hills – again, glad Fangio was a passenger. Followed by a visit to a port winery and tasting on the way back to the ship – the sun was over the yardarm in Australia. The ports were really smooth. The tour of the winery was very informative and he explained why they do only red ports here – it is the altitude and  cooler climate in the hills.

The oldest section of the village in the hills - can't remember it's name but dates back to 1400s.

Not quite a dog - but we watched this farmer and his horse working the vineyards.

Back to the boat where we finally did  bit of cruising, passing through one of the biggest locks in Europe. The sun also came out yesterday and it was great to be able to sit on the sun deck as we sailed along.

Our first lock - one of the biggest in Europe at 32m.

Last night was the crew spectacular – extremely funny and very enjoyable.

Vines as far as the eye can see.

It's been an interesting couple of days, sadly the  cruising part is not going according to plan. Apparently they have had huge amounts of rain during March and the river is in flood and flowing too fast to safely navigate upstream towards Spain. This means we have been moving back and forth along a section of the river in the hope that the situation would improve. At lunchtime today they decided that upriver was not going to happen and they have modified the program accordingly. We are still able to do the shore excursions apart from the tour to Salamanca.

This church in Lamego was at the top of a hill - 836 steps. Thankfully the bus could drive right to the top. 

Day 3

This morning we went to the town of Vila Real which was a drive through some amazing vineyards – every inch of space on every hill was terraced for vines (and it was very hilly, the road was very twisty and I was glad to be on a bus rather than sitting beside Fangio aka Rob). Vila Real was very quiet – Sunday so nothing was open). We had coffee and a local pastry and wandered the old  village.

A beautiful example of the terraced vineyards.

The Mateus Palace. They built the pond to get the reflection so the palace looked bigger.

Looking down on the Douro River.

From there we went to Mateus Palace, now the summer residence of the Mateus family.  When I think of Mateus it is Mateus Rose but the family has nothing to do with the wine other than their palace appears on the label.

This afternoon has been a quiet time on board. We are finding out about cruise food – there is so much of it and it’s all been excellent. It's a worry when you arrive in the restaurant for lunch and there is so much cutlery on the table.

I'm still having issues with this new technology. It's certainly not as easy as my old computer. Wish I had that with me.

Tonight is spanish themed with sangria, paella and flamenco music and dancing.

River photos

Been trying to sort out what is going on with our photo transfer. Hopefully this will work and I can post a few photos.

One of the other boats on the river.

The town of Pinhao where we are moored for the night.

Just some of the beautiful terraced vineyards.

Home for the week - and very comfortable it is. I'm sure the boat is sitting much lower in the water already after only one day if being well fed.

The Douro river. Sadly its still flooded so we're doing limited cruising.

Le bateau est un autobus

Apologies for lack of photos - having a few technical issues.

We both had a reasonable nights sleep and woke at a normal sort of hour ready for an explore. Our hotel was very basic but close enough to the city that we could walk. We learned a few things at breakfast – what is that? Marmalade she said – looked awfully like quince paste so a googlesearch showed that marmalade is in fact quince paste and the fruit is called marmelo. Was lovely with the fresh bread roll and ham and cheese.

Our first visit was to the local market – I think today was not a full market day but we got some lovely strawberries. Lots of portugese tile items to purchase as souvenirs but we’d have to carry them for the next 4 months.

Beautiful tile work on a church.

The main shopping mall.

The hop on hop off bus gave us a quick look at some of the buildings around town. I was surprised to find that Porto was quite hilly as the town dropped down to the river. And it always amazes us just how many people travel – there were lots of groups led around by the tour leader waving a flag or umbrella.

Lunch at a little restaurant where we found the prices higher to eat on the terrace. Who cares – it was lovely to sit outside in the fresh air and people watch.

We headed back to the hotel to pick up bags then to the boat where we were told ‘your boat is not here – there is a problem with your boat on the river'. So our boat trip started with a 2 hour bus trip through some amazing countryside – hillsides terraced like rice paddies in India but for the purpose of grape vines. And amazing roads and bridges spanning deep gorges. Labour must be a lot cheaper here because the roads are fabulous.

Problem is that the river is in flood and impassable for some parts so the cruise is a moving target from day to day. No matter, we will enjoy whatever is dished up. No cooking or cleaning or driving for a week – who could complain. 

Turns out there are only 3 English speaking couples on the boat – one from England, one from south Africa and us. We've just had a lovely dinner with plenty of wine and now it's time for bed. 

A new day begins.

We have finally made it to Porto – it was close to 2 days of travel from the time we left home. It doesn’t seem to matter which way you come to Europe, it’s still as far and still hard on the body.

Lisbon airport seemed to be pretty new and very clean. Our gate lounge for Porto was at the furthest end from the arrival gate. We were hoping that for gates 7-23 that 7 would be first - no, 23, 22,21…….. We were very tired and the terminal seemed to be very warm so the walk was not fun. Our flight to Porto was on a prop jet, about 50 seats. A short flight of only 50 minutes.

From the airport we caught the metro into the city. Buying the metro ticket took longer than the flight almost. I waited in one of the queues for 10 minutes only to be told that my queue was coins only! No signs on the machines! Those trying to buy tickets seemed to be as clueless as we were. Anyway it was an easy trip into the city and not so hard to find our hotel – thanks to the elderly lady who helped us find the correct street at an 8 way road junction.

Our hotel is very basic but bed was very comfortable and shower is good and hot. Dinner last night was at the restaurant just down the road – simple fare, good and cheap. Soup and pork steak – if the size of the meals is typical for Portugal then we might have to look at ordering one meal for two.

Not a great selfie - definitely room for improvement over the next few months.

Now time for breakfast then we will have a bit of time to explore before boarding our cruise this afternoon.

It's time - sounds like a good political party slogan

Robs bag is overflowing but there's a bit of space in mine.

This is all of it - apart from the bag of electrical and technology stuff.

Well the time has come where we needed to stop fiddling around the edges of packing and so far, so good. It all seems to fit and well under our allowed 30 kg; until we work out what we have forgotten.

Our sitters arrived this morning and the house is looking more ship-shape than it has in a while. We will share a meal with them this evening and they will take us to catch the bus in Old Toolamba in the morning. We fly out 6pm tomorrow to Dubai, Lisbon and then Porto. We will arrive there around 1am Friday Melbourne time so bed will be very welcome.

Looking forward to Portugal - we've seen a bit on Escape to the Continent and it looks lovely.

Time now for some last minute jobs. Next stop - Portugal.