A Day in Pociho

Another day, another excursion! This morning we headed to the village of Freixo de Numao at the top of the Douro valley. Our tour guide met us up there to explain some of the architecture of the town. The village itself is quite small but it is nice to learn about an authentic old Portuguese village. As with the other villages we have been too, this one used to have many more people living there but many have left for other areas.

Our guide, also known as the Portuguese Indiana Jones, taught us about the inheritance laws of Portugal. In Canada our history follows British common law, but here in Portugal, their law comes from Napoleonic laws. So inheritance laws involve splitting properties equally among children, rather than one person inheriting. That can cause complications as properties continue to be split as the generations progress.

After touring through the village, we stoped at a local manor house that has been passed down over 400 years in the same family. Dona Isabella invited us in and we got to see how she has maintained the house. She also makes her own port wine (not a licensed wine) and her own flavoured almonds.

Dona Isabella showed us how she makes cinnamon almonds. She adds sugar and almonds and slowly caramelizes them, adding cinnamon at the end. She also makes other flavours including coconut, chocolate, orange, lemon and ginger. We got to taste the almonds she made and they were very good!

When we returned to the boat, we had a traditional Portuguese barbecue. It was very good. We were able to try a number of meats and each had a sardine as well. The desserts were very good and it was hard to pick a favorite.

In the afternoon, we attended a cooking class with Chef Joao and Pastry Chef Joana. We learned how to make the famous Portuguese tart called a pastel de nata, a small flaky pastry filled with creamy egg custard, usually dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. The story goes back to the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, Lisbon. In the 19th century, monks and other religious communities commonly used large quantities of egg whites for starching clothes and other purposes. This left them with lots of leftover egg yolks, which were used in sweets and pastries. When the religious orders were dissolved in Portugal following the Revolution, the monks' recipe became associated with a nearby bakery in Belém, which began selling the famous pastry in 1837. You can now find them througout Portugal.

Finally, today was laundry day on the boat. We sent a bag of laundry before breakfast and we had it back when we returned from our excursion at 11:45. We have nver had such neatly folded laundry!

Provesende-Salamanca

On Saturday, we had a lovely cruise up the river. The Duoro is only able to be navigated during the day as there some very tight areas and there are a number of locks that you have to pass. One of the locks had very tight clearance to leave. You can see how close Darren came to the top.

On Sunday morning, we boarded busses to go to a small town, Provesende. We had some great views getting to the top of the Duoro valley. Provesende is only home to 300 people, however, it use to be a big center for wine production and trade. In the 1800s grape phylloxera from North America infected the vines in Europe killing 70-90% of them. The solution was to graft the American roots onto European vines but that took time. As such, most of the town of Provesende had to move to find work and many did not come back when wine production resumed. So there were many abandoned homes and businesses from the 1800s.

We walked through the town and got to visit the local bakery. This baker makes all his bread without electricity as has been done in the past. Usually we would get to see him at in action but he does not work Sundays.

We then went to Morgadio Da Calcaa winery. This winery has been in the same family for many generations. We got to tour their manor house and then try a glass of their white port.

I have learned there is more than just red port. There is white and rose port too. In addition, white port can be sweet or dry. This one was dry. I think of the ports I’ve tried, I prefer the sweet white port.

We then had time to wander the town. We had some terrific views of the valley. The rest of the afternoon was spent sailing the final leg up the river.

Dinner on the ship has been amazing. Chef Joao and restaurant manager Artur have done an amazing job keeping us fed. We never go hungry here!

Monday was our day trip to Salamanca. This city is across the border in Spain. It is was 2 hours from our boat so we took a bus, making one stop along the way.

Salamanca is know as a university town. Founded in 1218, the University of Salamanca is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and one of the oldest in Western Europe. It transformed the city into a legendary hub of intellectualism.

We started with a local tour guide who took us to the city's central market and then to the old city describing its university roots and the legends. We also visited the two connected cathedrals. CATEDRAL Vieja and CATEDRAL Nueva (the Old Cathedral and the New Cathedral). Both were stunning.

Plaza Mayor is considered one of the most beautiful public squares in Spain. This grand Baroque plaza serves as the living room of the city. Lined with restaurants, cafes, and arched galleries featuring medallions of Spanish historical figures.

Our last stop in Salamanca was to check out the Roman bridge that still has 25 arches intact. It was built some time at the start of the Common Era.

We then headed back to the boat to rest up for the next adventure and we ended up going to the disco dance party in the lounge at the end of the day!

Lisbon - Porto

We have had another few busy days in Portugal. We continued on with our pre-cruise excursions by going out to Cascais and Queluz palace. We started with a drive to Cascais which is a town about 30km from Lisbon. It is right on the Atlantic Ocean and it had some pretty amazing beaches. This was close to where we were earlier in the week when we went to Sintra.

After a short stroll through the streets of Cascais, we headed to Queluz palace. Construction began on this palace in 1747, when the future King Pedro III commissioned the expansion of an existing country estate into a royal summer residence. Architect Jean-Baptiste Robillion played a major role in giving it Rococo character. There are also some lovely gardens attached to the palace that reminded me of Versailles.

After our tour ended, we headed down to the waterfront to meet up with the rest of our group. It was another really hot day without any clouds in the sky. There were a lot of cafes along the walk and we stopped in for a drink. The architecture was amazing. Like most European cities, it has some very narrow roads.

To end our day, we had a dinner with our tour group at a local restaurrant.

The next day, we boarded a bus to drive to Porto to meet our ship for the Duoro river cruise. The Duoro river region is where port comes from and we were looking forward to learning about how it is made and of course tasting some! We stopped in the town of Coimbra for lunch where Darren and I had a Portuguese dish called francesinha. It’s a famous Porto specialty: essentially a sandwich piled with beef/steak, ham and sausage, covered with melted cheese and drenched in a rich, slightly spicy beer-and-tomato sauce. It’s often served with fries, and sometimes topped with a fried egg. It was very good, but very filling.

We then made it to the ship and got checked in. Tomorrow is a sailing day. We sail all the way up the river and then eventually we will make our way slowly back to Porto.

Ben-Vindo a Portugal! Days 1 - 3

Hello friends!

I usually try to blog daily but the last 3 days has been a blur and very eventful. I'll try to catch you up, so it may be a bit long! This trip we are travelling with Darren's family (his parents, brother and sister-in-law).

Our trip started out a little bumpy. We got a notification that our flight was delayed 2 hours, making our connection in Toronto not possible. I called immediatly but the wait time was 60+ minutes. So, we decided to head to the airport right away. Turns out, that is the way to do it. The airline assistance there told us if you phone in the airport they know you are there and will help you sooner. Definitly true! They picked up right away. They worked away and got us on a flight to Montreal with a connector to Lisbon and because we were there at the airport, we were able to get to the flight no problem. Everything from there worked pretty good. We breazed through customs (that includes the new EU idenification).

Except....retrieving our luggage. We were travelling with Darren's parents and between the 4 of us, we had 3 pieces of luggage. One bag was right there when we got there. Then we waited, and waited, probably 90 minutes. Thanks to Darren becoming our resident techy, we had air tags, so we knew our luggage was in the building. I finally went to ask where the lost luggage area was because our baggage carousel showed that the last bag had been delivered. He asked me if our bag was oversize and I said it was not. However, on our way to luggage assistance we noticed a red bag circling a belt that looked an awful lot like ours and low and behold it was! On the oversize bags, with the other bag which was a very small suitcase, also belonging to our group. Who knows how long they had been circling!

But the important thing...in Lisbon, on time, with all our luggage!

We got out transfer to our hotel and then decided to explore a bit. We took a walk down their main street which is modeled on the Champs-Elysees. It was very hot, about 30 degrees.

We ended the night with dinner at a very good little pizzaria across the street.

Day 2

Today we met up with Darren's brother and sister making our group 6. We organized a tour to Sintra, an area just outside of the main city of Lisbon. We were picked up at our hotel and then made our way out of Lisbon city. All of the traffic was coming in, so going out seemed pretty easy. Our guide Carlos gave us a lot of information about Lisbon and Portugal on our way out to Sintra. The drive was lovely.

We first went to Pena Palace. King Ferdinand II built this palace in the mid 1800s as a summer retreat. It is high on one of the mountains. We had a short walk up from where we parked and took in the views to start and Carlos gave us some background about the palace. We then got to walk through it. The views from there were pretty amazing. We then walked down to the Valley of Lakes. They seemed more like ponds to me. They were algae covered, so very green.

We then went for lunch at a nice place that Carlos picked out. I got to try a cod risotto. When we were in Norway last year, we visited Lofoten. It was known for cod fishing and for salting cod. They had said that most of their fish went to Portugal. I figured I'd have to try some at some point. I love risotto so decided to give it a try. It is definitly salty but I did really enjoy it.

After lunch, we headed on a walk through town towards Quinta da Regaleira. It was quite a walk up to our next stop. There was a little miscommunication about what exactly we were doing after lunch. We thought we would be able to get back to the van to grab backpacks and hats, but we were actually walking all the way up to Quinta da Regaleira. It is a palace constructed in the early 1900s and again had great views. We got to walk around for a bit and then made our way down to they town center to meet Carlos.

Next, we took a ride to Cabo da Roca. This is the most western point of continental Europe. The 16th-century poet Luís de Camões described it as the place "where the land ends and the sea begins". Last year we made it to the northern most point, Nordkapp. Only 1 out of 3 to go... I don't see us making it to Russia anytime soon, so we will have to settle for north, west, south. We headed back to our hotel where we met up with some of our Scenic tour group (those doing the pre-Lisbon tour) where we had a welcome drink and some information for the the next 3 days. I was introduced to a new drink, a Porto tonic. This one was made with white port. It was very tasty. I am sure I'll have a few more this trip!

We finished up with a latish dinner downtown.

Day 3

Today we met up with our Scenic tour guide in Lisbon. We had a morning bus tour that took us to the waterfront where we visted the Belem tower and the Monument of Discoveries. We also visited a church where sailors would have their confessions heard before they went to sea. We were dropped off at old town where we met Darren's brother and sister-in-law and we rented a tuk tuk to take a tour of Lisbon. We got to go up to the top of one of the hills and the views were spectacular.

We ended the day with dinner at Pinoquio in central Lisbon. It was very good. I had a seafood bread pudding, a Portuguese dish. It was fantastic. Darren had the squid with bacon, also very good. Lisbon has not disappointed so far. We have one more full day here before heading to Porto.