Andre and Wendy: Douro River Cruise

We're wondering if Marc & Mary-Sue made it home yesterday with the storm, or if they had chosen to stay in Bangor for the night, or maybe they went to Fred and Limas in Saint John if it wasn't storming there. It is going to be a rude awakening for them getting back to the new snow after spending the last week golfing! Speaking of golf, can someone please send us a hole by hole, shot by shot, of the last few holes of the Masters and playoffs (Jean-Guy???) Never did find it on TV last night...

What a day for us! Started off this morning by starting in a quick (that was not so quick) load of laundry, Andre did this while I tried to sleep in a little, but that didn't work well. Got that hung up in the apartment, no clothes line outside here so we'll see if it is dry when we get back.

We were at the pier for 8:30 for the river boat cruise we booked for today. This was literally a one minute walk downhill from our apartment.

We boarded the cruise boat at about 9 and were on our way shortly after that. We booked a traditional boat, like the ones they would have used to transport the port from along the Douro years ago. There were 26 of us on the cruise, so we had lots of room to spread out. First of we were served breakfast. This was coffee, wow do they ever drink a lot of coffee here, espresso style. From the first thing in the morning, right through until after their dinner at 11PM. We also had some kind of tiny croissants with honey or sugar on top, breads with ham and cheese. Definitely not what we would serve for breakfast at home, but it did the trick, we were a little worried we would be served the same thing for lunch too. Oh we also got OJ, I think it was Tang, we have been so spoiled with the fresh squeezed OJ we have been having for weeks now.

Leaving the town of Porto was beautiful. The sky it totally clear, no sign of rain today. The colours really stood out because of the time of day, hopefully Andre got some amazing pictures. We went under 4 or 5 bridges just leaving town, very pretty.

Leaving Porto on the cruise boat

Leaving Porto, here you can see 4 of the six bridges that cross the river here

The Douro river is much less busy that other rivers we have spent the day on. In total we saw one other speed boat, and a few people out in kayaks and a couple of fisherman out. It was such a calm morning that it would have been a fantastic day to do anything on the water.

This guy met us part way into the trip, he must have been waiting for the boat. He followed in and out of our wake for about 45 minutes, definitely not the first time he has done this, check out his arms!

Fisherman

They served us chips, crackers, and little sandwiches made out of what was like cake and ham, along with white port around 11 AM. I do like the white port, this is served cold before a meal. There is a dining room set up on the ship, you can either sit inside here, or there are chairs and benches set up outside. This morning it is really cold, I had 3 layers on, including my warmest jacket, and my mittens, and it was still cold. This is one of the reasons that the port is so good here, they have very cold winters and very hot summers. Not many of us braved the outdoors to start the day, but it is such a better view from the outside that we stayed out.

Snack time, with some port of course

After leaving Porto the scenery is not too exciting for the first 3 hours, you do go by a few towns and see some rural parts of Portugal, but it is the second half of the trip that was amazing. Before getting into the really pretty part we were served lunch. A nice surprise as it was really quite good. We started with soup, no idea what it was, but it was vegetable something, with lots of salt. After soup we had rice, peas, and pork. It really was good, especially since I thought we'd be having some type of sandwiches! With the meal we were served unlimited red wine, we definitely took advantage of this, or I should say Andre did.

Some towns we passed by

The train we will be taking back to Porto

We also passed through 2 locks today, Andre tells me this is our Panama Canal cruise now done too. I've seen locks before, but never been on a boat going through them, it was pretty cool to see. One was 15 meters and the other was 35 meters, 35 meters is the highest one in Europe we were told. So funny to see the land and water up above you as you are rising.

Above first lock

Getting ready to leave first lock

Second lock 35 m high, highest in Europe

Looking up from boat inside second lock

After lunch we moved outside again. Now the really beautiful scenery started. At this point is it also very very hot outside. We are peeling layers off, wishing we had brought shorts and sandals. The mountains are now getting very high, lots of shale rock, and lots of tiers of vines for grapes cut out of the mountains. The leaves are just coming out now on the grape vines, it must be stunning here in September when it is harvest time. We saw some farmers out tending to their grape vines, some were spraying something on them, not sure if I want to know what that was.

Terraces of vineyards

Enjoying myself cruising along the Douro

Example of how steep it is, all 3 floors are on the ground floor!

Leaving the boat in Regua to catch the train

We toured the river until around 4:30 when we arrived at the town of Regua. As we were coming into Regua we saw quite a few port houses from the same companies that are in Porto. From our tour yesterday we learned that they usually leave the wine here for the first year before bringing it down to Porto for storage. In Regua we got off the boat and are now waiting on a train to head back to Porto, which should take 2 hours. It is now 5:25, train was supposed to leave at 5:15, who knows what time we will actually hit the road! I wonder how long I will stay awake, Marc is probably betting on me being asleep before we leave the station!

Guess what Marc, I didn't fall asleep at the train station, I worked on this blog. But 30 minutes into the ride Andre tells me I was asleep. Oh well the first 30 minutes was the prettiest anyway.

View from the train

Another one from the train

Arriving back in Porto

Train station in Porto

Arrived back in Porto around 7:30, the train station is at near the top of the hills in Porto, so it is a walk downhill back to the apartment. On the way back we stop at a couple of tour ticket places, trying to figure out what to do tomorrow, should we drive somewhere, or just take the train. Plus, it is calling for rain in the morning, so it may just be a bit of a lazy day for us after all this touring.

Decided to go out to supper along the waterfront, found a tiny place that had 7 tables and had a nice meal. This is the first time we have had someone serve us, or really anyone, not be very nice, not sure if he was having a bad day or what. I thought it was because we were English, but he had the same attitude with the people sitting behind us. Oh well, the meal was good, and being here for nearly 6 weeks now it is amazing how friendly we have found everyone.

After supper we walked along the waterfront for Andre to take some night shots. Tomorrow with the weather forecast we may not be down here again at night.