We toured the Jeronimos Monastery. Huge ... gorgeous inside and out.
We walked through the Alfama District, Lisbon’s Old Quarter. It’s one of those old neighborhoods of very narrow and hilly labyrinthine streets with lots of cafes, tiny residences and very small shops.
... and sometimes the whole building is covered with tiles. Iron work terraces and doors add to the charm.
After arriving in Porto, we enjoyed a guided tour of the city. The train station is gorgeous with tiled murals on all of the walls.
This is a typical street in downtown Porto. But there is something special. The bookstore under the 3 gray awnings is where J.K. Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter book. She lived in Portugal for 2 years when she was married to her first husband.
Day Three - Friday, March 23. We very much enjoyed an excursion to Quinta da Aveleda, one of the largest wine producers in Portugal. We especially loved walking the 25 acres of the grounds and gardens. It was magical.
We also learned about Portuguese wines and wine tasting in a special room. Each person had a sink and an illuminated panel set in the table so the color of the wine could be carefully evaluated. Paul and I decided we’re terrible at describing and evaluating wines. 😜
We stopped in this charming town for some traditional Portuguese pastry.
Due to high water on the Douro River, we've been stuck at the dock in Porto and making all of our excursions by bus. We’re amused by the towel art and are grateful that if we have to be stuck at a dock, at least we’re on the side of the ship that has a very pretty view across the river.
The weekly Sunday flea market was taking place on a number of streets throughout a large area of the town.
Day Six: Monday, March 26. We chose to go on an optional tour to Salamanca, Spain on Monday where we stayed overnight. It was a long bus ride to get there, but we’re glad we went. We toured the University of Salamanca, at 800 years old is the oldest in Spain. The city of Salamanca has about 150,000 people and 55,000 of them are students so it has a young population in this 13th century setting.
Day Eight: Wednesday, March 28. We visited the quiet little village (population 1,500) of Favaios. We had a guided tour at the local museum to learn about the wine that this area is known for - Moscatel de Favaios, as well as about their special bread baking, which they are also known for. Then we went to the winery where the Moscatel is produced (and had a sample, of course) and to one of the 8 bakeries in the village where we enjoyed a demonstration and bread, jam, cheese and more Moscatel!
I wish I was able to get some good photos of the countryside that we drove through on the bus. We were high in the mountains, overlooking beautiful views of terraced vineyards and small villages. It was a little scary 😳 but it was beautiful.
After meeting our ship, we sailed along the river back to Porto, enjoying beautiful scenery. Overall, the weather hasn’t been ideal. Except for one day when it warmed up a bit, it’s mostly been in the 50’s and often cloudy and occasionally misty. We were told that this spring is particularly chilly - usually this time of year people are starting to head to the beach. There really hasn’t been a ‘wow’ factor on this trip, but we’ve enjoyed the get-away. We’ll be heading home tomorrow.
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