A Portuguese Cruise and More

Ten years ago, Mike and I were on a cruise that took us for less than a day into Portugal.  It was such a great experience that I vowed to return and spend time there.  I read all the tour books, thank you Rick Steves, and surfed the net about things to see and do.  I asked friends who had been there for advice. 

Then one day last winter I opened an email from Gate1 Travel that offered a 13-day tour which included a cruise on the Douro River.  I was sold!  Mike, however, was buried in his studies for an Italian driver’s license and wasn’t all that interested.  So I said, look, it’s not until June, let’s book it and I’ll make all the travel arrangements.  He conceded.

I can’t recall exactly how this happened, but my nephew Eddie who lives in Valencia, Spain, learned of our plan, and said “Gee, if you are in Portugal, why not come to visit us?”  So, five days were added to our itinerary.

We flew TAP Air from Rome to Lisbon, doing what we normally do, staying the night before at the Hilton next to the airport.  It’s so much easier to do, even though the price is crazy expensive.  We met up with our tour group in Lisbon, but more on that later.

And it turned out that there is a direct flight from Porto (the end of our tour) to Valencia, and also a direct flight from Valencia to Pescara.  It’s on Ryan Air, a budget airline, and that added some planning to our trip.  How does one pack for 18 days with only small carryon luggage?  I guess we could have checked bags, but, hey, let’s become better travelers.  We had to buy luggage that was an acceptable size, and then we had to figure out what to pack.  After multiple attempts, we still overpacked!  We are learning to pack for one week, and just do laundry.  Traveling is much easier if you don’t have to lug a heavy suitcase around.

On arrival at the Lisbon airport, we were promptly whisked off by friendly Gate1 staff to our hotel, the 5-star Sheraton.  Our room had recently been remodeled and was nicely updated.  Except for the bathroom.  The floor was slippery and the tub was dangerously slippery.  We had to be really careful.  In fact, one woman in our group fell, hit her head, and had to have several stitches; she was hospitalized for three days, and canceled the rest of the tour.  Not a good review for the Sheraton.

Before our official tour meet and greet at 6:00 p.m., Mike and I set out to walk around the city.  Just around the corner from the hotel we found a Bansky museum.  Now, this interested us because our granddaughter Liz likes graffiti, and she herself is a pretty good graffiti artist.  The museum was well curated and of course the gift shop we had to pass through to the exit was full of souvenirs.  We bought a T-shirt for Liz, on the slim chance that she will like it (she’s 16).

 At the meet and greet, we met our tour guide Dejan,  a high-energy guy who is from Serbia, and got briefed on what to expect during the next few days.  Somewhat tired, we opted to find a restaurant nearby for dinner.  It was really good and coincidentally sitting next to us were two young men from Pennsylvania who had just graduated college and were in Portugal for a get-away before starting a life of work.  It was fun to talk with them, and we wished them well.

You can jump to the photos by clicking HERE.

The next day (Monday) we had a good buffet breakfast at the hotel and divided up into two groups for a tour of Lisbon.  Mostly we saw the Belem tower and had an opportunity to taste the little cream filled pastries that Lisbon is famous for.  The tour dropped us off in the center of the old town, where we had hoped to get on a tram to see the city.  It was so crowded, that we thought about hiring a driver, when a nice young man came up to us and offered his tuk-tuk for a fair price.  We got lucky, as John, the driver, was a wealth of information about Lisbon and drove us around for two hours, hitting the highlights and even some not well-visited sites.  It was a fun day.

Tuesday morning after breakfast, we boarded buses and headed off to Porto, with a stop in Obidos.  Obidos turned out to be a colorful and welcoming city, reminding us of Roccascalenga in Abruzzo but without the cool castle (although there is a castle there, just not as cool).  We had a nice light lunch of chorizo, beans, and chips.  Also, I was introduced to their cherry liquor served in little chocolate cups.  Definitely a nice way to serve it.

We arrived late afternoon in Afurada where we boarded our ship and got settled in our little cabin. 

Wednesday we set sail for the cruise along the Douro.  The next six days were a series of “ooh, ahh” and “beautiful” and “delicious” exclamations.  We had elected to take every optional excursion and they were well worth the cost and effort (except for the last one, but that’s another story). 

Our ship went through all five locks on the river. 

We docked in Regua, where we saw the Douro Museum, and toured and winery. 

We docked in Pocinho and toured the Castelo Rodrigo.  The ship continued on the river and we met it in Vega de Terron. The next day we took an all-day tour to Salamanca, Spain.

We docked in Pinhao, and went on a tour of the Mateus Winery and had a great lunch at Quinta da Avessada.  We then met up with the ship in Regua.

We again docked in Afurada and took a city tour of Porto. 

From the dock, we joined a tour of the medieval city of Guimaraes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The next day the tour took us to Aveiro, a coastal city known as the “Venice of Portugal”. That evening we checked into our hotel in Porto.

On our last day, we were to join a group on a full day tour of Barcelos and Braga, but Mike had a bronchitis, so we found a hospital, got some good meds from a very nice pulmonologist, and took it easy.  We did have time to explore Porto some more, and really enjoyed the Gaia section of the city.

The best part of the Portugal trip?  Well, besides seeing the beautiful sites and tasting the food, we met a number of very interesting people.  Being on a ship of just 120 or so people is quite different from the ocean cruises that we’ve been on.  We enjoyed all of the conversations and hearing everyone’ s stories.  It was a very enjoyable trip.

But.  Our trip didn’t end there.

From Porto, we flew to Valencia, Spain.  Here we were hosted by my nephew (ex, but not) Eddie and his wife Heather.  Eddie and Heather moved to Valencia from San Jose, California, about nine years ago, bringing along their nine-year-old son and not knowing a word of Spanish.  They wanted to experience something different for two years and ended up staying.  Mike and I had gotten to know them fairly well when we visited our daughter Caroline while she was living in San Jose.  Eight years ago, on one of our cruises, we visited them in Valencia and were intrigued by their lifestyle and began to think about what it would be like for us to move to Europe.  Then three years ago, they came to visit us in our new home in Italy. 

So there we were, back in Valencia, and welcomed like family and treated like royalty.  Valencia is a great city, so much to do and see.  We had a great time!

Be sure to look at the pictures!  Click HERE.

Yes, this trip will stay vivid in our memories.   But where to next?