The ship left Porto, well more accurately, Gaia, just as the sun began to rise on a beautiful morning. It was lovely to watch from our cabin balcony.
The gulls were flying upriver in the pale mauve light of dawn.
It really was the river of gold.
It was all very serene.
After breakfast there was a talk about cork and the many uses to which it could be put. I had thought there was only one use for cork, but no! This was actually a lot more interesting than you might think. Aside from keeping your wine fresh, it can be used as a construction material and it is fireproof!. You can use it like leather to make bags and shoes and as fabric to make clothes. The uses seem to be endless and it is renewable. As it happens, the lady giving the lecture had a heap of cork stuff you could buy and plenty people, including Cindy, did just that.
After that we went through the Carrapatelo lock, so we went up on deck into the sunshine to watch this and to have a nice glass of Madeira, which was all very pleasant and it gave Cindy an opportunity to show off her new cork bag.
Luckily, one of the crew had alerted Bob to the certainty of getting wet as we went under the raised lock, so he was gallant enough to provide umbrellas for everyone, whilst he got wet taking the photo!
The lock is deep and remarkably narrow. It was, in fact, the deepest lock we navigated, with a lift/drop of 115 feet. That, of course, is one of the things that limits the size of boats that can sail the Duoro.
It was quite pleasant on deck and we spent a bit of time there, before lunch and another trip in the afternoon.
Of course, we had to have a Titanic moment!
We passed under another low bridge, and then we were asked to go below as the next bridge is so low, that we would all have lost our heads.
From the cabin we could see that we were in Port country. There were estate signs like this one everywhere.
After a nice lunch, we went to visit the Mateus Palace. Nothing can quite prepare you for how magnificent this place is. No wonder they used it on the bottles of Mateus Rose we all drank when we thought we knew what wine was all about.
The architect designed the approach to the palace so that you walked along a short winding road and then, turned the corner and there it was behind a still mirror like pond. Almost took your breath away.
We were split into small groups and local guides took us through some of the rooms, which are built and decorated in the most amazing Baroque style - as over the top as the building itself. The detailing was wonderful and everywhere you looked, something caught your eye.
Once outside we had a bit of free time to explore the outside of the building and the gardens. It was a lovely afternoon and it was all very enjoyable.
We went back out to the other side of the pond to get some more reflective photos.
It looks better in real life than it does on the bottle
After we had a nice ice cream in a wee nearby cafe, we were back on the bus to go to the Quinta da Roeda.
This was one of Croft's estates and it was here that they made the very first pink port. The local vineyard guides showed us through the vineyards and explained the background to the estate and how they made port. It was a bit of a walk in the vineyards and some decided to stay at the tasting room and shop and I'm pretty sure they had a drink or two as well.
When we finished the tour, we went to the very nice tasting rooms and were rewarded with a glass of the pink port, which was very nice indeed.
Then it was back onto the bus for a sleepy journey back to our mooring, so that we could all eat and drink some more!
The bus arrived at the dock and, horror of horrors, the boat was not there waiting for us.
However it soon sailed out of the darkness and we were all on board for a feast of Portuguese food.
It being a Portuguese night, the crew were dressed in traditional costume - even our lovely waitress Liliya, who comes from Bulgaria!
One of the chefs (and then the Captain) began to cut the beautiful Pata Negra ham. We ate a fair amount of that.
There was a big buffet of small dishes you could help yourself to - garlic potatoes, tuna salad, tempura asparagus, codfish cakes, sardines and a less than successful prawn cake thing, which none of us really liked.
There was a marinated steak with sort of roasted potatoes and I had rocket with mine the first time round, I can't remember what I had the second time. In my defence, the steaks were thin but very delicious.
We then went to the bar where there was a music quiz. The difference between this and other music quizzes was they made you dance, or sing, or both to gain extra points. All photographs of that have been destroyed.
However, we won the quiz after a tie break, where Sharon's Robbie Williams knowledge and Michael's ability to blatantly ask the barman for part of the answer, ensured our victory.
The prize was a bottle of Port!
We did not drink it, but we went to bed happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment