Friday, 5/17.  Another bus drive, but shorter this time.  A fun visit to a town that is essentially one big co-op for wine and bread.  The wine is largely a table wine of muscatel.  Huge production facility using locally grown grapes.  Fun place. Bought a t-shirt with “Follow Me! I know where the wine is!” on the back.  They traditionally bottle the production in tiny bottles that can be placed in a lady’s purse.  Excellent tour.

The bread is called four corner bread.  See the photo.  We visited one of the eight remaining bakeries.  The entire town is at risk of disappearing because of a low birth rate coupled with youth relocation to big cities.  Excellent bread.  The town has a very modern museum of both wine and bread.

Then a wonderfully entertaining lunch at another local winery.  The owner was an Andy Kaufman-type comedian.  Food was terrific.

Late afternoon cruise down the Douro was also fun.  The evening had a concert by what’s called a tuna band. Looked a lot like a jewish group, but certainly weren’t.

Great day.

Thursday, 5/16. Two hour drive to Salamanca, home to one of the oldest universities in the world (1218). 30,000 students. Tourism. No other industry. While it was fairly interesting, it wasn’t worth a four hour round trip drive.

Among the images on a university facade is a small skull with a frog on top. Finding it on the facade is considered good luck. Praying to it is also good luck. This is the city’s symbol. You can find frogs everywhere with or without the skull. The main cathedral has a rebuilt facade with the image of an astronaut. These two images were essentially the high point of the tour. The city is notable in having a new cathedral (18th century) immediately next to an old one (13th century).

It wasn’t a ground breaking day. Honestly, the high point of the cruise has been the river and shores. The excursions are so-so.

Wednesday, 5/15. Beautiful cruising. Two high locks. Nice tour of an old castle guarding Portugal at the end of the day. Captain’s Cocktails. Lovely tender local pork with wine bought in Spain. Flamenco dancing. Wonderful day.

Tuesday, 5/14. Departed Porto into a bright sunrise. Fascinating cruise upriver, at times extraordinarily close to the shore. Beautiful views, and we hadn’t yet made it to wine country yet. Second lock was 38 meters high! They lowered all the equipment to go under the lock structure, but nicely let passengers stay on the upper deck, but warned everyone to sit down. Really fun.

Bought a cork ball cap. Waterproof and much more flexible than I expected. Yoriko got a little pocketbook made with cork.

After lunch the vineyards appeared. Napa was put in the shade, in spades. Stunning sites that resist adequate description. Our excursion included the estate of Mateus Winery. Beautiful gardens, nicely preserved mansion. Then Sandeman Port Wine. The drive up was scary. The views were remarkable. The port was good.

Dinner featured traditional Portuguese food and entertainment. Not to my liking. Music was via an accordion duet. Food was foreign. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t familiar. Great film showing the river before dams. Life threatening efforts to bring port barrels down white water. Captain did a Q&A.

A great day.

Monday, 5/13. Bus tour included 45 minutes in a traffic jam. Could have walked to the destination in 30. So-so tour overall. After lunch we had a fun walk across the lower portion of an Eiffel inspired bridge, followed by a funicular ride on a contraption that adjusted the car’s horizontal to the angle of slope. It looked much like an accordion.

Walked around the shopping area, buying a few small items. Nice sign: “The husband is the best person to tell a secret. He’ll never tell because he wasn’t listening.” Then walked back across the same bridge on the upper level. (The lower and upper are about 150 feet apart.) Then a cable car back to sea level.

The evening included a long anticipated tour and tasting at Graham’s Port Lodge. Very educational. The tasting included ports that even Yoriko liked which was a breakthrough. Dinner was fantastic. Yoriko had some kind of octopus, while I had ox tail stew. Bought some port, including a bottle for a friend that way exceeded my price line. It was a fun experience.

At evening’s end we attended a good lecture on the Portuguese period of exploration. Overall, it was a good day.

Sunday, 5/12. Departed the hotel as the buses were preparing to go. Arrived Sintra without any wrong turns! An Event. Got there too early and had to wait for the Hop on/Hop Off buses to begin. Got to the entry of the Moorish Castle and waited in line over 30 minutes for tickets. The line wasn’t that long, but each person had an issue. Learned later that there was another ticket office with no line. Wasted time. The Castle offered incredible views and some entertaining architectural history. Worth the wait. The Pena Palace, which we viewed only from outside, should accuse Disney of trademark infringement. Weirdly similar to Fantasyland. Both locations required serious climbs. Soaked with sweat.

We had lunch at a hairpin turn on the one-way road leading through Sintra, enjoying the buses as they managed the corner without taking out the restaurant. Got out of town without a missed turn! We were on a roll. The highway to Porto was interesting, with several long bridges over valleys and short tunnels under mountains.

Arrived in Gaia, south of the Douro River, without error. Then the GPS “lady” failed us. Chose the wrong exit of a roundabout twice! To be fair, roads appeared out of nowhere at times, challenging any useful guidance. Drove through a hospital emergency admissions driveway. Searched without success for a hope-for inexpensive parking lot. Finally gave it up and just parked at the expensive one next to the ship. The desk clerk then walked me to a cheap alternative! Immediate exposure to the “Viking Touch”. Ship cruised the lower Douro during dinner. Got a glimpse of the Atlantic. Great start to the cruise.

Temperature reached 93 degrees. They warned that the week would be hot.

Saturday, 5/11. If the morning Viking tour is a precursor, we’re in for some veeeery slow walking. Tour guide spoke haltingly, constantly searching for the proper word. Recipe for sleeping on the bus. Bus appeared brand new! But we hit the high spots of Lisbon that were too far to walk to. Church and adjoining monastery was simple in design, rich in history. It was sailors’ last stop before setting sail to pray for a good voyage.

The Discoveries Monument points out to the water, so no photo of its front. We weren’t given enough time to get close to it anyway. The Tax Building had been built in the middle of the bay, but the 1755 earthquake and resultant tsunami created land on one side. Good for photos.

Lisbon has a thing for elephants and rhinos. First time the prime animal hasn’t been a lion.

After our siesta we went out for lunch. Yoriko ate massive sardines, I had excellent shrimp soaked in garlic sauce. The promenade outside the hotel had a long row of antique sellers. Old teaspoons were common, selling for 5 euro each. When we saw the long line to go up the Santa Justa Lift, we intelligently went up the Elevador do Lavra funicular and then down the Lift. Both forms of travel were fun, without waiting.

Stopped several times for drinks (once just for cokes). Ate ham and cheese sandwiches in the room with our bottle of Tio Pepe sherry.

Tomorrow the cruise passengers take buses to Porto. We’ll drive, making stops along the way.

Friday, 5/10. Weirdly, this is only the third time I’ve driven from one country into another (excluding repetitions). But first we had to get away from Seville. GPS says “In 3 kilometers, take the left exit”. So I move to the left. Then the 4 lane road splits in two, with the main road going right. We have had trouble getting out of nearly every city. (I am still having issues with first gear. Stalled in a roundabout! I want my Goldwing!)

Portugal has non-cash toll roads. At the country’s entrance we drive up to an unmanned booth, slip in a credit card, and it’s associated with the car’s license number. Easy. Every web site warned how tough it was to do and I had been worried. Where Spain seems to have speed trap cameras on the roads, Portugal does without I guess. Cruising along at 72 MPH, we were often passed by very rapid others. The left lane is not to dawdle in.

Crossed one of the longest suspension bridges in Europe (cash toll), which sits next to a huge Christ the King statue, built to resemble Rio’s Christ the Redeemer.

Navigating to the hotel was made more difficult by entering a long tunnel under the city with several exits. GPS shut down while in the tunnel, so I took a guess on which one to take. We made it eventually. Cobblestones are rougher here, roads seem narrower, if that’s possible. Our Viking River Cruise begins with two nights in a 5-star hotel. Uniformed doormen, etc. Too fancy for my blood. Yoriko is fine with it.

The cruise briefing confirmed that we’re below the median age. Young again! I found a tapas bar that’s open all day, so we ate early (7:00). Excellent food. Walked down to the famous elevator, then returned to our room. At 9:45 the maid knocked on our door to turn down the sheets. Apparently, we were supposed to be at dinner.

Thursday, 5/9. Quiet kind of day. Picked up laundry. Bought shoes. Wandered the city. Had a lunch of sausages and fried eggs covering french fries. Strawberry shortcake ice cream cone. Watched an endless stream of carriages going here and there.

In the evening we attended a cooking class that was supposed to teach us how to make various tapas. In reality we learn to make soup, appetizer and paella. Been there, done that. I was a little put out.

We leave Spain tomorrow for Lisbon. I have mixed emotions whether to drive straight through or do some sightseeing along the way.

Wednesday, 5/8. Tour of the cathedral and Palace (Alcazar). Meh. Impressive churches are getting repetitive. It was insanely crowded and our group was not good companions. Wore hats, used selfie sticks, asked inane questions. Most impressive thing about the cathedral is that it has at least some of the bones of Christopher Columbus. Other bones may be in the Dominican Republic. The Tower is impressive as a repurposed Muslim minaret.

Alcazar is similarly a repurposed Muslim palace. Even the parts reputedly built after Christian occupancy has extensive Arabic writings on its walls. Seems very strange. The rooms are bare and the guide struggled to impress. Showed us photos from her smartphone, which I thought was lame. Obama toured the palace just a few weeks ago.

Toured the barrio. Strangely quiet. Everyone seemed off somehow.

Seville is having their BIG PARTY this week, so I’m not sure the city is showing us its best face. We’d seen that a large fair had been set up while driving in, but didn’t understand the significance. We walked over to the area. It is huge. My photos are a dim representation. See this site. Words and photos cannot represent its size. Over a thousand different entities rent tents for their private parties. (Security is heavy to ensure they remain private, though all the tents are all open on one side.) Horses with perfectly dressed riders simply sit in front of their tents. Incredibly fancy carriages ride up and down the avenues. Makes the Rose Parade look like a pauper’s drunken stumble. In the evening the horses go away, they clean up the mess, and dance until 5 AM. It was jammed while we visited and more were arriving. As many as a million people a day, mostly dressed up. Any and every decorous event in the USA dims in comparison.