We pushed off from the dock (well, actually we pushed away from the ships between us and the dock) a little after 7 this morning and soon found ourselves on a quiet stretch of the Douro. We weren’t alone, though – we saw a few boaters out for a morning row.

We had one lock to traverse before reaching our first destination, Entre-os-Rios. We stopped before approaching the lock – there was a worker keeping the hillside vegetation under control.

I went up to the Sun Deck to watch the traversal; they’d lowered the canopy over the lounge chairs so that we could get through the lock, so I got to see the solar cells that Ama is using to partially power the ship.

And then we were at the lock. There were sailors on either side of the ship making sure we didn’t bump the sides.

The captain came onto the deck to make the final adjustments.

And we were through to Entre-os-Rios, where we disembarked and got onto buses to take us to Quinta da Aveleda for a scenic walk, lunch, and wine.

The route took us through Penafiel. Penafiel has some interesting artwork in their roundabouts – this one has 70 slabs of granite commemorating both the importance of granite to the economy and the 70 parishes in the province.

And cyclists were everywhere – in fact, we had to slow down several times because bicyclists were in the lane, going very slowly up hills. This guy wasn’t a problem, though.

And then we were at the Quinta.

The estate has been under one ownership since the 17th Century, and it’s been a winery and vineyard for a couple of centuries. Much of it is taken up by flowers and wildlife.

There were dozens of varieties of hydrangea.

I liked this Perforate St. John’s wort.

This bush is called “yesterday, today, and tomorrow” because the flowers change color so quickly.

There were many fire lilies.

This hydrangea is also called “Tea of Heaven”.

They have a small flock of goats.

The family preserved this window from a 16th Century building in Porto; it has some relationship to Henry the Navigator, but I didn’t take careful enough notes to remember what it was.

They grow cork trees on the estate; the cork they harvest is used for clothing, not wine. You can see how much of the cork they harvest every few years.

The family who owns the estate is a Big Deal; the Royal Family visited from time to time, including having dinner outside in 1901.

One more tiger lily for the road!

We finished the tour with a visit to the Brandy Aging Room. The smell was heavenly, but we didn’t get to taste any brandy.

Lunch was pleasant but not picturesque; we had to leave Aveleda to return to the ship. The gift shop wasn’t even open!

The drive back to the ship was fast – no cyclists.

I don’t know what the connection is between this statue of Christ and the bullhorns mounted on it; I don’t even know how to ask.

We returned to the ship for a beautiful afternoon of cruising down the Douro.

We saw small towns, terraced farms, beaches, and more.

We traversed the Carrapatelo lock, the biggest lock on the river. We barely made it!

The Douro valley is very beautiful.

Tonight, we dock at Régua and will have a Fado show after dinner. Should be fun!

It turns out I don’t know Porto as well as I thought I did. This morning we decided to go to the Romantic Museum at the Crystal Palace; I followed the directions given by Google. About three minutes after I left the hotel, I realized that we had passed the same location yesterday going in the other direction just before we arrived at the Bolsa. Seeing a sign today that said “Hotel de Bolsa” was a hint, but I also recognized the name of the street that the Bolsa is on. I had no idea we were so close….

It took us another twenty minutes to get to the museum; of course, there was a great view of the Douro along the way!

The Romantic Museum is an “extension” of the City Museum of Porto. It’s in an old house and the entire interior was given over to an exhibition titled "METAMORPHOSES – Vegetal, Mineral and Animal Immanence in the Romantic Domestic Space ". There were a few paintings, but it was mostly actual objects – everything from pianos to furniture to lace. I would love to have this desk!

The exhibit ended with a “cabinet of curiosities” occupying an entire room.

I wouldn’t make this museum my first stop in Porto, but it was small enough to explore completely in the time we had this morning.

We decided to take one of Google’s alternate routes back to the hotel in the hope of finding somewhere for lunch. We passed the Justice Museum (and its courtrooms) and got a nice view of Clergiós Tower before turning onto a street we hadn’t yet explored, where we found Swallow Decadent Brunch. The menu was interesting and TripAdvisor said it was good, so we went in. TripAdvisor was right; I had the chicken and waffles and Diane had lox and bagel (with egg) and we both enjoyed our meals.

Our hotel was only five minutes away, all downhill; we collected our luggage and the hotel called a taxi to take us to the AmaDouro, our home for the next week. When the taxi stopped, we worried that we might be repeating our Budapest experience of being dropped at the wrong place and having to schlep our luggage for miles – but the driver checked with a guard who pointed out the ship, and all was well.

We arrived a few minutes before they were ready to start the mandatory Covid tests – we passed and could officially check in, unpack, and greet our friends.

After dinner this evening, the ship took us on a short cruise on the Douro to see the city greet the night.

We’re docked again and will sail at breakfast time tomorrow.

We had no firm plans for today other than to walk around Porto and see what we could see. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and set out just before 10am.

Our first stop was the Igreja dos Carmelitas Descalços, one of two adjacent churches owned by the Carmelites – although a “Secret House” was discovered between them a few decades ago. The church is lavishly gilded.

Our next planned stop was the Palacio da Bolsa (the former Stock Exchange); Google Maps offered us several walking routes with similar ETAs; we decided to take the one that led us through a row of sanctioned street vendors and a park. We escaped with wallets intact, and soon we were across from Porto’s very modern Justice Building.

We then found ourselves passing the Igreja de São José das Taipas. We were going to keep walking but the sign outside said that there was a painting inside of the disaster of the Bridge of Boats, so we went in. I wasn’t surprised to see that the altar was gilded!

Thousands of civilians died in the first Battle of Porto during Napoleon’s campaign in Spain and Portugal when the “Bridge of Boats” that crossed the Douro collapsed under the weight of the people trying to flee the city. The painting in the church shows the disaster.

We avoided stopping anywhere else until we got to the Bolsa. The only way to see the Bolsa is on a guided tour, and we arrived with barely enough time to get on the only English-language tour on the schedule.

We began in the Court of Nations; it had a magnificent skylight and the coat of arms of twenty nations that were friends of Portugal at the time the room was built.

The tour continued through the palace, ending at the Arab Hall which is still used for formal visits and official city events.

After the tour, there was yet another interesting-looking church on our route, but we avoided going in.

We wanted to have lunch on the Ribeira, but didn’t like the restaurants we saw at river level; instead, we went to A Grade in an alley away from the river itself. We had the house codfish and liked it a lot.

We wandered around the Ribeira and discovered a branch of the City Museum of Porto that was devoted to the Douro; it had some interesting exhibits (including a 1960s documentary about the last “rabelos” on the Douro, bringing port to Porto by rowing it there). An artist had decanted soil from various places along the Douro into wine bottles and mounted them on racks.

It also had a wine bar with Port tastings and comparisons; we indulged.

We paid our respects to Prince Henry the Navigator before going back to our hotel to regroup.

We headed out again for a chocolate and Port wine tasting at Chocolataria Equador; we decided against buying either, at least for the time being.

Our hotel offered a free “welcome drink” to its guests; the only catch was the timing – it was only available from 11am to 6pm, and we didn’t expect to be at the hotel then. But we were there this afternoon and tried the Madeira – not bad!

We walked to the Santa Caterina shopping district and had a simple dinner at Mengos. On the way back to the hotel, we enjoyed a nice view of Clergiós Tower passed by the Igreja Paroquial de Santo Ildefonso (we didn’t even check to see if the church was open!).

Shabbat Shalom!

We’ve had good luck with Tours by Locals and today was no exception. We took the Discover Porto Highlights Private Tour with our guide, Ricardo M., and we got a wonderful introduction to the city and might have even walked enough to make up for the Pastéis de Nata that Ricardo treated us to at our coffee stop!

Ricardo met us at 9:30 in our hotel lobby and we took off for our first stop a few hundred meters away, the [Sāo Bento Train Station(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/São_Bento_railway_station). We’d walked by there yesterday evening but hadn’t gone in, so we were surprised by the beautiful tile murals on the interior walls showing significant events in Portuguese history.

Our next stop was the grounds of the Sé do Porto (the Porto Cathedral); we saw this interesting not-road sign as walked there.

The Cathedral is old – it can be dated back to the 12th Century, though parts are much newer. There are other museums nearby, like the Museum of Painted Glass (we didn’t have time to visit it), and there are lots of houses and apartments in the area. The owners are required to keep the exteriors mostly unchanged, but Ricardo told us that the interiors were quite modern.

The Cathedral, like much of Porto, is decorated in porcelain tile.

We walked across the Douro River on the Dom Luis I Bridge – it’s for pedestrians and the Metro, no cars. The view was wonderful.

The other side of the river is a different city, Vila Nova de Gaia. It’s the home of many Port houses and is more populous than Porto. We stopped at the grounds of the Monastery of Serra do Pilar to enjoy the view of Porto proper.

We walked back across the bridge and visited the temporary Bolhāo Market, where we bought what I suspect will only be the first chocolate of the trip. The market itself is being rebuilt a few blocks away and will be enormous; even the temporary market had an overwhelming number of food stalls, mostly fresh fish and produce. No photos, sorry!

I’ve only gotten through the first hour-and-a-half of our day, it’s after 11pm and I’m exhausted, so I’m going to stop for the night. Boa noite!