Wednesday July 1
First of all I want to say "thank you" to my friends who leave a comment at the bottom of a blog. Even if I can't answer I want you to know how much I appreciate it, especially if the comment is about something specific. And to get praised by my niece Maren (a professional Photagraper) about my photos is the icing on a cake.
This morning we are leaving Lisbon and are taken by bus to Porto where our ship is waiting for us. We are told that it takes about 4 hours. It is a large bus and we are not filling all seats.
I find it very interesting to see the view change. Not boring at all. We have one stop to visit toilettes and have a cup of coffee "Americano com leite".
At 1 pm we reached Vila Nova de Gaia, the other side of Porto. We visited a winery. Actually I think it was called "The Wine Experience Museum" and also has a restaurant. We had reservations and actually had to tell our trip leader Sara what we wanted (3 options) to eat.
First we had to visit the toilets again. The walls were decorated with this art.
I had chosen the fish pie (Cod).
James had the "heartattack on a plate". That's what Sarah called it. A sandwich with meat, covered with cheese and gravy and even had a sunny-side-up egg on top. He liked it.
The whole building was incredible and also the view onto the Duoro River and Porto on the other side.
After the meal we went into the Wine Museum. I had not expected it but it was really very interesting. Information about everything from the different kind of grapes including difference between table and wine grapes. The dirt and effect it has on the grape plant, weather, temperature, slope of the field. angel to the sun, and and, and.
Oh yes, it also talked about the history of wine bottle and measuring containers.
This area had little rooms with mannequins in costumes of different regions of wineries. Ha-ha, what else might you want to know?
Next was the wine testing. The explanation/lesson was different from what we know but it also worked and might sense. We started with the white, then with the red Duoro region wine and then with the Port. All very good.
And then it was time to drive to our ship. We could not believe what our bus driver had to do. He was incredible. The streets were incredible narrow, first up and then down, and very zigzag. Eventually we came to a place from which we could see the ship and walk down.
Check-in was fast and simple and we were shown to our room 323. The rooms were a little smaller than on the ships OAT or GCCT own and we are used to but perfectly ok. I was a bit worried about the TV hanging from the ceiling at the footend of the bed. James would walk there in the middle of the night to the bathroom. That spelled "danger" to me. I found out very quickly that there is a button when pushed makes the TV fold up neetly into the ceiling. Yeah!
Dinner at 7 pm.
Dessert was sinfully good. Chocolate cake made to perfection.
A little after 9 pm the sunset cruise started. We went to the "mouth" of the river where it flows into the ocean and than turned around again. There was a nice warm breeze and it just was lovely.
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