Author: awaywiththebirds

June 27: Porto Yes, yes, yes…. there was NO blog yesterday, as blog writer took a short rest! Here I am, ready to embark on a hop on-hop off bus, Porto style. The bus took me through the old town with its narrow streets (it’s amazing how those buses negotiate the streets), lots of construction…

June 26: Porto Departed ship and reached our hotel at Porto. We are right on the waterfront of the popular Ribeira area. Interestingly there can only be two taxis on the waterfront at any one time, so we had to wait a while to arrive. Tiny hotel – only 7 rooms. Here’s the view from…

June 25: Porto and last cruise day Today we visited some key sites in Porto, a very quaint city, and Portugal’s second largest city after Lisbon. It is situated at the mouth of the Douro river. A visit to McDonalds is compulsory because it is said to be the nicest and most elegant of this…

June 24: Gaia Today we took a cable car ride at Gaia, which is on the opposite side of the river from Porto, so we had great views of Porto. A long bridge connects Gaia to Porto, and on the Gaia side lies the famous Monastery of Serra do Pilar Then we visited Taylor’s estate,…

June 23: Guimaraes The Portuguese section of the Douro river has 5 locks. These locks, most of which were built in the 1970s and 1980s allow navigation for ships of a certain size ( they can’t be wider than 11 metres, or longer than 83 metres). Today we went through the highest lock which has…

June 22: Mateus Palace Remember when the wine du jour used to be Mateus Rose! Remember how the used Mateus bottles served to hold candles! Takes you back, doesn’t it ? ( you can still buy an empty original Mateus bottle for $15-20 on eBay!). The original label shows a magnificent palace, and that’s where…

June 21 : Pinhao Pinhao is a very quaint hilltop village, famed for the artwork on its railway station (more on that later), so I thought I would get up early and explore the village. I headed out at 6.30 am, dutifully collecting a boarding pass so they knew who was out and about. I…

June 20: Castelo Rodrigo Our boat is moored in Spain, right on the border with Portugal and there is a 1 hour time difference between the two countries. This has greatly confused my Apple Watch which keeps adding 1 hour and then subtracting 1 hour! It has also confused Vodafone which keeps sending me messages…

June 19: Salamanca to cruise Left Madrid first thing and arrived Salamanca around noon. The old city of Salamanca was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988, because of its important historical and architectural heritage, particularly its cathedral which is stunning. Interestingly part of the cathedral was restored recently, and to ensure the restoration…