On the Douro and into Spain and back to Portugal and back to Spain.

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Not sure of location as we’ve jumped from Portugal to Spain several times. No we are in Spain for the night and tomorrow we bus to Salamanca. It’s meant to be quite something, tell you tomorrow.

Just come off the dance floor where Lee and I were the young couple. Scary sight seeing 80 plus year olds doing the twist or dancing to Abba. Thankfully no photos.

Below is the stuff I typed during the day. It does not include the blurb about our afternoon excursion but hopefully I’ll include that tomorrow. I will try and drop the photos although I know most will be upside down as most are selfies.

Beautiful scenery, well gorgeous really! But the gorges play havoc with internet reception so it’s typing time then post when I can.

Early morning on board. Early morning is anything before 9 o’clock as that’s when the breakfast stampede really cuts in. I have my pre-breakfast a little after 7:30 then I wake Lee about 9 for phase 2. There’s champagne on ice so today’s breakfast may be just a single course repeated and repeated! The mornings are brisk here, t shirt and coat up on the sun deck. Can’t say what others have on as I have the entire deck to myself. There’s a promise of a another sunny day here and alread any mist has burnt off. As we move inland, we actually sail into Spain today (do we sail?) the temperature has increased. Yesterday it reached 31 degrees but it is pleasant and easy to work around. That means we get a glass of good but cheap sparking. Unlike our last cruise drinks outside of meal times are not complimentary and are indeed not cheap. Even sparkling water is charged at €3 per bottle but the ship/boat has sparkling water from a dispenser for free. Couple this with the fact there’s a fridge in each room I’m surprised anyone buys water but lots do.

It’s lock time again, smaller and less impressive but yesterday’s was a tough act to beat. It’s still good though. Must be close to a 30 m change in height. It’s also bought out a few passengers, must be some engineers on board. All but one are male!

There’s another lecture on board today, after we found out everything we ‘wanted to know about Portuguese history’ yesterday. Today’s covers the history of the Douro River. I’m guessing it won’t be as well attended as the previous talk and that’s based not only on the fact that there’s champagne for breakfast.

Up we go.

The afternoon excursion takes us to an old (surprise, surprise!) fortified (but not like port is fortified) hill top town. We return for evening meal so really it’s just a few hours off the boat/ship. Not sure if it moves as we are away but I’ll see. Don’t let the cruise director know I haven’t memorised the daily bulletin!

There are more English tourists on board than Australian although we are well represented. Some have been a bit overwhelmed (correct and appropriate reaction) when I casually mention how many walks I’ve done in the UK, particularly if they remark that they are ‘ramblers’. Others have the ‘couldn’t you just hire a car’ response! They have been warned not to talk sport with us, or politics or religion so there go most of my conversation starters and when I bring up my Royal family sentiments there goes the last of them. Well not entirely true and I would get away with usually but every now and then Lee reads my posts so my degree of factuality has increased as a nod to marital harmony.

We are still surrounded by steep sided hills, probably would qualify as a gorge and still without internetness. That’s a new word I just made up. We were warned this would happen so we just have to grin and bare it.

It’s just ticked over 9 o’clock so I’ll go get Lee.

Just ticked over 10 o’clock so breakfast is ancient history. Now it’s only 2 and a bit hours to lunch! The internetness is sort of back so I’ve caught up with our daily dose of Julie photos and our likes and comments from our Facebook followers. Bizarre what a ritual that’s become but it’s a convenient and easy way to sort of communicate. Being cut off, even temporarily, makes us feel a bit cheated!

Out of the steep gorges and into the terraced vine laden hills again. It’s strange to think that the English port legacy here, all or at least the majority of the big port houses are English, is mainly a result of Napoleon. If history were tied to quirky facts like this I think it would be info more relatable and significantly more fun.

It’s unusually blustery on deck at the moment. Not sure why but north or south bank doesn’t seem to matter and there’s no protected bends. It’s not cold but it is unusual.

We’re coming into almond terrain, as well as vines and olive trees. Confident that will translate into good pastries in the village we visit later. It’s a harsh looking environment, dry despite the proximity of the Douro River and its tributaries but obviously good for vines and well olive trees seem to thrive anywhere and often appear to do better as the environment gets harsher. We enter Spain at some stage today. Just tried to Google Earth our position but without success so I can not estimate or even guess when the international border will be reached. The villages are becoming less frequent and smaller and I think it would be quite sparsely populated as soon as you get away from the river. Many of the houses I see from the ship I think would be used as holiday homes or weekend getaways from Porto. The distance would be drivable but there aren’t a lot of resources so it may be that secluded weekend getaway type of retreat.

Back in the gorges and it’s still windy and now it’s almost cold as the sun is blocked by the hills. The Douro River talk is on so what was a sparse crowd is now further reduced (we could meet in a phone booth). I’m content with the scenery of the river and am happy for that to take precedence over its history. Additionally the guide presenting the lecture could talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles! She spoke non stop for 30 minutes yesterday and I don’t think she drew breath so I don’t won’t to be there in case. They do have a defibrillator on board and a couple of retired doctors so the ending should be happy but…

Would have to be close to the Spanish border although the daily bulletin gave no details and there has not been an announcement. Google not much assistance at the moment and it’s difficult to estimate speed and distance but it has to happen soonish. The hills are less steep and not as high at the moment so I may be able to obtain some more definitive information soon.

Some body said they thought my t-shirt was terrific today and I launched a stream of compliments at him assuming he was a maths teacher (you sort of need to be to understand the humour on the t-shirt) but no he just liked Gandalf the Wizard who is also there. Well a ‘Lord of the Rings’ fan is at least good enough to come a close second to a maths teacher. One of crew understood my ‘get real’, ‘be rational’ shirt which was impressive. On the opposite end I was asked what flag is that on another t-shirt and it has Moroc written underneath the flag! Met a delightful Welshman this morning but they are all delightful if you pick them as Welsh and not English. He lived near the Black Hills and Tintern Abbey where I’ve visited a couple of times and I think I even saw a twinkle in his eye when I told him much I like the Black Hills. When I told him ‘Offa’s Dyke’ is on my walking list I thought I was getting a hug!

Bigger town coming into view now but probably won’t assist me locating where I am as towns are so rarely signposted from the river. Lovely old fashioned iron railway bridge and then another lock so I may be able to locate but I’ll see.

The only exercise I get at the moment is standing for a photo then sitting down again. There’s a small pool here but I get the feeling anyone brave enough to get in would stand out like dog’s balls as the most energetic activity here at the moment is someone turning the pages of their book. Even the tour guide yesterday expected people to fall asleep yet the longest drive we had was 50 minutes. Says too much about some people’s itinerary I think.

No luck with location but we are now well and truly into another lock. The procedure, we are now quite familiar with, yet it’s still impressive, intriguing and exciting. None have required us to remain seated or reclined like the first big one but still the communication tower, sun deck and the captain’s cabin have been lowered. The single blast of the horn still surprises me but not alarms me. The process is efficient and surprisingly quick.

Brief respite from typing as I chat with a friendly Englishman.

Bingo. Close to Spanish border. Depending on locks we should be there within the hour.

Break time as I go get Lee into some form of consciousness




That was all afterwards and most of the evening.,catch up with the words tomorrow.

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