When I finished telling you about our visit to Salamanca, I forgot to mention that when we returned to the boat that evening, it had made the turnaround, and we were now heading west again and retracing our steps back to Porto. As I write this to tell you about our day in Favios (pronounced fa v? OOSH), we are already back in Porto and have spent a full day on the river getting here. More about that tomorrow.
Our day after Salamanca was all about stopping in Favios for two things: bread and Muscatel wine. Now I love bread. Always have. But I am not a big fan of Muscatel wine. It’s way too sweet for my tastes. Port is right on the border of sweetness for me. Muscatel goes over the edge. But off we went to try it all out. After a 75-minute ride on our “luxury motor coach,” we found ourselves in the village of Favios. We were met by a very nice young man named Mohammed, who took us to what is best described as a bread demonstration center. There, an older Portuguese woman showed us how she makes bread. It’s not really the making but the dividing it into pieces and then putting it in the oven. We also got to taste the bread (which was nowhere near as good as the bread we have been getting on the ship) and ask questions. There weren’t a lot of questions, so we moved on.
After our bread demo, we headed to the Favios Museum of Bread and Muscatel. Seriously, they have a very well-conceived, four-room museum that is beautifully graphically designed for their village’s two main products. A young lady named Vanessa gave us the tour, and then we were back on the bus to visit a Muscatel winery about three miles away.
To be honest, I am about wineryed out by this point. And since I have no interest in Muscatel tasting, this was kind of a flat stop for me. But others seemed to enjoy it, so no complaints on my part. Besides, it was a quick (less than 30 minutes) stop, and then we were off to lunch at a local winery. Lunch was OK (nothing like we would have had on the ship—but more traditional?), and in a little more than an hour, we were on our way back to the boat. Here are the pictures I took in Favios. If you like bread or wine, these might interest you. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
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- The first thing we saw getting out of the bus was this girl’s school. The boy’s school was at the other end of the block.
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- Mohammed introduces the baker.
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- And cuts up the dough.
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- Mohammed gets excited about the final product.
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- And the baker puts more in the fire.
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- Outside on the way to the museum, I got a couple of shots of Favios.
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- Including this watcher on the balcony. He was keeping an eye on the tourists.
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- Great streets in Favios.
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- Vanessa runs the museum.
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- Some great scenery in wine country.
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- Dogs were everywhere and allowed to run (and sleep) freely.
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- Our host at the Muscael winery.
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- Shows us the steel tanks.
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- Outside was this great mural of the winery’s founder.
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- Off to lunch at another winery.
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- Where the grape vines were changing colors….
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- ….and they had pretty evil looking fountain…
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- …as well as a very cool pickup truck.
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- I love old trucks.
After we were back on board, the boat headed down the river through one of the locks the boat had gone through on the way up the river, but most of us had missed it when we were visiting Castela Rodrigo a few days before. That’s one of the best parts of this cruise. If you miss something on the river, they ensure you sail through that part on the way back while you are onboard so you can see it. Took a bunch of photos on that part of the trip as well. You know the drill.
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- Headed back down I decided to get Kathleen this villa for her birthday.
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- And of course I love a train so when this multi-colored one went by, you get a photo.
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- Entering the lock we missed.
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- The captain ready to guide it in.
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- It’s going to be a tight squeeze.
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- We are at the top of the dam and the river is far below us.
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- Getting shut in.
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- This is a guillotine lock. That means it goes up and down to let us through.
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- When it opens and the ship moves under it, you get drenched if you are out in the open.
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- We have now descended and are making our way out of the lock.
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- Another Viking boat is coming in to go upriver.
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- We find ourselves facing two bridges.
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- And pass another boat before we make a quick stop….
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- at Régua to pick up folks who went on an optional excursion.
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- Five of our group went off to find a Pharmacia where we could get cold meds. On the way, I saw these doors.
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- And found my way back to the ship.
That about covers our day in Favios. For a glimpse of what is yet to come, tomorrow is all about being on the river because we skipped the excursion (it was more monasteries and cathedrals) and had a glorious sunny day sailing west on the Douro into Porto. See you then.
Wine hath drowned more men than the sea. —Thomas Fuller
I’ve never been through a lock, so the pictures were a great way for me to experience it. Pretty cool! Thanks for showing one up close.
Aha ?? cruising on a river cruise. What an original conception. Days of great pics. I caught the “we comment” about Mike’s Photos in the last blog. Almost was going to say something about castles and locks. But I could never get enough pics about locks. Lol