After passing out (not really, but it felt like it) and sleeping for almost 12 straight hours, I awoke to Kathleen feeling lousy and telling me I should go and grab some breakfast. That was when I discovered it was an outdoor restaurant and freeeezzzziiinnnggg. I had a piece of cold toast and a cup of lukewarm tea. That got me through to lunch. On the way to breakfast, I did get a chance to catch some photos of the spray rising from the falls with the rising sun behind it. Here’s a few to start the day. 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…
A dinosaur?
Kathleen says this one looks like an elephant.
After my quick shots and the tea and toast, I was off to the walking tour of Victoria Falls in the national park. We had a great guide, and he took us along the trail that has approximately 15 lookouts, each with increasing amounts of spray. It is a beautiful waterfall that you have to wear a poncho to tour. I can only imagine how much spray there must be during the rainy season.
Here are the photos I took along the walk. I am not thrilled with them because, basically, the water/spray looks white, the sky looks white, and everything else is black. BORING…but you be the judge.
Dr. Livingston…I presume?
Not a lot to caption.
Water goes down.
Spray comes up.
I did see a rainbow!!!!
I shot from behind trees.
Anything to get interesting.
This is kind of pretty.
And this.
Now, here’s something interesting on the trail.
And some of our friends on the viewpoint behind me.,
Looking into the cavern.
And another falls
Folks in their ponchos.
More water, more spray
They all kind of look alike.
More white water.
One last one.
These guys are performing everywhere. Same guys that welcomed us to the hotel and then at the train.
They were there when we finished our tour.
Lunch was on our own, and Kathleen was feeling better, so when I returned to the hotel, we went to the other outdoor venue and sat in the hot sun, getting warmed up. The food was okay, but I only ate half of the burger and left the other half of my fries. That tells you how lousy I was feeling. But we were both up for the next part of the day.
HELICOPTER FLIGHT OVER THE FALLS!!!
Now for the GOOOOD part. In the afternoon, we had planned a helicopter flyover tour of the falls with Zambezi Helicopters. It only flies for about 12 minutes, but it does a very cool loop over the falls that lets us see everything. And I was thrilled with the photos AND VIDEO I got. Away we go. Quick note: we could have booked the same flight through AMA, but it was about $100 US more, so we booked it ourselves. I called AMA and asked when we would need to be back. They told me 4:00 pm for the evening cruise on the Zambezi. When Delia announced 3:30, we were afraid we would miss the cruise…but we just made it.
Before watching the videos, please adjust your sound level to a comfortable setting. Helicopters are REALLY LOUD. Did I mention this was our very first ride in a helicopter? It was. Smoother than silk.
That’s the first video. Here are some still shots that I love. 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…
Not the helicopter we were on, but we did fly her on the her next tour.
This is the map. They go both directions over the Falls in a figure eight look so you can get views from both sides.
From the start
The canyons that lead away from the falls
Looking down on their beauty.
Totally different than walking next to them in the morning,.
Loved our first in a lifetime helicopter ride.
Loving these shots.
From all the angles.
Totally amazing.
Now we get it.
Amazing
Just love it.
Blew me away.
Incredible.
I have now officially run out of superlatives.
Here’s the second video. Thankfully for you, they are very short. Again, adjust your sound. Turn it down.
This was one part of the trip that will definitely stay with us. After the ride, we raced back to the hotel, and we got there with three minutes to spare before we were off for a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River above the falls. While onboard, we heard a very interesting lecture about the explorer David Livingstone from one of his biographers, a long-time British guide.
Of course, when you are on the Zambezi River at sunset, you have to take a photo. So, here’s my last shot from a very long day.
Tomorrow: On to Johannesburg!
The most impactful place I’ve been to, where I was completely awestruck, happy, and moved, is Victoria Falls, located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is probably the most beautiful and romantic place in the world. — Hill Harper
As it turns out, this game lodge (in the absolute middle of nowhere) had great internet. Go figure.
Right now, it has been almost a week since the day I am about to write about. I am sitting in the main lodge at Tintswalo Game Lodges, watching a small herd of elephants drink water less than 30 feet from me. I have stopped writing this at least five times to go out and take their photos, but I have sooooo much to cover before you will see those. Let’s finish up our Zambezi Queen story.
Pre-Dawn Solo Birdwatching
This was our last full day on the Zambezi Queen and they had scheduled another optional birdwatching tour at 6:30 am. When they had done this on our first morning, there had been about eight of us who went out on the boat with Gibson.
I had promised myself to do every game/birdwatch cruise they offered us so I was up and ready to go. Sadly, no one else was. When Gibson came to get everyone and found just me waiting, I told him it was OK if he didn’t want to go out. That I would just stay on the Queen and process photos. He told me, “If I don’t take you I will be stuck either cleaning or assisting with breakfast. I would much rather be on the river in my boat. I will take you someplace that we don’t usually go but it is the best place to see birds.” How could I pass that up? So I got in the boat and off we went. I have to say that this morning cruise with Gibson was absolutely (so far with three days to go) one of the true highlights of the cruise for me.
We started out going in an entirely different direction than we had on all the other game cruises. We went towards the rapids that led to Victoria Falls. As we approached them, I could see thousands of nesting birds silhouetted by the rising sun. We stayed right in that area for more than an hour, with me getting to shoot any bird I wanted to my heart’s content. He would ask how I wanted the boat positioned so I could get the best shot and the best light. What a guy!!!
We also saw a couple of crocodiles and hippos. On the way back to breakfast (which was totally up to me), we stopped alongside a herd of Cape buffalo and I got my favorite animal photo up to that point. I am not much of a bird photographer, and if you are, these may disappoint you, but they make me happy. Plus I got another great African sunrise. Here are the pics from that morning trip with my new best photo friend, Gibson. 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…
My attempt at shooting the African moon as it set. I never have luck with moon shots but this one is pretty good.
Now the start of my day with Gibson, sunrise.
And all those trees are full of bird’s nests.
And soon the sky is full of birds.
And the sun comes up enough that you can clearly see the nests.
And they are everywhere.
A yellow billed stork
Waiting for a fly by. And there it is.
More sunrise nests
And more.
And More.
And still more. They are just so amazing. I am hoping you are looking at these full screen, with your monitor set to its brightest setting.
But more nests catch my eye in a new light.
Every photo seems different as the light changes.
Depending on where I look, it’s amazing.
I see a Yellow-billed stork flying by.
Quick action shot.
Not my camera skill on this shot but Gibson’s boat driving.
The Yellow-billed storks are gorgeous.
And I keep finding them in new places.
As we return for breakfast, I see two fishermen that Gibson tells me are checking their nets that they have left there overnight.
Then we say this guy. He as beyond majestic.
Especially when you see him in this shot.
And we returned to a comic Bernard pretending to pull in our boat.
Visiting the locals
After breakfast, everyone boarded the smaller boats to return to Namibia, heading towards a small village just east of the border station. Our guide for the morning was Tecklar, a young, single woman who lived there. She shared that the village, which had just under 40 residents, including men, women, and children, was relatively new. Tecklar had recently become a part of the community, and she had to apply to the village elder, the regional chief of the tribe, and finally the government to be allowed to move in.
Editor’s note:At this point I welcome any of my fellow travelers to correct me on any facts, as it has been over a week since our visit, and my memory might be a bit hazy.
While we were in the village we were shown the lodgings, new well and solor system, the gardens and finally the village gathering place where almost the entire village sang and danced for us. It was a an awesome visit. They even had a small bazaar set up where they sold things they had made. We came home with a hand-painted bowl and a carved wooden giraffe. So here are my photos from the visit. Hopefully you got a chance to watch the video above of the village entertaining us. You know the drill. Don’t forget to click the photos to make them bigger.
This is our guide Tecklar
On the way to the village (and every time we went to the Namibia border) we passed this small store and bar. Sometimes (like this morning,) no one was there. Other times it would be packed.
Tecklar tells us about how they build their homes and how long she had to wait for permission to join the village.
The village garden.
Strange how there was no running water or indoor plumbing, but there were satellite dishes.
A typical home.
The local well.
Guavas.
Time for dancing
And singing
And more singing
And more dancing.
This gave me a great chance to do some people pictures.
Some of our group joined the dancing.
The drummers were excellent.
This little guy spent most of the performance under his mom’s feet.
One of the drummers.
The costumes were beautiful.
So were the faces.
So much of the African spirit.
This guy had it too.
He was so photogenic
I loved shooting him. He just draws the lens.
So did this woman.
And the guys.
They passed around grains they use in cooking.
Kathleen enjoyed the show.
Bernard (our cruise director) has a twin brother ? who plays the drums.
They look amazingly alike.
And just so you can hear the music, here’s a short video.
Afternoon Game Cruise
After a quick bite for lunch, we were off on our last game cruise of our voyage. Kathleen decided to stay and pack, so I was off with a few of the others and Gibson. He finds us the best stuff. I need to add that Kathleen did not miss much by staying on the Zambezi Queen. While she packed, the Queen sailed up and down the river, and they saw as many animals as we did. Maybe they weren’t close, but they were definitely close enough. I will put some of her iPhone photos up later so you can see what I mean.
Instead of going into detail in text about what we saw on this last game cruise, I will just let my photos do the talking. Enjoy. Captions identify but you have to change into slide show mode to see them.
I loved the way this elephant was perfectly framed by this arch.
Momma and baby hippo
A family of giraffes
So often these are alone, it was great to see them together.
I loved these two.
This may be the cover of my Africa book.
Or this one.
Part of Fish Eagle triptych
An African Fish Eagle grabs prey from the shore.
And flies away with it.
This tree just said Africa.
The same place we had seen hundreds of other animals on different days and times…
Was now totally filled with elephants
And a lone giraffe.
And this little guy and his mom.
A new village being built.
See the large mound behind the woman carrying water? That’s a termite mound.
The local bus.
Some guys waiting for a taxi.
Gibson took a wide-berth around these guys.
That covers the day. It was back to the Queen for a final night dinner that featured some of the incredible crew members singing and dancing for us afterward. More tomorrow.We just got back from a game drive, it’s freezing, we ate dinner and are going to bed because we go out again tomorrow morning at 6:00 pm.
Whew! We are home, but to be honest, I am still having a hard time remembering what day it is. Hopefully, I will get over that soon. Jet lag is pretty much over, but real life is intruding into my travel life. It’s so much fun (sarcasm here) getting home to more than 200 emails I had been just throwing into a folder in Mail to be read when we were home. Now, I have to read them and respond to them. I want to go on vacation again.
Our trip home was pretty decent. The airports got the wheelchair stuff for Kathleen correct this time. British Airways surprised us with two decent Indian meals on two flights. We stayed overnight at a Terminal 5 hotel (Sofitel) and found that we liked the Terminal 3 hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) we had stayed in last June a lot better. Our flight was on time, our luggage showed up quickly, we looked at the camera in passport control, and we were out of there in less than 15 minutes from when we got off the plane. Our Welcome Pickups guy grabbed us, and with the light traffic after 7:00, we were home in no time. Kathleen was off to bed. I got the mail, watched the Dodgers win the World Series and then hit the hay. A good end to a great trip.
Madrid
Going back to the very beginning, we liked Madrid a lot. We stayed at the Hotel Preciados in downtown. As you may recall, we toured for three full days: one in Toledo (our best day), one in Segovia (another great day), and one in Madrid itself, which could have been better. Read all about those in previous posts. The summary of Madrid was that we had a great time, and we’ve now been there and done that. It’s now crossed off our list, and we won’t be going back. A nice city, but it was no Edinburgh or Amsterdam for us—but we are glad we visited once.
Lisbon with Viking
The next stop was Lisbon before our Douro River cruise. As soon as we got there, we met Marianne, who was amazing. She was not only the person directing our pre-cruise stay in Lisbon but also the Program Director on our entire river cruise. She proved to be one of the best parts of the whole 10 days we spent with Viking. Her laugh, her sense of humor and the fact that she was always UP and always FUN made her someone we will remember for quite a while. More about Marianne later.
Sadly, as you have read, when we were touring Lisbon with Viking, Fatima, the worst guide I have ever experienced, ruined the entire experience for me. Not only would she not shut up, but she insulted me, too.
Our Douro River Cruise
OK, this is what you have been waiting for—how was the cruise? In a quick word, it was awesome. We love river cruising. We really didn’t discover how much we liked it with our Christmas Market cruise on the Danube last winter because it was so darned cold. So, if you have done a Christmas Market cruise, go back and do a warm weather cruise like the Douro and see what you missed.
One of my absolute favorite things about this cruise was seeing the cruise. By that, I mean that on our Danube cruise, most of the movement on the river was accomplished either at night when we were asleep or during the day when we were on an excursion. My absolute favorite part of our Douro River cruise was sailing on the river. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I could do this cruise again and never get off the ship. Seriously, my favorite days were the ones where we spent the majority of the time sailing on the river and watching Portugal go by.
Shore Excursions
Don’t get me wrong, the shore excursions were just fine. If I had to rate them, I would put Salamanca, Spain as #1 because it was like going back to what Europe used to be in the early 2,000s before over-tourism started. I also enjoyed the short visit to Castelo Rodrigo. I mean, the castle was nice, but the best part was that it was brief. We sailed most of the day and then did about a three-hour excursion to a somewhat interesting place. Probably my third favorite was the second half of our first day when we visited the Mateus Palace. What snoozer. But the second half of the day was to visit the Sandeman winery, where they make their wonderful port wine, and be shown around by a guide who really knew what she was talking about and made the tour fun. That was it. The rest of the days, the excursion was either blah (Favios), or we didn’t go (Lamego).
The ship/boat
I really have yet to spend any time discussing the ship itself. Unlike the Viking Longship, we sailed on the Danube, the Douro River boats (you can put a boat on a ship, but you can’t put a ship on a boat, and I think you could put a Douro River boat on a big ocean-going vessel) are smaller due to the smaller locks they must get through. So, instead of carrying up to 190 passengers like the Danube boats do, the Douro River boats carry a maximum of 106, and ours only had 99. That makes so much difference. It’s much more intimate. You get to know most of the crew because there are only 36 of them. And they all do all sorts of jobs. One of our favorite people onboard was Mitra. His official title (on his name tag) said, “Bar Chef.” He was the best bartender on board, and he really kept things going in the lounge. But he was also the sommelier in the dining room and helped out waiting on tables or restocking the buffet as well. Our favorite server in the dining room, Ovi, not only served us dinner but also was the crew member who walked us to our stateroom on embarkation to show us how everything worked. She often worked in the lounge serving drinks. The lady got around.
Embarkation/Disembarkation
Speaking of embarkation…those of you who have suffered through a three-hour embarkation as we did in May 2023 to get on Koningsdam in Vancouver or anything like it will LOVE embarkation on a river cruise. Especially this one. Since we had spent two days with Viking in Lisbon before we boarded the boat, they had everyone on one of four “luxury motor coaches,” and they staggered their morning departures, which meant that each of the “luxury motor coaches” made it to the ship about 15 to 20 minutes apart. So when we arrived, we went up the gangway, and they asked us our names. We were escorted (us by Ovi) to our stateroom, and our luggage arrived minutes later.
Disembarkation was just as efficient. We were given a list of when every stateroom would be getting off (we had been asked in advance how we would be leaving the ship) and told to put our big luggage out in the hallway outside our rooms 15 minutes before we would get off. Then, at our appointed time, we got up and got off. Simple as that. It really pays to be on a smaller boat.
Our stateroom
Our stateroom was a suite. There, I said it. We splurged and booked a suite. It wasn’t that much more, but it got us some things we really wanted. The first was an actual extra room. We had both a living room and a bedroom. Not to mention a walk-in closet and a smallish bath (smaller than on our Danube cruise). So when I would wake up really early, I could sit in the living room and work on photos or on a new post without waking up Kathleen or needing to get completely dressed and go to the lounge.
The other reason we LOVED this suite was…free laundry. Yes, folks, we could send out as much laundry as we wanted, and it was included. On our Danube cruise, we had sent out a few things because we had already been in Lisbon for a few days, and then we did Prague and Nuremberg as a pre-cruise extension, so when we got on, we needed to have some things washed. But the prices were OFF THE CHARTS! As I recall, I got one pair of jeans, two pairs of socks, and two shirts, and it cost me $20. On Viking Torgil, we got to the ship with lots of dirty laundry from four days in Madrid, two nights in Lisbon and a single suitcase each. We immediately sent out all our dirty laundry (they gave us two really nice-sized bags to send it out in) and had it back early the next day. From that point on, I pretty much sent out laundry every day. Whatever I wore the day before, send it out! And it got to the point where it would come back on the same day.
If you would like to see photos of the suite, you may have to wait. I suddenly realized when we got home that I had never really taken any pictures of the suite. I had a couple (the bedroom and bathroom) but missed the living room. But never fear; you will be able to see a whole bunch soon because Mike and Cathy had the same type of suite we did, and Mike always does an awesome job of taking ship/boat/stateroom photos. His review of the cruise with all those photos should be out soon (HEY MIKE—is the review done yet? ?). When it is done, I will post about it, and you can find it right here at www.thepreismans.com. In the meantime, here are a few photos I took of our room.
The bedroom.
The bathroom
The shower. Smaller than on their ocean ships.
Our walk in closet
The Food
Everyone wants to know about the food on a cruise. We have found that Viking does a “fine” job of food on its ocean and river cruises. By that, we mean we like the food. It’s not gourmet, and it doesn’t hold a candle to Oceania. But our most memorable meals on this trip came when we were off the boat (lunch in Toledo and lunch in Cascais come to mind).
On board Viking Torgil, we had a wonderful British chef named Michael Bee Venet. I say he is wonderful less for his culinary skills than for his wonderful personality. Every night, he would preview the meal at our pre-dinner destination talk. He was hilarious. He also regularly stopped by everyone’s table. At breakfast, he would often come around with a special baked good and serve it to us himself.
But we thought his food was oversalted. Sometimes, it was just finishing salt. Some soups were fine when you got down below the surface, but those first three spoonfuls were very salty. We also thought the food was better at the beginning of the week than at the end. It wasn’t bad, just not as good. On a scale of one to ten, it was an eight when we started and a six when we finished.
By the way, when you take a Douro river cruise, you eat all your meals in the dining room. It is totally casual. I think we only saw anyone in anything dressy twice. OMG— people wore shorts in the dining room. We wore jeans and tennis shoes. On our Danube cruise, there was a small buffet area at the front of the boat, but not on the smaller Douro boat. It was the dining room or hunger.
All in all, the food was good and plentiful, and we had nothing to complain about…or wait! I want to complain about the bread. It was too good. Seriously, it may be the best bread I have had on any cruise. Delicious—and I ate way too much of it. Oh, and there were fewer veggies than we would have liked as well. Kind of like our ocean cruise on Viking Venus in June; there was a lot of red meat, which we try to avoid at home. Here’s a gallery of some dishes we ate on this trip. I will try to tell you where we ate them, but if you like great food, check them out. All were shot with my phone, so feel free to look at them on yours. Remember, you can click them to enlarge them and scroll through. I’ll start with some photos of where we all ate.
At our usual table in the dining room on Torgil.
And all of us at the Fado dinner.
Kathleen and I at Botin Restaurant, the oldest in the world. Opened in 1725.
The gazpacho at Botin
The suckling pig specialty of the house at Botin.
They also did young lamb.
But pretty much everyone had the pig.
Botin had great desserts. Especially this Catalan version of creme brûlée
And some flan for Mike.
While in Madrid, Cathy, Mike and I went to a tapas place one night. They had amazing eggplant.
As well as patatas bravas.
When I Madrid, you have to try churros and chocolate.
One day in Madrid Kathleen and I had this awesome salad for lunch and…
this wafer thin pizza. Salad was great. Pizza was not.
Stuffed peppers in Segovia
I think our best meal was in Toledo. This is my pork. Amazing.
Mike and Steve had the boar cheeks. They raved about it.
But the dessert—manchego cheese cake—was the best of the trip for rme.
They had some interesting deserts.
A pizza we had later in the trip In Salamanca, Spain.
Chorizo on the table in Segovia.
Some really great Segovian chorizo.
As always in Portugal, I ate a lot of octopus.
Lots of octopus. I think I had it at least four times. Probably more.
Of course Cathy had to have a burger. Sometimes you just need a taste of home.
When we stopped for lunch between Lisbon and Porto we got chicken or…
Portugal’s national food—reconstructed cod.
Onboard Mike got the biggest tiger prawns we have seen.
And a nice risotto
Something else we ate on board. I can’t remember what it was but it was good.
A delicious orange cake on Torgil.
And I got a hot dog! It’s a Bob thing. Only he understands.
When we stopped in the Lebanese place in Lisbon, the tabouli was excellent.
At the Fado show we got some decent soup.
My entrée at the Fado show.
I almost forgot the “Steve Test.” For those of you unfamiliar with the Steve Test. I call this the Steve Test because my brother Steve came up with it. I think it’s brilliant. This is the entire test: If you eat in a restaurant while traveling, and if that restaurant is near you once you get home, would you go there again? If it were in your hometown, would we eat there regularly? For this trip, the places that passed the Steve test were Clandestina in Toledo, the Lebanese restaurant behind the TimeOut Market and a few of the meals on Torgil, but the ultimate A+ on the Steve Test went to the Chicken restaurant in Cascais on the day we toured Sintra. I know my brother believes it’s the best chicken he has ever had.
Entertainment
If you have been reading my stuff for a while, you know we have kind of given up on shows. Besides, they really don’t have shows on river cruises. However, they did have some great entertainers come on board while we were in ports, and Mike will have photos of those, I am sure. He can stay up later than we can. But I did want to mention two of the best entertainers I have ever seen on a ship—river or ocean.
The first is not really an entertainer but a server in the restaurant. He was kind of in charge of singing Happy Birthday to anyone celebrating one. He also was a total clown. He has a great voice, but what really makes him GREAT is his face. He can turn it into the absolute funniest looks you have ever seen. Here are a few shots of our buddy Agus doing his thing.
He was singing to a woman who was celebrating her birthday.
See what I mean about his face.
No accompaniment.
He has a thousand of looks.
And is truly an amazing performer and a really nice guy.
He was so special that I am going to try to add a video I took of him. If it works, it’s right here. IT WORKED!
[videopress UVzEfu7W]
The other amazing performer on the ship was our wonderful, incredible, marvelous, fantastic Program Director, Marianne. We had heard that she was going to sing one night after dinner in the lounge. We were both pretty tired, but I persuaded Kathleen to go, and were we ever glad we did. She was all those adjectives I put up above and more. It might be the best show I have ever seen on any ship or boat. For sure, it was the most fun. And now that I got the Agus video to load, here’s a little bit of Marianne’s show.
[videopress or6hDDlg]
Besides being the best Program/Cruise Director we have ever sailed with (35+ cruises), she is one of the nicest and most caring people you will ever meet. We would take a cruise she was on just to sail with her.
To Sum Up
How much did we enjoy this river cruise? For the first time in more than twenty years (since we took our first Panama Canal cruise on Celebrity’s Infinity in 2004), we don’t have an ocean cruise booked, and we don’t think we will take one in the foreseeable future. We have booked a Chobe River cruise in Africa, a Columbia River Cruise, and a Great Lakes cruise, but that’s it. We can’t think of anywhere that big-ship ocean cruises go that we still really want to see. We aren’t saying we wouldn’t go if friends wanted to go together, but we have been there and done that just about everywhere ocean cruises go. I guess we are now river cruise people.
WAIT! I almost forgot the best part of the entire trip—getting to travel once again with Steve, Jamie, Mike and Cathy—our October gang. We will all do it again next October when we cruise the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. —Heraclitus
The following day, we were up and ready to tour Porto. When we first arrived (six days ago), there was no time to tour the city. It was pretty much getting on the boat, having dinner, going to bed after a long day of touring to get to the boat. So today was our day to tour Porto.
We had a choice of two tours. One was a walking tour of Porto (which we skipped to make Kathleen’s knee happy) and an overview tour on the “luxury motor coach.” We opted for that one. It included more geography but fewer stops and time on the ground. Which for us worked well. Our two scheduled stops were at the Cathedral of Porto (what else?) and at the spot where the Douro River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Both were very scenic. And, of course, I got a lot of photos. It wasn’t a long tour, about three hours total, but we felt we got what we paid for (it was included ?). Here are the photos I took while out and about on the tour. 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…
Early morning just before breakfast.
And now to the cathedral and a statue of Paiva Couceiros, the founder of Porto.
Looking at the Cathedral from the front.
Inside a beautiful church.
The baptismal font.
And more church.
And more church.
And more church.
For an atheist, I sure tour a lot of churches.
Tiles inside the cloisters of the church.
Next to the church was this beautiful building, fully tiled. And another colorful one next to it.
More views from outside the cathedral.
And more.
And a beautiful lady waiting for me.
Our tour guide Claudia.
Everyone is waiting for the bus.
Being watched by Paiva Couceiros.
We reach the sea and the castle that defended Porto.
This is where we saw this strange building. It turned out to be the cruise terminal for ocean ships.
And there were beaches.
With lots of people on them.
After our tour, we returned to the Torgil, where we had a very delicious last lunch. I realize I have not had much to say about the food, the crew, or the boat, but I will get to it in my summary, which I will try to write on our flight or after we get home. So, if that is what you are waiting for, you must hold on a little longer.
After lunch, Kathleen started packing as we would be getting off the boat early the following day. I decided to walk back across the river (on a bridge—I haven’t mastered the whole walking on water thing ?) and hike around Porto before it started raining. This is where I was totally disappointed by both Google Maps and Apple Maps. For me to walk across the river on a bridge, both of them had me crossing from one side to the other on the small foot ferry. I didn’t want to cross the Douro on a boat. I had already been up and down the river so many times on a boat I wanted to walk and get the view from a bridge. But they would NOT give me directions to Porto (while walking) to cross on a bridge. I tried putting in driving, but there are so many one-way streets that it would have taken me an hour to get to the bridge. So I went down to reception on the boat and asked Marianna (our guide for the entire week) if she knew the easiest way to get to the bridge so I could walk across. She has lived in Porto for years and said, “Of course. Just get off the boat, turn left, walk straight down the wharf to the bridge and cross it. OMG, Apple and Google—you couldn’t figure that out???
I had no problems once I got across the bridge and walked up to the top of the stairs leading into the city. I took a bunch of photos, and here they are. (HEY! I saw you looking at those on your phone—cut that out! ?)
I saw this woman in a window.
There should be a point to the woman but there isn’t. This is her view.
This is her view in a close up.
This is the bridge I crossed that Apple and Google could not find.
Had to go up these stairs.
On the walk down the wharf.
It was quite the climb.
In both directions.
I finally got into the city.
Saw some great buildings.
Some really cool windows in need of sanding and painting.
And more cool streets.
Inside Porto’s major train station there are so many tiles.
This is so typical. These two stood in my way for more than five minutes with each of them trying different poses.
The train station. I love train stations.
Just to prove I was there.
Love the color.
Looking up towards a different cathedral.
A demonstration passing me.
Ran into a police standoff.
Not sure why this guy would not come out but he didn’t look too dangerous.
A cool church messed up by a tarp.
Crazy streets.
They told me there were only five locks on the Douro. I beg to differ.
My last Douro shot of the day.
That about covered our day. I went back on board the boat and packed up everything I could. Then, it was time for the goodbye from the crew cocktail party and our last dinner on board. After that, it was bedtime with an early wake-up as we had to get off the ship to meet our driver/guide, who would take us to Lisbon by 8:30 am the next day.
PS: Sorry for two posts today. Chalk it up to over-tourism. We are in Lisbon today, and I went out to take a walk and scout for things to do. The city is packed like the cans of sardines that Portugal is famous for. I walked up to get a shot of views from the castle, and there was a one-hour and forty-five-minute wait to get tickets—so many people. When I walked down to another viewpoint I had shot from in December, I found hundreds of people and the reason why the place was so crowded. Out in the harbor are two huge cruise ships, each with 4,000+ passengers. More about that in a couple of days. And yes, I realize I am a kind of a hypocrite for complaining about tourism when I am a tourist ??.
After visiting Favios for bread and muscatel, we decided that was it for us with excursions. The only one left before our return to Porto was to see another church with a long bus ride involved, so we decided to relax with a day on the river when I could work on photos. Instead of a sea day, call it a river day.
As a side note about river days, Kathleen and I have decided that this river cruise is one we could do again (with the same ship, stateroom, and crew). But the next time, we would just sail up and down the river—no excursions. There is so much to see from the deck of the ship. It would be seven glorious days of rest.
Our day on the river would give me lots of chances for more photography of houses, abandoned villas, other boats passing by, churches and castles at the top of hills and the amazing locks. See what I mean by perusing these photos from that day. 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…
The river and sky were gorgeous all day.
The farmers were burning slash in their vineyards.
The reflections were wonderful.
And I love trains. Especially multi-colored trains.
Just a beautiful river.
That winds its way through narrows.
And gives me views of interesting villas.
And bridges.
Low bridges.
Really low bridges.
From both sides.
And moving away from one without hitting it. But we did have to duck.
I call this my Mr. Bill house. If it could talk it would say, “OH NO!”
Lots of churches on the river.
Lots of bridges as well.
Everywhere you look.
And another damn coming up.
I liked these trees.
Another boat coming out of the lock we were going into.
RAMMING SPEED!
This is our second trip through the highest lock in Europe.
An amazing journey.
You can see how far below us the river is on the other side of the damn.
I did my best to get you a vertical panorama so you could see what if felt like on the deck.
It didn’t work great but you get the idea of how huge this lock is.
Looking up just before we got out of the lock.
The door is going up to let us out.
We can see another Viking boat waiting to get in.
Not sure how long she has been waiting but everyone looks relaxed.
On board our sister ship.
This is the view from our verandah down the side of the ship showing you the six inch distance between the side of the ship and the side of the canal.
The last building before Porto.
And there it is.
The following two hours or so would be spent sailing up and down on the Douro between Porto and Gaia, where we dock. The problem was that there were five other boats tied up at the wharf, but they needed to be in the right order. For us to be able to raft with them (tie up and have to walk through them to get on and off the ship), every boat needed to be in order, with the boat leaving first on the outside and then each one inside of it leaving later than the one moored to the dock. Since our boat would be there for two nights, we needed to be up against the pier with two boats rafted out from us, one leaving the following day. One would be leaving the morning after, while Torgil (our boat) would not sail again until we were off, and another group of passengers was on board and ready to sail in three days. It’s very complicated. But it meant we had to kill time waiting for the other two boats to get ready to move. In the meantime, we sailed almost out to the Atlantic Ocean and back again. This meant I could get a ton of photos of both cities in a really great light that I could share with you. And here they are…you know the rules.
First up is a chance for me to create a black and white I really like.
Here comes a harbor tour boat.
With load of tourists who don’t look that happy.
And a church that has been totally tagged.
Trains on the bridge.
Abandoned buildings on the shores.
Streetcars. We found out later they are used ones from San Francisco.
Looking ahead to the concrete bridge.
And more unhappy tourists.
And more shore side homes.
And churches with amazing tile on them.
Close up of the tile.
One of our favorite wines is made here.
The Gaia side.
As is this one. On the way out I thought that was a church. Turned out to be part on a military base.
I bet we passed 30 harbor tour boats.
But it was a beautiful day.
That was it for our river day. We finally got docked, did cocktail hour, listened to the port talk for the next day and had dinner. I will be back tomorrow with our final day in Porto…or maybe this afternoon. We are back in Lisbon today and don’t have much planned until tonight.
You can’t be unhappy in the middle of a big, beautiful river. —Jim Harrison
The next stop was Lisbon before our Douro River cruise. As soon as we got there, we met Marianne, who was amazing. She was not only the person directing our pre-cruise stay in Lisbon but also the Program Director on our entire river cruise. She proved to be one of the best parts of the whole 10 days we spent with Viking. Her laugh, her sense of humor and the fact that she was always UP and always FUN made her someone we will remember for quite a while. More about Marianne later.
On board Viking Torgil, we had a wonderful British chef named Michael Bee Venet. I say he is wonderful less for his culinary skills than for his wonderful personality. Every night, he would preview the meal at our pre-dinner destination talk. He was hilarious. He also regularly stopped by everyone’s table. At breakfast, he would often come around with a special baked good and serve it to us himself.
The following day, we were up and ready to tour Porto. When we first arrived (six days ago), there was no time to tour the city. It was pretty much getting on the boat, having dinner, going to bed after a long day of touring to get to the boat. So today was our day to tour Porto.
