Porto and Beyond

Porto and Beyond!

The first day on the water we had a morning tour of Porto—we revisited many of the spots that we had seen with Lynn and Ron but did learn some new things from our guide Ricardo.  He told us that the tiles were used because after the earthquake of 1755, the citizens needed a quick way to decorate their newly rebuilt buildings and tiles were the choice.  What has become clear is that unlike other countries what seems to hold a bit of reverence for their royalty the Portuguese really dislike the royals who were expelled and the church.  The country is according to Ricardo a county of the bourgeois.

The last stop on the tour was at Graham's port wine cellar.  We were taken through the cellar and then tasted three different levels of Port, something called six grapes which is very young, another that was 10 years old and finally one that was 20 years old.

We left port at about 1:00 and sailed up river to Entre dos rios.  Dinner was at a reclaimed monastery.  It is now a hotel.  We were greeted by a young woman playing the role of a countess.  She guided us through the hotel and told us its history  During the dinner served by waiters dresses as monks we were entertained by a very fine opera singer

We are now sailing further up river  We just went through a 114 foot lock.  Pretty cool.  The sides of the river while still very very green have become much steeper and higher.  It is a much more lovely part of the river.  Far less industrial but more lovely.  The vineyards that we have seen thus far are steeply terraced.  Since wines are new to this region I am not sure how people made a living.

We had a lecture from Sam Pillsbury yesterday about how to drink wine and today about wine growing from our cruise manager Sebastian.  laster we head to the Palais Mateus and suprisingly a wine tasting