The Rest of the Duoro Story

April 3 Pinhao – Vega de Terron

Today we traveled again by bus to a beautiful little town. Lamego.  The highlight of this town is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows It is high on a hill and is approached by 586 or 586 steps.  Each landing as you climb (or descend) is finished in a scene on the blue and white tiles

We have been told that the blue and white tiles are traditional colors while the brighter tiles in Lisbon and the south are more recent in origin.  While in the town we visited the street market in the long plaza in front of the church steps.  I found a lovely hand made table runner and so bought it from the lady who made it.

The rest of the day we lazed on the deck of the ship and watched the world float past.

April 4.  Today we are in Spain!

We rode for about and hour and a half and arrived in Salamanca.  It is called the golden city because of the golden colored sandstone used for most of the construction.  We were actually allowed to wander on our own for a whole two hours!  Nor and I walked the narrow streets and visited the cathedral.  It is most unusual because there are actually two sanctuaries joined together.  There was a cathedral in the city and the bishop decided to build another grander cathedral.  The thought was that once the new cathedral was built the old one would be torn down but when they finally finished the second they decided to keep them both. They are both lovely very narrow with very different altars.  In the new sanctuary we saw all the groups getting their litters prepared for the evening processions.  All during holy week (this is holy Saturday)  the various groups will carry litters around the church with statues of Mary or saints or Christ on top.  Each litter bearer wears a hood to cover his face so that he can do his penance in privacy—he is not showing off, that he is carrying the litter, in theory, no one knows who it is.  Around town on balconies and on the balconies of the town hall in Plaza Major are the banners of the various groups – the families, we are told, are very proud to be members of these groups and so hang the banners, but only during holy week.    Salamanca is a university town and many of the church buildings are now used for classrooms  There is a story that if a student finds a frog before his or her exam for her doctorate, she will pass, so I have purchased a small frog for Raquel—not that she will need the help of the frog to pass, but it seemed like fun.

We returned to the ship in time for dinner—oh good we didn’t miss a meal!

April 5.  Easter Sunday.  We began the day at 7:00 for an early ecumenical Easter Sunrise service.  It was a nice way to begin the day.  Later Lynn gave us each a little chocolate treat—Nor’s is chocolate sardines!  And we found a chocolate bunny on or beds from the ship line.

We traveled to a high hill castle  Castelo Rodrigo.  The castle is in ruins but the walls are still standing and people still live in the small houses on the very narrow streets.

In the evening we drove –again—to Quinta da Avessada, we were entertained by traditional music played on accordion, tambourine and drum.  We then had a tour of their wine making processes.  This Qunita is a cooperative so all the people of the village participate in growing and preparing the grapes, they then share in the profits.  The exact details were not explained but we did learn that is makes it possible for the smaller vineyards to exist because they share the costs of the necessary equipment.

I have had to write all of these for a single posting because the shipboard wifi is not working.

April 6, Last Day on the Duoro!

We began the day floating along the Duoro looking at the sights we had seen just a week before and being surprised that we had not seen them before.
In the afternoon we traveled to a palace that has belonged to a family for 31 generations.  They were of course noblemen at one time, they are now diplomats and business men.  The home which is now a residence and a small boutique hotel and winery contains some lovely handpainted wallpapers from the 1700 and 1800 hundreds.  They are painted on large sheets of paper and then hung.  We saw a biblical scene, scenes from Don Quixote and scenes from the United States, (Niagara falls and west point most notably).  The home stood vacant for about 30 years the owner told us and there were leaks in the ceiling so there has been some damages to the paintings.  The current owner told us it will take over 100,000 euros per room to restore them.  The paints on the walls are still very bright, they don’t seem to have faded much, if at all, it was explained this is because of the minerals and natural products used for the paints.
We were treated to What ELSE? Wine, this time Vino Verde—it was the best we had the entire trip.  Vino Verde is made from young grapes and can be very light and somewhat effervesent.

Then back on the bus and on to Giumarche the first capital and birthplace of Portugal.  The city was at one point pretty much in ruins but Salazaar (the recent one) wanted it restored and so with the help of World Heritage designation it has been restored.  It really is lovely capped by a castle/palace and then down the hill into the narrow streets of the town,there was almost a french feel to the village.  Well worth the trip.

Back on board and we said hello and goodbye to the crew members.  Dinner was noisy and fun afterwards we heard music from a Tuna group, which is a group of young men traditionally university students, who play traditional instruments, and sing to earn money.

They told us that their traditional robes are part of the inspiration for JK Rowling’s Hogwarts wizards robes.  She did start writing the books here in Porto and our guides were careful to point own where she wrote and a bookstore that was part of the inspiration for the village outside Hogwarts.

All packed up – off the boat at 9:30 and on to the car rental and EVORA!