20261030 Friday, October 30, 2026; Favaios Bakery & Lunch at Quinta Avessada, Muscatel Wines
The ship was tied up with our balcony alongside the dock in the morning, and as we headed to breakfast, we saw a tawny-colored dog sitting at the foot of the gangway like he was waiting for his master to disembark.
The crew explained this is not a dog that belongs to anyone on the ship, but one that is very familiar with the ship and its rules, which allow him to sit at the foot of the gangway but not come aboard. We’re sure he gets a few sausages from Viking passengers and crew on a regular basis. Before long, he had a smaller companion join him, wagging its tail quite vigorously.
Soon after breakfast, we were ushered off the ship and onto the buses for a full-day excursion into the hills and valleys north of the Douro River in the heart of the Douro Muscatel growing region. Of course, the questions of what are Port wines and Moscatel wines have to be discussed. Both are fortified wines produced in Portugal, but there are some important differences.
Port wines are produced exclusively in the Alto Douro portion of the Douro Valley on the steep schist and granite terraced slopes along the river which experience cold winters and hot, dry summers. There are 60 red and 40 white grape varieties used in Port wines production including Touriga varieties for reds and Vioshinho, Gouveio, Malvasia, and Rabigato for whites. Port wines have been strictly protected by designation since 1756 like an official appellation.
Moscatel wines come from the Peninsula de Sutúbal, south of Lisbon, and the Douro Valley, specifically around Favaios on the upper-eastern plateau. The higher, cooler plateau tablelands allow Muscat grapes to retain crisp acidity while achieving high sugar levels. Moscatels are made from Moscatel Galego Branco grapes.
Port wines have flavor profiles ranging from dark berries and chocolate in the Ruby styles to rich nuts, caramel, and dried fig in Tawny styles. They are categorized by style and aging.
Moscatel wines tend to have intensely floral and aromatic profiles with notes of orange blossom, honey, and raisins. Moscatels are aged in wood casks.
To visit the Douro Moscatel region, we had to drive quite a distance north of the river along winding and twisting roads on moderate hillsides to higher altitudes, and despite the geography being described as being more on a plateau, the area remains mostly very hilly with moderately steep slopes. There are still plenty of terraces growing grapes on the hillsides.
Favaios is a small town about 80km NW of Pocinho where we got off the ship this morning. It took a little over an hour for the bus to get us there.
Our first stop was at a Moscatel winery, Adega de Favaios. This is a cooperative that buys grapes from many small farmers in the region and produces Moscatel wines with them.
We toured the grape unloading area where a mechanical sampler takes real-time measurements of the sugar content of the grapes that farmers bring before purchasing and processing them. The grapes go into a huge hopper which then feeds them into a device that separates the grapes from the stems and seeds before crushing them.
We then moved into the cask aging and storage area where we got to inhale the aromas of the oak casks and aging Moscatel, as well as sample a glass. Moscatel wines are aged in wood to develop flavors and tasting notes as the wine interacts with the wood and oxygen. They are aged a minimum of 18 months to over 40 years.
Our next stop was a bakery in Favaios famous for making Four Corner Bread. This is a seemingly simple bread made with soft wheat, yeast, salt, and water. Portugal lacks the agricultural land necessary to grow the wheat that it needs, so it is imported. Ukraine used to be Portugal’s primary source for wheat, but since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe has had to turn to other sources with France and Germany being their primary sources.
The dough for this bread is kneaded and allowed to rise before it is cut into lumps and shaped by repeated folding and creasing into its characteristic bow-tie shape. Several passengers got to try to shape their own loaves of this bread. The formed loaves are then proofed for an hour and then put into a wood-fired oven. We got to sample the four-corner loaves fresh out of the wood-fired oven.
These Four Corner breads have a very light and crispy crust, and a soft, finely textured interior. There have been Portuguese rolls served on the ship with a similar texture and taste, but a different shape. These Four Corner breads lend themselves into being broken up into four small roll-sized pieces, perfect for sharing. There were samples of a local cheese, jam, and olive compotes to try on the bread.
The local guide for touring the bakery was notable in his nearly endless supply of dad jokes and puns which were humorously and liberally applied throughout the tour, which he called Hiking With Viking. He and Sofia would make a good comic tag team.
Yesterday, Sofia told us a joke pertinent to Gustavo’s bus driving. A bus driver and a priest died on the same day and ended up in front of St. Peter at the gates to heaven. St. Peter ushered both into the back of his golden Cadillac to drive the two new arrivals to their permanent heavenly abodes. After driving some time through what appeared to be a barren desert, they came to a very humble cottage surrounded by a few cacti and boulders. St. Peter led the priest out and welcomed the priest to his forever dwelling in heaven. Then he got back behind the driver’s seat and drove a long way before coming to a beautiful green oasis. Inside this oasis was a glorious mansion with fountains and all manner of beautiful plants. St. Peter opened the door and led the bus driver to the gate and welcomed him to his forever heavenly dwelling. The bus driver looked a bit perplexed, having seen the priest dropped off in the middle of the desert at what was little more than a shack. The bus driver turned to St. Peter and asked why there was such a disparity of dwellings because the priest was supposedly a man of God. St. Peter explained that whenever the priest was at work preaching the gospels, everyone was sleeping. But when the bus driver was working, everyone was praying! Anyways, back to today’s adventure.
We next walked a short distance to the Favaios Museum of Wine and Bread. This museum had two wings with the first devoted to the history of Moscatel wine, and the second wing devoted to the history and technology behind baking the Four Corner Bread loaves that Favaios is renowned for.
It was a simple museum with well-designed exhibits with both Portuguese and English explanation panels. It was a chance to consolidate our lessons from earlier in the morning and also to use a bathroom for free.
The bus then drove us a bit further into the countryside to Quinta das Carvalhas, a winery estate with a grand view of the surrounding valleys and hills, and a large event venue where we were served lunch.
The appetizer was Bolinhas de Alheira, which is a spherical golden-brown breaded ball of deep-fried alheira sausage mixed with bread, garlic, olive oil, and paprika. This was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This was served on a bed of cooked spinach and a sliced cherry tomato with a streak of a sweet dipping sauce. The main course was a hearty pot roast served on mashed potatoes with steamed broccoli and carrots, and fried shoestring onions.
Dessert was apple three ways, with a coffee cake-like apple cake, apple sauce, and a baked apple.
The meal was accompanied by a bottomless supply of white, rosé, and red Douro wines, while dessert was chased with coffee and a shot of aguardente or grappa, which is what is used to halt the fermentation of Moscatel wines and fortify them. It is distilled from bagaço, fermented from leftover grape skins, seeds, and stems from the winemaking process, and is about 77% ABV. It is served as a digestif, but packs quite a punch like Everclear. It was best combined with espresso to make café com cheirinho. In a way, serving the aguardente after serving us the Douro wines is one way to make Port Wine or Muscatel wine in our stomachs instead of casks. This left everyone in quite an elevated mood as we filed back onto the buses.
As the bus wound its way back towards the Douro River, we could see agricultural plots covering the hills as far as you could see with lots of terraces and hillsides covered in grapevines. There are scattered groves of olive and almond trees, as well as oaks. There were cork oaks along the road that had been harvested, as evidenced by the dark brown color of the bare trunks marked with the number 4, indicating that the bark had been harvested in 2024.
We were reunited with the Viking Hemming in Folgosa at 3 p.m., which then set off on its continued downstream journey as soon as everyone was back aboard.
The ship passed through the Bagauste lock at 4 p.m. Running through the river immediately downstream from the dams and locks always seems a bit dicey as the river is quite narrow in places and the current is significant.
The ship tied up in Lamego at 5 p.m. A small group of passengers did a second excursion to Quinta das Carvalhas, which meant that as soon as they got off the bus at 3 p.m. in Folgosa, they had to board a van for that second excursion. They ended up reuniting with the ship in Lamego just before dinner.
There was a Viking Explorer Society cocktail party with an open bar. Out of 106 passengers aboard this sailing, 84 were Viking Explorer Society members by virtue of being on prior Viking sailings. We later received souvenir Viking branded Aquavit shot glasses in our stateroom as a gift for being a repeat Viking passenger.
The cocktail party was followed by the daily briefing outlining tomorrow’s itinerary. This will take us to Lamego, a region that produces sparkling wines. By the end of tomorrow, we will be back in Porto, or more precisely, Vila Nova de Gaia, which is on the north bank of the river.
Dinner started off with an offering of grilled sardines on the Portuguese menu, which we passed on despite it being a very traditional Portuguese staple. We just didn’t want to deal with the bones, so Ben opted for seared halibut and Janet had a Portobello mushroom entree. We did try the Portuguese pineapple and coconut cake for dessert.
Seared Halibut
Portobello Mushroom
Portuguese Pineapple and Coconut Cake
The evening’s entertainment was disco night. A lot of people were a bit more dressed up tonight at dinner, so we suspect they will be hitting the dance floor. We will retire early instead.
