Ben and Janet's Travel Blog

20261028 Wednesday, October 28, 2026; Pinhão to Barca d’Alva, Castelo Rodrigo, and Flamenco Show

We awoke to the ship pushing off from its mooring at 7:15 a.m. and continuing its upstream journey. We had a leisurely breakfast including eggs benedict for Janet and Viking’s trademark Mamsen’s waffle with the brown Brunost cheese.

Oddly, the Brunost was cut into bars instead of being sliced thinly, so distributing its caramel goodness around the waffle wedges required a bit more effort, but in the end, it was worth it. We have been on enough Viking cruises that seeing the Mamsen’s china pattern and the waffles triggers nostalgia and warm memories of past cruise experiences.

This cruise had proven unique in the experience of scenic river cruising on the Douro River. We have seen the terrain and climate transition significantly. It’s a little like back home in Washington State, where western Washington and eastern Washington have entirely different climates and terrains due to the Cascade Mountains.

Today, the ship navigated through more narrow segments of the river that can properly be described as a gorge with steep schist and granite walls. It is hard to imagine navigating such a large ship through these narrow segments of the river.

We passed through two locks today as we transitioned into the heart of port wine production area. The valley walls are quite steep and covered with grapevines on terraces, as well as plots lined with olive and almond trees. There are also cork oak trees scattered in the hillsides.

There was a cooking demonstration of Pastéis de Nata where we didn’t volunteer for since two women we had met and gotten to know wanted to volunteer. We didn’t get to sample the ship’s Pastéis de Nata while they were still warm out of the oven, but the pastry was not as crisp as what we had earlier in the trip in Madrid.
The ship unloaded about a half dozen passengers for an optional lunch and river cruise excursion after passing through the second lock.

The ship continued to its most upstream mooring location in Barca d’Alva, which is the last Portuguese city on the river, with the border between Portugal and Spain less than a mile upstream. The river is not navigable by larger vessels above Barca d’Alva, so the boat ride on the optional excursion got a handful of passengers into the narrower and shallower part of the river at the border with Spain.

We had lunch on the ship. Janet enjoyed a cheeseburger with sweet potato fries, and Ben had some finger-licking good short ribs. We each had banana splits for dessert, but boy, that was a lot of food. We. Needed digestive naps after lunch.

We disembarked the ship after it tied up in Barca d’Alva and loaded up onto buses for a tour of Castelo Rodrigo, which is a historic Portuguese medieval walled village at the top of a hill. It has Roman and Arab roots, which are reflected in the architecture. The medieval fortress at the top lies in ruins. Some elements of the palace of the Marquis of Castelo Rodrigo are scattered among the buildings in the village as the palace was burned down during the 1640 Restoration of Independence. Villagers would make off with parts like a window or decorative element and incorporate it into their house.

Near the heart of the city is the Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Rocamador. This church serves as an important wayside along a Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. Inside this church are two somewhat odd sculptures, including one depicting St Stephen in what looks like a child’s body, and one of St Tiago riding a horse that is trampling a Moor, but the proportions make the horse look like a tiny donkey, and the Moor is a rather cartoonish depiction.

The city also has a historic Jewish quarter. This became quite prominent after the Spanish Inquisition pushed all Jews out of Spain.

There are elements of Arab and Roman architecture throughout the village. One structure that has served as a water cistern may have begun its existence as a synagogue and then as a mosque, as it has one door that is clearly Arab in design, and one that is more Romanesque.

We had some time to wander the city on our own. Just outside the city, we did see a place where cork was laid outside to dry in stacks adjacent to a cork factory. Janet found some cork items to bring home as souvenirs.

After returning to the ship, we had a regional dinner experience with a buffet featuring Portuguese foods. These included grilled Portuguese Chorizo, roast duck, bean, potato, and pork soup, sardines, tuna and black bean salad, tomatoes and feta cheese salad, Cod with potato, deep-fried green beans, and a variety of dumplings or empanadas. Dessert included Portuguese rice pudding and port wine custard, in addition to ice cream and sorbet.

After dinner, there was a Flamenco show by an ensemble from Salamanca called Solearte. This ensemble included three young women dancers and a male musician who was primarily a percussionist. They performed with backing canned soundtrack music besides the clapping and drumming.

The three women put on quite a dazzling performance of several Spanish dance styles, including Flamenco. There was a lot of rhythmic stomping, skirt twirling, clapping, and rattling of castanets. It was quite the show and quite different from the Flamenco performance we saw in Madrid.

Tomorrow, we board buses for a full-day excursion into Salamanca, Spain.

20261027 Tuesday, October 27, 2026; Régua, Mateus Palace, Quinta do Seixo, and Pinhão

As we awoke this morning to the lurch of the ship, we pulled open our curtains to find the ship pulling away from the dock at Vila Nova de Gaia and heading upstream. We passed beneath the iconic Dom Luis I Bridge, as well as a series of other bridges as we headed upstream through a series of river bends. It had rained last night, wetting the outer deck, and there was a moderately heavy cloud cover, but it didn’t rain as we headed on our way.

The river cuts a steep valley through the limestone and schist with buildings and roadways on the slopes of the valley. At the waterline, there are cormorants, herons, and egrets among the rocky riverbank. There are a few developed sandy beaches and docks along the river as we headed out of Porto.

We approached Lock Crestuma at 8:30 a.m. This is a single-stage lock associated with a dam for hydroelectric generation and maintenance of navigability of the river. It produces 67 GWh per year. It lifts 46’ and has a book-shaped gate on the downstream side and a guillotine gate on the upstream side.

The lock is 40’ wide and is 316’ long. It is very similar to the locks on the Nile River, but there are no merchant pirate ships chasing the river cruise ships as they exit the lock.

Upstream of the Crestuma lock, the river takes on more of the character of a lake for some distance. Then at 11:30am we arrived at the Carrapatelo lock, which is another hydroelectric dam facility producing 870 GWh per year. With a lift of 115’, it is the highest single-stage lock in Europe. It has guillotine-style gates at both ends.

There is a traffic bridge across the top of the dam with low clearance, so the ship had to reconfigure the top deck to drop all the masts, awnings, and even the bridge to fit under. We could easily touch the underside of the bridge while sitting on seats on the upper deck. Those not sitting had to duck under the bridge as we passed.

We had a morning presentation on the geography and history of the Douro River. Prince Henry the Navigator was born near the mouth of the Douro River. The river was mapped by Baron Forrester. Together with Dona Ferreira, a businesswoman and estate owner, the Douro River Port wine empire was built. There was a bit of scandal between the widow Ferreira and Baron Forrester in that it was rumored that they had a romantic affair at a time when such things were unspeakable. Baron ended up drowning when a boat both he and Ferreira were on capsized in one of the Douro’s rapids. It is said she was saved by all the hoops and skirts trapping air and providing buoyancy, while Baron died with his pockets full of heavy gold coins.

The history lesson was followed by a seminar on Portuguese cork. This is produced by cork oak trees, and is a renewable resource. The presenter said a single cork oak tree can produce over 10,000kg of cork in its lifetime of about 200 years. The presenter was also a saleswoman who had brought a selection of cork goods aboard for sale including wallets, jewelry, hats, and bags. Cork’s insulating and waterproof characteristics make it a highly versatile material for a wide range of uses. Portugal and Spain produce the vast majority of cork harvested and used in the world.

Lunch featured traditional Portuguese Bifanas, which are pork sandwiches made with thinly sliced pork loin marinated in white wine and paprika served on a papo seco Portuguese roll. The menus on this voyage so far have had a dedicated Portuguese menu in addition to the regular daily fare.

The ship arrived at Cambres where all the passengers got off the ship for the included excursion, which was a visit to Mateus Palace and Quinta do Seixo. After disembarking, the ship actually continued up the river without us to pass through a third lock, Lock Bagaúste, which has an 84’ lift.

Viking Hemming in Lock Bagaúste without us aboard.

The Mateus Palace is made famous for its use in branding Mateus Rosé wine labels, and is located in the civil parish of Mateus in the municipality of Vila Real, Portugal. Contrary to the name, it was occupied originally by the Botelho Mourão family for 12 generations, with the last being led by D. Francisco de Albuquerque, who established the Casa de Mateus Foundation, which administers the property today as a museum. While there is a winery on the grounds and wine shop, ironically, they don’t sell the Mateus Rosé wine, which displays the building’s facade on its labels.

It is a classic Baroque palace with ornate decorations and remains furnished with original furniture and decor from the mid-18th century.

While the palace is filled with Baroque items, one of the more interesting items is a bound illustrated two-book volume of Luís Vaz de Camões’s “Lusíadas,” complete with the engraving plates for many of the images printed in the book. This Portuguese national epic poem is modeled in the style of Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, replacing Homer with Vasco da Gama. Our guide, Sofia, said Portuguese students have to study this in school.

The palace has an attached chapel containing various religious artifacts including quite a collection of reliquaries.

The tasting room at the palace offered samples of a rosé wine, but not the Mateus brand.

There are formal gardens around the palace. These reminded us of the gardens and grounds of Filoli House outside San Francisco.

After touring the Mateus Palace, the bus took us further upstream and uphill into the steep slopes covered with grape terraces in the heart of the Douro River wine region. The climate is dryer and more extreme here than even just an hour’s drive downstream. The terraces have been built from schist quarried nearby since before the Romans ruled over this land.

The schist terraces offer unique properties that contribute to the unique terroir of the Douro Region. The mineral is somewhat porous, providing a rich source of minerals while also providing tremendous heat storage capacity, which moderates the more extreme temperatures— keeping roots warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Growing the vines on the steep hillsides also forces stress on the vines by having to send roots down very deep into the earth to find water. This stress produces smaller grapes with higher concentrations of sugars and other chemicals that lend character to wines.

The drive up to the Quinta do Seixo winery is not for the faint of heart. It was a bit shocking to see our giant tour coaches maneuver through the hairpin turns on gravel roads barely wide enough for the coach, even though there was 2-way traffic on them. The hillsides were steep enough that it was easy to imagine a tourist coach tumbling thousands of feet down the hillside and ending up with a huge splash in the river far below. We were arriving as the sun was setting, and by the time our tour was over, it was pitch black outside for the drive back down the hillside to where the ship was docked. Maybe not being able to see out the bus windows on the way back down to the river was a blessing.

This winery is a large and modern facility. There are huge underground storage facilities for the wine at various stages of Port production. We were shown in an impressive airplane hanger-sized room filled with swimming pool-sized granite tubs where grapes are stomped to yield juice for winemaking.

They have a huge robot that stomps the grapes with pads and motions imitating the marching of soldiers to press the juice out of the grapes without rupturing the seeds, which can impart unpleasant characteristics to wines.

The tasting room offered samples of both a tawny and ruby ports. The ruby ports tend to have a fruity character, while tawny ports, which are barrel-aged for much longer, can have more complex notes ranging from dried fig to beef jerky. Both would be good for sipping before or after a meal.

We arrived safely in the dark in Pinhão, where the ship was tied up. At this location, the Hemming was tied up all by itself, so we could walk directly onto the ship and did not have our balcony blocked by another ship being tied up alongside. We had a very nice view from our veranda even at night, lit up by a nearly full moon.

We had dinner at 7:15 p.m. and asked to be seated on a quiet location. The waiter found us a table at the very back and corner of the restaurant on a 4-top but with just the 2 of us. This was quieter and less stressful for Janet since we didn’t need to engage in any across-table conversations over the noise of the dining room. We had the Portuguese regional menu, which included Picanha, which is seared rump steak on mashed potatoes and spinach, and Liete Creme Queimado, which is Portuguese crème brûlée. This was also featured with an arugula salad with goat cheese. This was a delicious meal.

After dinner, there was a music trivia hosted by our program director, Hugo. This had 8 songs for which we needed the artist, title, decade, and a bonus point for some sort of participation. For the most part, this included getting up and dancing, but one bonus required powers of observation. Behind the DJ/musician, in the corner of the room, was a coach sign “1H”, displayed for the prior two songs, but which we had never seen because it was behind a pillar. And another bonus question was to guess the combined ages of the two bartenders.

We ended up tied for second place with 25 points. The first-place team got 27 points. We had a tiebreaker where we had to guess Hugo’s age, and we lost second place to the other team. We had won the bonus point for being closest to the combined age of the bar staff, who were both Asians. Hugo, on the other hand, was much younger than either team had guessed. He was only 30, but we guessed 42 and the other team guessed 36. They won a small bag of cookies, while first place won a small bottle of 10-year-old port. But we were pretty happy to have ended up with third since it was just Janet and Ben, while the others were teams of 6.

Tomorrow, the ship will cast off at 7:15 and continue sailing upstream through two more locks and make a brief stop at the second lock to disembark passengers on optional excursions. We will then continue scenic cruising to Barca d’Alva where we will tour Castelo Rodrigo on the included excursion for the day. There will also be a Pastel de Nata cooking demonstration in the mid-morning.