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

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.