Salamanca

We were loaded onto the buses at 7am for a three hour drive to Salamanca and a walking city tour.  The city was probably established in the early 12th-13th centuries but most of the oldest buildings are from the 15th century and later.  

Every town has a central plaza and Salamanca’s is very large.  The covered walkway surround the plaza sport 88 arches with busts of royals and nobles between each one.

A House of Shells shows that Salamanca is on the Camino Santiago and down the street is the largest and oldest university in Spain and the third largest in all of Europe.  We noted names and dates written in red on many walls in the city.  These are students who have graduated and after a 3 day celebration of their graduation which included slaughtering a bull, they write their names in the bull's blood on the walls.  Not so much in todays world but some of those names date back over a couple of hundred years. 

Many of the buildings of the University are from the 15th century.  At that time students would sit on the floor and listen to lectures, no books and no note taking.  The rooms were poorly lit and there were only very small windows so there was little light.  Later there were benches and desks and candles. The small windows kept the rooms from getting too cold and later the candles and fireplaces were added, with some walls lined with tapestry that also helped keep it warmer.

Most of the rooms and the chapel in the oldest part of the University are used for ceremonial purposes only these days.

The cathedral is from the 16th Century.

Castillo Rodrigo

Our last day on the ship finds us docked in Vega Terron near the region where almond trees and olive trees are grown. We have a short bus ride up into the hills where we are seeing more of those trees surrounding the vineyards.

At the top of the hill is an ancient Moorish village that has also been occupied by Jews and Christian and is one of the places along the Camino Trail of St. James.  They know this because of sea shells on the pulpit inside the church.  We know the Moors had occupied the area because the 10 Commandments inside the church are written in Arabic.

We wondered the small walled community which now make their living selling things to tourists, making olive oil and flavored roasted almonds.

Tonight is our last night on the boat so the chef prepared a meal fit for a king with appetizers, salad, soup, two entrees and, of course, dessert.  As always we had our choice of red or white wine and some bubbly.  There was supposed to be dancing this evening but only 6 of us show up so by 10 pm it was dead in the bar.  That may also be because we have to be packed and off the ship early in the morning.

Quinta Avessada Enoteca

The train station in Pinhau is decorated with painted tile murals depicting the life of the people in their vineyards.

We are in the heart of Favaios (pronounced ‘Fah-vi-oosh’) area which is one of the highest points along the Douro River.  It is also home to the Muscatel wine.  Port wines must come from grapes that are grown at a lower elevation so these grapes are essentially the same as for port but since they are grown at a higher elevation they cannot be called port.  Thus the name Muscatel.  It is a very sweet aperitif wine.

Lunch was served at the Quinta Avessada Enoteca and was an elaborate event with red wine, white wine and Muscatel.

We have seen some beautiful country as we travel from the river to the various vineyards.  So much of it is covered with vines but there are some trees delineating property and some of these trees are Sobeiro or Cork Oak Trees.

When you plant a Cork tree, you are planning for your grandchildren.  This is because it takes 25 years for the tree to have a bark that is thick enough to cut wine corks from but the first cut is usually a very poor quality cork so now you must wait another 9 years to get the next cut.  This will be a better cork but the very best will come after another 9 years. That’s 43 years before you can make money. Then the trees are marked with the year it will be cut again.  On top of that it takes a very talented and experienced person to cut the cork off the tree and not damage it.  If done right the tree will survive for 200 years.  200,000 tons of cork is harvested every year with 1/2 of that from Portugal.  NASA uses only Portuguese cork for insulation in its rockets.  Many other things are made from the leftovers of wine stoppers such as the cork purses I purchased as a souvenir.

Chapel of Our Lady of Remedies

A short drive from the river took us to the town of Lamego where we climbed 686 steps to reach the Chapel or Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies on a hill over looking the town.

The chapel was completed in the late 1700’s taking over 200 years to build.  At some point in that process a spring was found and it was believed that if you drank from it you could be healed from many ailments and women who were having problems becoming pregnant could petition the Virgin Mary to help them conceive.  In order to show the sincerity of their request the women would crawl up the 686 steps on their knees.

Half way down the hill, we stopped at a wine shop and sampled their sparkling wines made from grapes in this region.  Very nice, light wine paired with cheese and sausages.

The cruise took us through another lock and then we stopped at Pinhaou (pronounced ‘Ping-yow’) to visit Quinta da Ronda for a port wine tasting.  They gave us a short tour and tutorial on the port wine making process.

Regua and Mateus

Not far from the small town of Regua where the boat is moored is a fantastic country house called The Mateus Palace (pronounced ‘ma-tah-ush’).  Even though it is located in the midst of many vineyards it was never a place where wine was produce.

The palace was built circa 1743 by a wealthy landowner who liked to entertain the royalty and dignitaries of the region so it is very ostentatious in its decor. The ceilings are made from chestnut wood that looks like new and has never been refinished and the floors are pine.  The library contains over 4,000 books with the oldest ones from the 15th century meaning they are hand written manuscripts as they were created before the age of the printing press.

The rooms are laid out like a palace with passing rooms, waiting rooms, social rooms and anti-chambers to the Kings room.  We also viewed the dining room and smoking room.  The kitchen was located below the dining room so that the servants could come up a very narrow, hidden stairway and through a hidden door to set the table, hopefully never to be seen by the nobles.

Surrounding the palace was the most beautiful and intricately designed garden that rivals those in France.  The hedges were reportedly trimmed by hand using scissors.  So many fragrant and colorful roses.  It was truly awesome to walk through!

Cruising to Regua

We pulled out into the river before sunrise and went through our first lock at 7 AM.  Late in the morning we docked and toured the vineyard of Quinta de Aveleda.

They have some very old Port in huge oak barrels that date back almost 100 years.  But the port we had for lunch was very young.  We also got to tour the grounds where extensive gardens had been planted with many exotic plants and trees from around the world.

This region of Portugal and the Douro River is the largest wine region in Portugal with over 343 varieties of grapes and 250 of those varietals are Portuguese.

Porto City Tour

Our ship is actually parked in Gaia across the Douro River from Porto.

 

This morning we had a walking tour of the city.  We walked across one of the many bridges across the river, one of which was built by a student of Eifel (the tower in Paris Eifel).  As we strolled up through the old town we learned that the Festival for St. John the Baptist will be June 23 and they are already decorating for it.  The old tail boats parked in the river will sail out to the ocean and then back, pretending to haul wine to market.  Thus begins a weekend of drinking and fun.

So much history in this region involving the Moors, the Jews and Christians, some of whom were Knights Templar. In the 15th Century, the royals were not allowed in the city as it was run by the upper class and they didn’t want the royal laziness to affect the working class.  Therefore, they could only stay three nights and then they had to leave.  

There are many large and ornate buildings, some are former courts, and of course the Cathedral is the main building of power in the city as the Bishops had more power than many city officials. 

The trains station was had many beautiful mosaic murals telling the history of Porto.

After dinner a men’s chorus called TUNA performed for us.  We didn’t understand the words but the music was nice.

 

 

On to Porto and our Cruise

Happy Birthday to me!!

 

On the bus ride towards Porto we learned about the production of cork from the Cork Oak Tree.  The trees must be 25 years old before the bark can be stripped off and then you must wait 9 years each time you want to harvest the bark but the trees do live to be 200 years old.

Our lunch stop in Nazare was nice but I wish we could have gone around the point to see some of the worlds’s tallest waves.

Alcobaca Monastery (pronounced 'Al-co-bassa) was finished in 1220 for the Cistercian monks.  It was built to be very plain so that the monks would not be distracted from their prayers. There were anywhere from 50 to 100 monks at that time. It was built near a river so they had running water, a very large kitchen and huge fireplace. 

Near the monastery was the chapter house and in the transept King Peter and his beloved Queen Ines are buried facing each other. Because they are royalty they have very elaborately decorated tombs.

 

We arrived in Porto and boarded our ship in time for dinner where we met our table mates with whom we will dine every meal.  Luckily we have a very lively group that seems to get along well.  Susan & Janice are travel companions, Mary Beth & Brad, Cheryl & AL, and John and I.

The cruise manager, Isabel, gave me a cork purse and they made a birthday cake for me to share with my table and sang to me as well.  A very nice way to celebrate a new decade of life!

Night scenes of Porto from the ship.

Sinatra UNESCO World Heritage Site

Built in the mid 19th century, the Peña Palace was the summer retreat for Moorish rulers and later by the Portuguese royalty and eccentrics. 

The Palace has many fun features and symbolic carvings such as the Triton holding up a tree, smiling snakes wrapped around a pillar, decorative tiles everywhere and religious symbols such as roses and the hand of Fatima.

The palace was built over an old monastery so you can still find the refractory, panty and chapter house surrounding the cloister garden.

The newer parts of the castle has beautiful chandeliers, elaborately decorated rooms and nicely appointed bedrooms, dining room and kitchen.

 

Sintra is located high on a mountain where the air is much cooler than in Lisbon.  We explored the small village, had a nice lunch and then headed back to our hotel.