SAILING DOWNRIVER

By Thursday morning we had reached the Spanish border, which was as far upriver as the boat was allowed.  We took an all-day tour to the Spanish city of Salamanca, home to one of the four first universities in the world.  On the way there we had a Shakespeare stop (to pee or not to pee) for fresh orange juice and coffee.  Note the hanging hams in the picture.  These came from pigs that only ate acorns.  Once in Salamanca we had refreshments and saw some traditional dancing.  This was followed by a walking tour of the city.

At the end of the tour we had a couple of hours of free time.  Betty badly needed to sit so we entered the first place we came across.  This was a tapa bar and Betty asked the waiter to bring us four tapas of his choosing.  In a flash came a calamari sandwich, a burrito, a mixed seafood sandwich and a Spanish omelet.  We washed down these delicious treats with a bottle of sparkling water and four glasses of Rioja Roble.  The bill came to 15.40 Euros ($ 21.56 Canadian).  It was only after I had tipped that I noticed a tip had already been included.

The day was long but we did make it to the boat in time for a pre-dinner drink.

On Saturday we decided to skip the included ship's tour (which appeared to have some difficult walking.)  We opted for a relatively expensive trip to the Tavora-Varosa wine region.  Here the scenery was even more beautiful that in the Douro and our tour ended with wine tasting at a very small winery.  We ate some great delicacies and one of wines was one of the best still whites we have ever had.  The particular vintage that we tried only had produced 700 bottles, and to my great surprise, the owner even agreed to sell me a bottle.  Sure hope the bubble-wrap does its thing in my suitcase.

Since tomorrow will be our last cruise day, before our 4 days on land in Porto, I shall comment a bit on the cruise.  This is our 21st cruise, but our first river cruise.  River and Ocean cruising are very different; one chooses the river for scenery and the ocean for amenities.  On an Ocean ship there is a library, a spa, an exercise room, laundromats, a theatre for evening entertainment and multiple restaurants with lots of options.  None of these exist on the river boat, and in the one restaurant there are only a few options, despite the food being well prepared and presented.