Duoro River Friday 19 September

First night on board and as the boats are not allowed to sail at night, it certainly was extra calm. The Irish group arrived about 1 am and although not deliberately noisy, our cabin is at the entrance to the 2nd level hall way so we head thr voices as they went to their cabins. Also as the boats are asked to sail from daylight, at about 4.30 we heard the motors start up again and it was a bit bumpy??? to get underway. Time for breakfast and as we aren't doing until after lunch, it is a leisurely morning watching the world go by. very different landscape to our earlier river cruise through the Danube and Rhine rivers.

We are to go through 5 locks, with their respective hydroelectric power stations, on our way upstream. We went through one last night which might have been the bumpy bit, and then go through the highest one, 35 metres of lift/drop at Carrapatelo. First we have to wait for a boat to come through and then it is our turn. Amazing feat of engineering.

For morning tea we were all offered pastels de natal (Portuguese tarts) and churros. The tarts were not extra nice and Julie ate my churros as I'm not a big fan but it was a nice touch all the same.

More sight seeing of rugged coastline and houses perched on hill sides. no idea about roads or how to access them. A mixture of very old and more modern. I also have no idea what they would do all day.

We then have to go under a bridge which is notoriously difficult to do a there is such a small margin of error for height. we make it with mere centimetres to spare!

Back to coast watching and reading until lunch time.

When we head to lunch I notice large black grey clouds in the distance which is clear evidence of a fire.

No staff are making any mention of the wild fires that hit Portugal recently so no more thought about fires.... until later! We docked at Lamego in the afternoon and began our included coach tour which took us to the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora dos Remedies which is one of the most important pilgrimage centres in Portugal. So the story goes, a woman was dying but told her husband that if he world get 3 splinters of wood from the Virginia Mary statue recentlyarrived in the city, she world make a tincture, drink it and be saved. Hubby duly sets off to the church to ask the priest if he can take some splinters of wood from the statue. Priest says no. Hubby not to be deterred, goes to the ship that the statue was brought to the city on and takes splinters of wood from there. Didn't tell his wife. Gives her the wood splinters. She makes her tea, drinks or and is miraculously cured. He had to fess up to the wife, so goes back to the ship and sees that it is named the Ship of remedies! Voila! We have another Catholic Church to pay pilgrimage to.

Only 686 steps down to the town if you are so inclined to walk it. I took the coach back into Lamego and had a wander around, taking in the cathedral a there wasn't much else of interest.

The smoke from earlier is now very much taking over the skies! I still can smell the smoke but whatever was burning was definitely a large area. Time to board the coach again and more we have a long dive ahead of us of over an hour, as we head to our next stop. Lots of vines on hillsides everywhere. you almost need to be a mountain goat to get to some of them.

We finally arrive at Quinta da Avessada what we are greeted by a piano accordian playing gentleman (a musical instrument second after bagpipes as my least favourite sound). we were then offered a glass of Muscat's, which Julie drank mine as well. Way too sweet for me.

A quinta is a country villa or estate and mostly refers to a wine producing estate. the aid quinta originally refers to a quinta parte or fifth part, which was the skinny of a farm's produce in rent. This quinta is in the centre of the Duoro demarcated zone at its highest point (altitude 600 metres) and is also the flattest point of the role region, about 1,000 hectares of plateau. Avessada has 6 generations of winemakers so they are very proud of their traditional wine making. Apparently 90%of the vines are picked by machines and 10% by humans, but 10% are simple on by humans to make the wine and 90% by machines. Supposedly the men will stomp on the collected grapes for 5 hours in order for the juice to get to the correct temperature created by the body heat!We were assured that the feet were clean first....

After an explanation of the wine making process we were then shown to a large hall where dinner was served. It wasn't very exciting or all that good to be honest but it was enough and we did get to drink wine. The evening ended with a shot of grappa, which smelt like methylated spirits and had the same kick I would expect if I were to drink methylated spirits! Time to head back to the coach and our long drive back to the boat which is now docked at Pinhão. It is not almost 10pm. we have been off the boat since 2.30. Time for bed.