Our last excursion and our last stop on this amazing cruise. We are in Oporto City, Portugal, which was known many years ago for the Tin Fish Industry - tuna fish, sardines, etc. This city is located on the Douro River which will lead you back into the country where they grow the grapes for Port wine. These grapes used to be transported on boats called "rabelos" down the Douro River; and we were able to ride on replicas of these boats for a short cruise up and down the Douro, looking at all the many bridges that have been built to cross this river and the sights on either side.
While Portugal is having extreme economic problems, the people have been the friendliest yet in this city. They were waving at us excitedly as we passed through their streets on our big buses. We kind of stand out like a sore thumb. And of course when we get off the bus we all have these round, colored stickers with a number on them pasted on our jackets indicating which tour we are on. And then the cameras - we must look ridiculous. Ed and I would always try to hide the stickers when we had time on our own so we could look a little less conspicuous - don't think it worked.
We traveled to The Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Assumption - the oldest organ in this fortress of a church was from the 17th century. It is no longer working but it's a pretty magnificent building with the biggest baptismal font we've every seen - a whole baby could fit inside.
The tour of the Port Wine winery was very nice - again learned so much about the making of these interesting wines and you can get Port Wine in White and Rose as well as Ruby and a few other mixtures. I remember my Dad drinking Port wine...well now I like it as well - and so does Ed.
After the river cruise we had a little time to shop or get a bite to eat. OUr bite to eat took longer than expected and for the first time the bus had to wait for us - we got the 'silent treatment' when getting back on board even though we apologized - oh well...at least this was the last tour - we'll probably be forgiven by tonight.
Ed and I (for dinner on Tuesday night) ate in a restaurant on the ship called Bistro on Five - it's a Creperie where they make all kinds of crepes for morning, noon, dinner, or whatever. You can also get salad and soup. Our dinner table mates were getting back to the ship late and since we really didn't want to sit at our regular table in the dining room, it was the perfect night to try this Bistro. So relaxing, very romantic, with no rush for us to get through our meal. If you're ever on a Celebrity ship that offers this restaurant, I highly recommend it.
So now it's time to lounge around on the ship and get caught up on our sleep. I know - you're saying we've been on vacation for almost two weeks but it's hard work going ashore every day, getting up early, eating breakfast served to us in our cabin, reporting to the theater to get our bus assignment....so it's a good thing we have two days at sea to get caught up!
Thanks for listening and if I can manage to get some more pictures to Kate, she'll post them. Not sure if I will be able to connect again with my iPad - well maybe in Heathrow Airport.
Betsy
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