11/5/2024

 

We slept in this morning, had a leisurely breakfast and nice conversation with our fellow travelers.  Shirley decided to join the morning excursion (Douro Museum) while Paul decided to have a very lazy morning listening to his audio book, Into the Silence by Wade Davis.  This is a very detailed account of the Everest Expedition of 1921 with lots and lots of background. 

 

Shirley’s bit:

 

I visited the Douro Museum.  While I did not actually see much of the museum, the lecture was fascinating. This region is a UNESCO Heritage site.  It is known for Port wine; however, if you live here, you do not dare refer to it as Port as it is made here, not in the port.  I tasted it for the first time and quite nice—a little sweet, similar to sherry. I learned 2 important factors about the production of this wine.  One is the amount of shale in the soil.  It is dominant here and was broken up to build the stone walls of the terraces but also mixed in the soil.  During the very hot summer, it retains the heat of the sun and keeps the grapes warm at night.  This makes them sweeter.  Some time ago, an insect—the Phylloxera from North America—invaded the vineyards and destroyed them.  A man in Texas realized that the American vines were resistant to the insect.  So now a meter long American root is planted.  When it has grown, a European or Douro vine is grafted to it.  Since then, there has not been a problem with Phylloxera.  It was all quite interesting. We saw a video of the boats transporting the wine in 1960 before the dams were built on the Douro.  Quite scary as it seemed to be a creek with dangerous rapids, instead of the beautiful river it now is.

 

At the Fado show last night, I noticed the male singer had a black cape.  On the inside were patches which we could not really see because he had it draped around him.  Today I learned there is a traditional Portuguese black cape.  I asked Miriam about it.  Now all university students have black capes.  They receive patches from the university or from friends.  They place them on the inside, so they can keep them private or can turn back the sides of the cape to show them, like lapels.  When J. K. Rowling lived in Porto she got the idea to use the capes at Hogwarts.

 

Back to Paul:

The boat crossed to the other shore to get supplies and off-load detritus. The tour had to take a bus back to the ship for lunch. At Regua there is an incredible bridge over the Douro – it curves!

 

 

 

Regua bridge and view from the bridge 

 

After lunch we boarded busses to go to the shrine of Our Lady of Remedies in Lamego.  The weather was light rain and low clouds so we were not able to enjoy the vistas of a mountain road. We arrived in Lamego after a 25 minute ride.  Lamego is a big town – not a city – and was plopped down in a very mountainous area – there were no flat yards or streets except in the middle of town where the cathedral is.  Our busses wound their way up one of the mountains to the shrine where we were let off to explore.  We explored the church, said some prayers and took some pictures.

 

 

The altar

The sanctuary was very small, but ornate as was the custom when it was built in 1761. We then went outside to decide if we wanted to walk down the 686 steps to the bottom in the light rain or take the bus. Shirley felt that we should walk.  There is no communion without sacrifice. We walked down the first flight to a plaza where we were treated with the first of several tile illustrations depicting scenes in the life of Mary.  At the top was the Coronation of Our Lady.

 

 

The Coronation – the first tile scene

 

We were in a plaza with an obelisk and statues of the 16 kings of Israel. The names on the king pedestals were worn away except for Amon.

 

 

Amon, king of Israel

 

I took a video of the other 15 but Amon was the only one whose name was still legible.  Our guide had no clue who was Solomon or David.  We continued down the several flights of stairs and were pleased with the views and the tile scenes.

 

 

Various scenes on the way down.

 

We later learned that the 686 steps that were advertised were calculated as up and down.  We came upon a Camino marker:

 

Paul and Brian at the Way of St. James

 

 

The rain was just light enough that a hood was too much and so when we got down to the bottom, Shirley’s hair appeared as if she had diamonds in her hair.

 

Diamonds in her hair

 

Finally at the bottom we were directed into a tasting room where we were served a charcouterie plate and wine.  Then we had free time which we spent descending the last set of stairs and on to the Cathedral square.

 

 

 

We strolled around the town a bit, bought a fancy present and chit-chatted with our fellow pilgrims.  Truth be known we had too much free time.  We wound our way back to the ship in the fog and through the clouds.

 

Once on board we had the port talk about the next day (sleep in day). And then got back on the bus to the Pecheca Winery.  Here we listened to a spiel about Port wine and how the grapes were stomped by tourists (and, of course, locals) in giant granite tubs.

 

 

The stomping area and Carlos

 

We learned (well – heard) a lot about the number of grape varieties, which are used for which kind of wine and port and how long the different ports would keep open and closed and it was interesting …but …

 

After the spiel and port tasting we were ushed into the cellar where a feast was laid out.

 

 

The cellar.

 

We ate a wonderful meal of Filet Mignon, Asparagus soup, green beans, scalloped potatoes and dessert.  We topped it off with a complimentary glass of tawny Port wine that was 30 years old.  Back on the bus and to the ship and to the cabin and to the bed.

 

8674 step and 8 flights of stairs for anyone keeping count.