May 25, 2024 to June 1, 2024
Cruising the Duoro river
Our taxi to the airport was amazingly efficient and we thought cheap. The airport is massive but pretty user friendly and it was not long before we were on the very short flight to Porto where we were met by a rep of Emerald Cruises and whisked to our boat. A week of complete indulgence was about to begin. Others would do the thinking for us and we would be so well feed that even if we can ride a bike at the end of it we will have to ride many hundreds of kilometres without eating to get to a normal weight
The Duoro is 800km long but only the 200km stretch from Porto to the Spanish border is navigable, This is because the river is dammed in many places and it is only in the Portuguese section that there are locks allowing boats to pass through. Our boat The Emerald Radiance just fits a lock with out even a foot on either side of it and it is exactly the length of a lock
Our first day was a day of sailing from the city surround of Porto, passed the Port Houses and the Eiffel Bridge to a spectacular deep gorge that the river has carved out of the landscape. I had imagined that the vineyard would start straight away but this is not so. It isnt until you reach near Pinhao at the end of a full days sailing that they start in earnest. Pinhao is a very small town, but the only town of any significance on the part of the river we sailed on. We got off had a walk around this tiny place
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Next morning it was onto the buses (we have 3 buses following us up the river) and we were taken to a tiny Quinta up the side of the valley. The views were amazing and grape vines and olive trees covered the steep slopes. The place we were going to is very small producing largely port. It does have accommodation, a restaurant and I think many tours like ours which I think will provide much of their income. Joseph gave us ane excellent tour of the operation followed by a tasting. Personally I ont like port so that was rather aster on me
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We arrived at the Spanish border and docked for the night. The days trip was to Salamanca about 200km away so it was a long but very interesting bus ride where we learnt about feeding pigs acorns to make Iberian Ham, growing almonds and other things now forgotten. Salamanca itself has a lovely compact centre which enjoyed. It has the oldest University on the Iberian peninsular and so many perfectly reserved old buildings Apart from some dramas like one lady losing her wallet we were back on board and ready to sale by 6pm
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I wasn’t going to publish this till the end of the cruise as it isnt about cycling but decided to do so anyway
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5 months ago
5 months ago