On the shuttle heading to old town Lisbon.

Great architecture- love the color of the buildings.

Walked down to the river and through the arch. Saw some beautiful squares and settled on a restaurant called Nikolau.Happy hours sangrias were two for five euros and a chickpea burger for dinner for me and shrimp tacos for Diane and Aji Tuna for Katherine.

Near the river - Commerce plaza

Love the tile work in the street

Yummmm. Lots of pastry stores. Going to have to try pistachio something!

Our sangria and dinner spot.

Sangria with lots of fruit!

Chickpea burger and sweet potato chips. Yummy.

Elevator anyone ? Didn’t ride it as we learned a back way to the top that did not involve waiting in line. The elevator was built by the same people that built the Eiffel Tower.

Starting to drizzle so we took a Uber back to the hotel, and met up with some of the people from our cruise. Drank some port and tried the white wine spritzer which was not my favorite.

Olive tree behind our hotel.

One of 3 restaurants at our hotel. We did have lunch at soul, but not outside. The restaurants were really beautiful because they were full of green plants.

Outside patio of one of the restaurants.

And outside patio of the other one called Soul.

We again took the shuttle down to old town so that we could meet our tuk tuk driver Vanderson. \240Diane found him on the Portugal page and he was amazing. Having a private tour guide was our best decision in Lisbon. He took us to all the hotspots in our own private tuk tuk and explained a lot of history. He is a retired soccer player and had lived in many countries, and spoke five languages.

And off we go!

Had to hold on going up and down a lot of the hills!

We visited several churches and great view points. Got to put eyes on a lot of tile work. Love that a lot of the buildings have Tile on them and all the streets have Tile work, which was just really pretty to see.

This is like a wave

Common pattern on many streets.

This was the prettiest blue greenhouse that we saw - all of that is Tile.

One of the churches we saw- Roman influence in the arches. Santa Maria church.

Church was beautiful inside.

This is at the monastery of Saint Vicente

2 of us chickees.

Many monasteries were also orphanages This particular monastery is going to be turned into a hotel. But before they can build the hotel, they had to re-store, the orphanage and some of the tile work.

Amazing. I asked Van how they made it and he took us to a place and showed us. The squares are cut first and then they are painted and then put on the wall.

And me :-).

That is a portion that will be turned into a hotel.

It was hard to hear about the earthquake/tsunami/fire that destroyed most of Portugal in 1755 on November 1. When they rebuilt the city, they took a lot of pieces of other countries to help them build earthquake proof buildings and bridges.

One high viewpoint

And another

And another! \240Quite windy. Learned that Lisbon is a very windy city.

One stop I had not even had on our radar was an old theater. This was a Roman style theater. Apparently it was discovered after the earthquake.

They had to stop excavating it, because it was damaging the buildings around it - so most of it is under the apartments surrounding it.

This is tram 28. We opted not to ride it as we have our own private driver on a very, very very busy day.

We did wander through this bookstore, which is apparently the oldest bookstore still operating today. Not a whole lot for us to do because it was all written in Portuguese.

We did have one great beer stop. And then a stop for Ginjinha, which we drank out of chocolate cups. This is their cherry Liqoir that they are famous for.

Portuguese beer

Yes that is Van :-).

😋

Did a quick stop on Pink Street. I think anyone could figure out why they call it that.

Like all good things, our tour with Van had to come to an end. He brought us to a restaurant for us to have lunch. Diane’s shrimp was really good, \240as were the clams that Katherine chose. I decided on the cod which was blahhhh.

Patrono

Finger licking good

Butttuhhhh

Cod with potatoes. At least I got to enjoy those.

Sangria

And one last stop before heading back to the hotel. We were hungry, so we went next-door for pizza and beverages.

Early to bed so we could join a bus tour in the morning.

Along our way heading to Belham Tower, we saw some nice things.

Tile work again!

New tile work is done differently- lots of color.

Portugal is the fifth most spoken language in the world. I found that interesting because I don’t really hear it. However, they founded a lot of colonies and Brazil was one of them so they speak Portuguese there.

Famous statue recognizing “the discoveries.”

We made our first stop at Belham Tower. It is just a monument - not a working anything.

Belham tower from one side.

And from the other.

And me by one of the cannons.

After this stop, we went over the Golden Gate Bridge of Lisboa. It was built by the same architects of the San Francisco bridge as they were trying to build something that was earthquake proof.

Amazing view!

And they copied this from their Brazilian counterparts.

Happy Easter!

The three amigas.

And our final stop at King Edward VII park.

Afterwards, the three amigas went down to the city center, and then walked back to our hotel along the Easter markets. Just kind of like a fancy flea market, but I did buy a cork necklace, and Katherine bought some goodies for her granddaughters. Of course we had to stop for refreshments along the way back and Diane and I tried some of the local beers.

Oops - one German beer.

Ended our final night by going to the pizza place next to our hotel. Shared a bottle of wine and a great Caprese \240salad and some pizza.

Onwards tomorrow!

Our first stop was Coimbria - the third largest city in Portugal. This is their main square.

Nice buildings and cute pedestrian walk.

Lots of hills!

And a cathedral of course.

Hotel meeting spot

The city was the capital of Portugal for many years until it moved to Lisboa. They are known for their university which is a UNESCO heritage site. Actually their 17th century library and cathedral was amazing!!!

One of the Kings of Portugal.

University built by the dictator. They were under a dictatorship until 1974 until they became a democracy. During that time a lot of Portuguese migrated to other countries.

Ceiling of the cathedral.

Library.

Organ in the cathedral.

Love the ceilings!

Great door!

Even students today can choose to wear the black cape of the students from earlier days if they choose to.

Our next stop was for lunch and Fado \240music.

Lunch spot

Our musicians

With wine.

Us 😊😘 the picture behind us is one of the most famous Fado musicians in Portugal.

Since I did not like the last cod I tried, I opted for the chicken. We also had a Caprese salad and vegetable soup to start with. The vegetable soup was blended together, so it looked like a bisque. And fruit and strawberry ice cream for dessert.

And back on the bus, headed towards Porto and our ship called the Hemming.

First night on this ship.. They do not sail at night so we spent the evening on the ship, had a welcome by the crew and a late dinner then headed to bed.

Port spritzer. White port and tonic water.

Across the river!

A little too chilly to go on that balcony.

Went through our first loch system - cool to watch but freaky when you look outside and see you are next to a wall!

Those are not stars that is the wall next to Diane’s head.

Before we got to go on our first excursion, they had a discussion about cork. I had no idea that Portugal is the top producer of cork in the world, and how many things they can make out of it, including buildings. However hats, including the one that Diane bought is really cool. And Katherine got some earrings and a cork ring.

After being told we were not going to continue as we cannot go through the lock system we went on a tour to Mateus Palace. It was supposed to be a wine tour as well but they cancelled that.

The lady sleeping in the lake.

The library

Pretty lady in the palace

One of many wooden ceilings

A tree ceiling! \240Really cool.

Reminds me of some of the Paris gardens

Us :-)

Pink floor - color of our trip.

Out port pourer

Sipping port and avoiding the rain.

Apparently this was very popular for teenagers

Very rainy day but these are a few pics from our bus.

And rump roast for dinner followed by bed.

Beautiful space outside someone’s home

Day 6 and I am not happy with Viking. They can’t go upstream so we are going on another bus today to Lamago. They failed to tell us the drive there and back is over 1/2 of our time.

But the sun was out this morning so we went on two separate walks where we were docked in the small village of Entre-os-Rios. \240Not a place on our schedule.

Beautiful bridge behind us

The lemons are huge on the trees here

I think this is wisteria

Duoro River

A church of course

With a cemetery

Vines

Nice painting

Up and down those - oops - it was to a private residence. We did see a lot of steps - they are uneven and made of granite. Since the city is on the banks of the river, the streets wind around and the steps are used to cut across.

After lunch, we went to Lamago - a small town right outside the Douro valley. We had a brief tour of the church and then walked down 600+ steps. Found out that due to the elevation of this area, they specialize in sparkling wine and don’t grow port wine grapes.

One of the many tiled walls walking down.

One of the statues of royalty

And a great view of the main boulevard with the hills in the background

Another nice view

Our sparkling wine and cheese tasting

Cute fountain in downtown - \240Wish I knew what they were chatting about.

And one more chapel!

Back on the bus and back to our ship.

Castle from the 18th century

They had some beautiful bougainvillea and tulips planted already. Everything here is so green.

The main square where the locals hang out.

The pose!

And a much needed beer stop!

So we had exactly one night that we did not face another ship or a dock. And that was tonight! \240

This was the best dinner view of our entire trip.

Early to bed so we could wake up as we sailed off at 6:15 and didn’t want to miss it!

This was the bridge we were able to go under.

View from our bed:-).

The terrace system of growing wine is very unique! They can only irrigate the grapes for the first three years then they rely on the rain as they get a lot of it

Duoro River.

Today we went on a tour of the \240small city of Favaios - \240954 inhabitants. \240This area makes bread and has a lot of wineries! \240But… they only make one type of wine - very sweet and 17% alcohol. Moscatel.

Making bread here - it was yummy.

Outside our winery.

This is the sign outside of the wine cooperative in this area. All the farmers ban together to produce the wine as it is all the same.

Smelling some grapes - always good.

The pose :-)

We are kinda cute. Me and my love.

Jose our driver took a picture for us.

We visited Quinta da Avessada. A beautiful winery at the top of the hill!

Our Miami group took this picture for us.

Just nice!

Their pride and joy! \240

We had lunch at the winery. Salad followed by cod cakes and yummy sausage. Then soup they made in giant pots. Was good.

David and John - met them at the beginning and really enjoyed their company. They live in the Portland area.

We had beef roast for lunch with cabbage and potatoes-damn, no picture of that one. But the dessert pic - That chocolate was good.

And served with grappa :-).

This is pretty much what all the streets look like.

We returned to our ship for an afternoon of sailing. It was so peaceful and relaxing. The weather was perfect and we sat on the sundeck the entire afternoon.

And finished the evening in the lounge with a toast from our crew!

Our visit

This is all we got to see of the city. Originally we were supposed to spend a day here.

Nice building. Did not see a lot of color in \240most of the small villages.

We tasted a ruby port, here, and a new variety of port made from rosé wine. Actually, we liked the rosé better. I also purchased a tawny port for us to try - not our favorite.

Great flowers on the property.

Wisteria was growing everywhere- very nice!

Diane paying attention to the port wine speaker

Loved the staircase. With the wisteria growing on it it was very pretty.

Great picture of the wisteria overhead And of course, Diane

Riverview as we bused.

We spent the afternoon taking a much-needed nap, while the boat returned us to Porto. After dinner, Diane and I wandered off the boat and down the porthouse Boulevard.

Point Lyon bridge

From the Point Lyon bridge

South Bank

Cobbled streets in the entire old town

Cathedral

Walked down the narrow streets - this was the prettiest one.

Points to the road to Fatima. All the streets were cobblestone like these.

Train station - could you tell?

Really pretty, but small station.

Cat mural and crowds!

Man with a lot of birds.

After our walking tour, we decided that we really needed pizza and sangria before our port tastings.

Nice outdoor patio.

Where we are on the south bank.

Time for our first tasting. This was a recommendation from Robert Kramer.

Oh my, a few glasses. We did buy some 40-year-old tawny Port to share with the Webbs. Should arrive in two weeks.

Happy place.

Second tasting was at Burmaster. They do not sell in the United States, but they do export to the rest of Europe. This was also good so we bought a bottle of ten year old port.

Starting to look worn out.

And a little chocolate!

Back to the boat for our last night. Glad to put Viking behind us as this was not quite the experience that we were looking for due to mostly things out of their control. High water meant long bus rides to destinations and could not go to Spain. But my biggest issue was being tethered to other boats and not being able to use my balcony as it faced another room. We also sailed back and forth over the same area. Packing it up and heading to Amsterdam.

Last night toast with the crew!

Oldest brewery in the city with this cool windmill.

This particular canal had River Homes. Learned later that they are over 1m each - yikes!

Canals tend to be either for homes or travel.

First tulip sighting. Outside someone’s home.

We were warned about the bikes - wow. It is the main form of transportation and more than I have ever seen on the streets. And they are worse than car drivers as far as following the rules of the road 😂

Being hungry, we found this place and the food was great! \240Cauliflower steak and homemade humus and meatballs.

Continued on our quest for the red light district and some nice things along the way.

An entire store for rubber ducks- ha!

Nice square - protesters in one corner.

And these around the square.

Walking through the red light district was interesting-with legal prostitution, the women are in windows on the side of the street - kind of awkward.

This is a neighborhood cheese shop - we tried some samples and bought some cheese to share at home.

Very knowledgeable, young man who helped us with our cheese purchase

Due to the weather, we decided to go to the Heineken experience. Was kind of fun.

Original brewery building and our tour location

Cute!

Love this picture in one of the exhibits

Yes - bottles behind us.

Replica of one of the vats.

On our way back, we walked through Albert Cup market and Diane got a stroopwafle.

With Nutella- yummy! \240

And one last beer stop with escargot and cheese.

Cheerios.

Yummy

Going to miss all the cheese - but my body will be glad to get back to its normal eating routine! \240

For our last day of vacation, we booked a dinner river canal cruise. Oh my, the food was amazing and the views were good.

Before dinner and our cruise start.

Cheers!

Pre starter - celery soup and bitten ball - wasn’t even on our list.

Desert

Antham Hotel from the Amstel River. The canals themselves are manmade and were designed to move goods through the city. But it is fed by this river.

All buildings are similar to this and max of 5 stories.

And so our time in Europe comes to an end. Not looking forward to the 10.5 hour ride home, but Diane found us an upgrade to business class, so yeah!!

This trip makes 20 countries we have been in. Thankful that both of these countries speak English as it makes it much easier. As we traveled over the past few years, am starting to not like the big crowded cities so much. Even traveling off season, Lisbon was so crowded with tourists and Amsterdam with bikes.