Amasinstra on the Douro River

May 02, 2025

Amasinstra on the Douro River

Welcome to Lisbon

April 14: We left Kelowna around 11 am and arrived at our hotel at what would have been about 4 am the next day in Kelowna. It was about noon in Lisbon.

April 15: After checking into the hotel, we went for a short walk. One of the main squares in Lisbon was a short couple of blocks down the hill from our hotel. It is actually a roundabout, not a square. The statue on the column is: Prime Minister Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo with a lion beside him. He was responsible for rebuilding Lisbon after an earthquake in 1755 destroyed most of it. His vision for the city was to have wide streets. This was considered silly at the time, but today when two cars can pass each other easily in the parts he rebuilt compared to trying to navigate the narrow streets the original city…he was a genius.

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo

The dining room in the hotel did not open until 7 pm, so we ate in the hotel lounge. Eventually we got used to eating at 7 pm, and 7:30 am, and mid morning, and again and again….

April 16: "City of Seven Hills" Tour: Our first excursion included Jeronimos' Monastery, Belem Tower and the Discoveries Monument.

Belem Tower was built in the 1500s. There are actually two of them. The other is on the other side of the river, and were designed to protect the entrance to Lisbon.

Belem Tower

The Monument to the Discoveries circa: 1960 showcases the original explorers from when Portugal was engaged in the voyages of discovery. Among other depicted on the monument are Prince Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gamma, Ferdinand Magellan. You know…the ones Brent taught about in Social Studies class when the students kept asking “why do we have to learn this?”

At some point in the morning, Mona enjoyed a Portuguese staple pastry: Pasteis de Nata. Brent was not able to get the ingredients so did not try it. (He eventually tried one on the boat after confirming the ingredients with the pastry chef.)

In the afternoon, they dropped us downtown, where we had lunch and enjoyed, sort of, a Tuk Tuk tour. Eventually known as a Yuk Yuk tour as they are very uncomfortable, the cobblestone roads are rough enough even before you factor in the potholes. Plus it was very cold and rainy. Our poor driver was not exactly prepared for the weather and was absolutely shivering.

Lots of incredible scenery

That's not our boat

An old castle on the hill

Lots of merchants selling cork bags etc. Mona contemplated buying one for the purpose of reverse engineering it. The bag costs less than Mona would pay for the pattern. Not exactly Mona quality.

April 17: "Royal Sintra Excursion" Our tour for the day started with the small village of Cascais. (The s is pronounced sh), were we wandered and looked at shops. Mostly souvenirs, mostly the same as the one we just looked at, or the one across the street, or that one over there. (much like Starbucks in Vancouver). Brent did buy a T-Shirt with a Lisbon tram on it. Lisbon has a tram which is similar in design to Nelson’s Car 23 but is a little shorter and only has a single central truck. The main difference between the Lisbon Streetcar is the Number….28. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to ride it. They actually discourage tourist from treat the tram as a tourist attraction because locals use it for commuting. (no picture either...another challenge with the Tuk Tuk ride.)

After Cascais it’s back on the bus an on to Sintra (the namesake of our riverboat) where we visited the Pena Palace and wandered a bit around the small medieval town.

Pena Palace has a mixture of Moorish, Gothic and Renaissance architecture due to the many changes in who controlled Portugal and when. Novice architecture fans like us can almost point out the differences between the styles.

April 18: "Lisbon to Porto Transfer"

The drive from Lisbon to Porto takes several hours. We made a stop at Obidos. A Portuguese village built within the walls of a medieval castle.

We sampled a cherry liqueur served in chocolate cups. (Brent had his sample without the potential Brent killing chocolate cup). Apparently, this is the only place you can sample this….that is sort of like saying the Starbucks in Nelson is the only place you can get a chai latte) Cherry liqueur in chocolate cups can be found everywhere and anywhere in Portugal.

Nazarene: Home to the biggest waves. We were not there in the right season (Nov-Mar) and we were on the opposite side of the point, and not at the top of the cliff, so we couldn’t see them. None the less, it was a beautiful little spot for lunch and an opportunity to wander around. Plus…the sun came out.

We ate first, then wandered around

The shrimp was not our order, but it looked delicious. Unfortunately we are only equipped with one stomach

You have to be up there, and looking on the other side, sometime between November and March to see the big waves.

All Aboard

We arrive at our ship. The Amasintra

Bow camera on the tv in the room for when you are too lazy to go outside to watch the scenery

A welcome cocktail at 6 pm, followed by 7 pm dinner and a night cruise around the Porto/Villa Nova de Gaia Harbour (Porto is on one side, Villa Nova de Gaia on the other).

There are about 90 passengers: 87 Americans and 3 Canadians. Several introductions were met with apologies from those who seem to not be impressed with their government right now. We wonder what percentage of Democrats travel vs the percentage of Republicans?

April 19: Sailing stretch Villa de Gaia to Pinhao 120 km

There were a total of 5 locks we passed through, which is doubled because it was a return trip. We took lots of pictures the first couple of times, and barely looked up towards the last days. One of the locks is the highest in Europe.

These pictures may or may not be of the journey through one particular lock. (just sayin)

Mateus Palace and Garden

The palace is featured on the bottles of Mateus wine, but the estate has nothing to do with the production of the wine. The original wine producer simply asked the owner of the Palace if he could use the picture and the name, and the owner agreed.

The sommelier onboard the ship had a couple of things to say about Mateus wine. Brent asked what the deal was with so many people putting candles into Mateus wine bottles. He did not know why but did know that people seemed to be obsessed with the idea. He also mentioned that what was on the outside of the bottle was better than what was inside. On that note. Brent rarely drinks wine but had wine with dinner every night and thoroughly enjoyed it. (most of the time….stay tuned there is more about that coming up)

16th century computer filing system

April 20: Sailing stretch Pinhao to Vega de Terron 74 km

Happy Easter:

The day always started with morning coffee in the room around 6:30 am. There was an amazing machine at the end of the hall that made virtually any type of coffee available. Brent tried to make a double americano with a shot of espresso for Mona (sometimes there was a line up so making three orders in one cup seemed a bit rude) and a Cappuccino for Brent. (soooo yummmy)

For the first couple of days we started with a 7:30 morning stretching class. Unfortunately the schedule didn't permit this to work for very long as the morning excursions usually left too early for morning coffee, breakfast and stretching.

There was an Easter egg this morning. Mona and I gathered a lot of eggs. We kept saying “the Canadians have all the eggs”. Unfortunately we did not find the golden egg which was a ticket to a prize. Brent came close to finding it. He had searched many of the window curtains in the lounge, but there was someone sitting on the seat beside the curtain where the golden egg was hidden so he wasn’t able to check the exact spot. Close but no prize.

Going under some of the bridges was interesting. The crew lowers the main antennae array, drops the sundeck cover, lowers the railings on the sundeck, and even lowers the bridge. Nobody is allowed on the sundeck at this time. As well as when the ship goes through some of the locks.

Onboard they gave us a lesson on how to make the traditional Pasteis de Nata

Castelo Rodrigo (don't forget to roll your Rs)

Famous for its almonds. Upon arrival everyone is given a chance to drink a sparkling wine infused with almond something or other. Brent obviously can't drink it so he stops paying attention to the description after they mention almonds.

Wish we could crop out the car

A piece of cork tree bark, plus cork fabric and a purse.

We did pass by a few cork trees, but the grove was not very large so by the time the guide pointed it out to us, we were not able to get a picture. The main cork production is in the south of Portugal, we were a bit too far north.

That evening at dinner the sommelier served a wine from this region. He admitted that the idea was to try to represent the region, especially after Brent suggested the region stick to almonds. We saw a few glasses head back to the counter, and the sommelier find different wines for the evening. He was very clear: "life is too short to drink bad wine". He also said: if you are wondering about red or white, you are on vacation, have both.

The servers in the dining room were amazing. One evening Mona commented how much she liked the mussels in the course. A moment later a dish of mussels appeared. If we mentioned that something on the prep table looked good, she would bring us the plate. We even saw one table get served French Fries at almost every meal (seriously????)

And they always checked to make sure there were not nuts, poppy seeds or buckwheat in the food they served Brent. (usually it simply meant no dessert).

April 21: Salamanca, Spain

Still waking up quite early in the morning, but it offered the opportunity to catch these amazing shots.

One side of the river is Portugal, the other is Spain. We were docked on the Portugal side. Our trip to Salamanca did not include going through customs. I'm not sure that is even a thing in the EU anymore.

Certainly a highlight of the trip. Salamanca is a university town. Something like 80% of the economy is from the university and the other 20% is tourism. We started at the Place de Mayor, which looks very much like the one in Madrid, plus we wandered through the Time Out Market, again very much like the one in Madrid.

Lunch was provided on this day so no chance to eat at the market. Very sad.

Pastry filled with deli meats....so yummy. We ate some along the way somewhere.

The University was established in the 1200s, but students sat on the floors for the first couple hundred years, until Queen Isabella came along and thought that the students deserved better. The wooden benches are definitely an improvement.

If you look closely, you can see the names of the PhD students painted on the walls (legally). This was common practice several hundred years ago. Not sure if the same practice continues today. Didn’t see any Grad 2025s there.

This is the start of “The Way”. Brent thought that was pretty cool, having seen the movie. When we found another start of “The Way” in Porto, the information required further research. It turns out there are a Gazillion routes of “The Way” and starting points in many cities in Portugal, Spain and France.

Stork nests on the bell tower. The storks are protected, so when the nest gets really big (800+lbs), it is taken down, and support structure is built to protect the building, then the stork nest is replaced. You can see the metal cage on the left where it is possible the current nest will be moved.

This is a section of the entrance to one of the churches that was restored recently…say in the last couple of decades. Permission was obtained by the Vatican to include some modern imagery. You can see an astronaut, on the left, and a gargoyle eating an ice cream cone on the right.

After the tour we had lunch and enjoyed some traditional Flamenco dancing.

April 22: Port Wine tasting: Port wine comes only from this region, and is shipped out of Porto. If it comes from somewhere else it has to be called fortified wine. (much like Champagne comes from Champagne or it is called sparkling wine).