The Douro River Valley and wine region is huge. We sailed for most of three days and never stopped seeing terraced vineyards.
Here are some photos.
The Douro River Valley and wine region is huge. We sailed for most of three days and never stopped seeing terraced vineyards.
Here are some photos.
Our bus ride from Lisbon up to Porto (where we will start our cruise up the Douro River) gave us a good view of the Portugal countryside. It isn’t like the central San Joaquin Valley because there are trees everywhere (pine & eucalyptus mainly). Nor is it like Virginia because only the trees are green … under the trees everything is brown.
Perhaps the landscape that I’m familiar with that this is most like is the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California.
Along the way we stopped at a restaurant. A Christening was happening at the same time … so we lunched in the same room with the celebrating parents …and helped them celebrate. Portugal seem more laid back that way.
We also stopped along the way at Coumbria University … founded in 1290 and toured the library and spoke with some students. Pretty interesting how the preserve the old books from insects. Bats. Yes, a colony of about 50 bats live in the library behind the books. They fly around at night and eat all the insects. Of course the tables must be covered each night and cleanup duty has been happening every morning for hundreds of years. Tradition. The reason given is that they can’t fumigate the old paper. They also shut the library down if humidity gets over 69%. Seemed strange to an Air Conditioning Contractor … but hey, this is Europe, they do things differently here.
Porto is at the mouth of the Douro River and is most famous for being the port from which wine from the Douro valley is shipped to the rest of the world. They are most famous for Port wine but grow all varieties. Tomorrow we head up river. Here are some photos of Porto.
Today we toured two castles and the coastline around Lisbon. The Castles were a study in contrasts. One was a summer castle, the other was year round. One was build four hundred years earlier than the other … and one had a much warmer feel than the other. In the process we learned a lot about the Portuguese royalty & royalty in general … not something we are familiar with in America. Here are photos of the two castles.
Since today was a day of comparisons, here is another comparison that was new to us. The difference between a Caravelle and a Galleon. They both had specific jobs to do. Here are some photos from the hand paintings on the walls of the Sintra Palace
This time Luelle has put together two cruises and some land excursions … it’ll be a long time away from Hero and the Girls (chickens) and the fish, and the GrandBabies … But we have a good team back home, so no worries.
The first cruise is with Uniworld on Portugal’s Duro River and we have three days in Lisbon before we board the ship. After the Duro cruise we have 2 days to get ourselves to Seville, Spain to embark on a tour of the western Mediteranean with Azamara. We haven’t decided how we’ll get to Seville, maybe train, maybe rent a car, but I’ll write about each segment as we go.
I was interested in seeing Portugal. The history of course, and the fact that we’ve not been here before. And our grand babies are 3/8ths Portugese. But I wanted to see for myself the Portugese people and the economy that has been in the news for having received 3 European Union bailouts and is in a strict austerity payback mode.
Fortunately, Pilar, our tour guide and Uniworld Host is a wealth of information and holds nothing back. She has lived here all her life and has lived thru all the turbulence. Actually, you have to look deep or have someone point out the Austerity. There are still nice cars on the streets and lots of well dressed people walking around and shopping malls with all the same stores we have in the US.
Digging deeper, we find that unemployment has gone from 4 to 18%. To pay back the bail outs, Sales tax has been raised to 33% and Income tax to 52%. These measures are causing businesses to close or leave … which compounds the inability to pay back the bail out loans.
So the situation here in Portugal is worse than in Ireland, but not as bad as Greece. (The big 3 of the EU bail-outs) Many young professionals have left the country to find work in the former Portugese speaking colonies, Algeria, Mozambique, Brazil. It’s been in the news, but its interesting to see it – boots on the ground.
Here are some of the things we learned on the first tour this morning and some of the sights.
Lisbon is 2.5 million population counting the suburbs. It has a 3000 year history starting with colonization by the Greeks folllowed by the Romans, Muslims, Moors & Barbarians. About 400 years ago Spain unified the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and wanted Portugal to be part of Spain. Portugal said No and it’s been testy between the two ever since.
Henry the Navigator was the architect of the Portugese expansion. Portugal and Spain asked the Pope to mediate the division of the New World … since there was no UN at the time. A line was drawn that gave Portugal Brazil and parts east, including Africa, and Spain the territory west of Brazil, the rest of South, Central and North America.
The colonies of Brazil, Algeria and Mozambique kept providing wealth to Portugal for several hundred years. But then Algeria and Mozambique wanted independence … So the “Colonial War” was fought from 1961 to 1973. Portugal was doomef from the beginning since Algeria is 10 times the size of Portugal. Salazar, the dictator at the time, refused to let the colonies go and hundreds of thousands of lives were lost. The heavy debt left over from that war plus the loss of many of the best and the brightest and the colonial income was the beginning of the current financial crisis.
With Wealth no longer coming in from the colonies, Portugal was not prepared for the competitive World of the late 20th & 21st century. Pilar said the current debt crisis started with the war and then had two additional causes:
Tomorrow we’ll see some countryside around Lisbon and see another perspective.
Luelle Robinson has been selling river cruises for over 7 years. As this segment of the Travel Industry has been growing by leaps and bounds — Luelle has been experiencing the trips with many of the top River Cruise Lines. Please read through some of the postings here regarding her various trips — and be sure to ask about the different itineraries and cruise lines offering them.
A Trip Of A Lifetime! Let Luelle Robinson help you schedule your dream vacation. As a specialist in Old World River Cruises, her professionalism and expertise can make all the difference when it comes to choosing the perfect destination and itinerary while getting the specials and extra value to make your experience both affordable and memorable! Contact Luelle by email or by calling toll free (844) 4 Luelle, that's (844) 458-3553 to inquire about current specials and group promotions to your dream destinations. Questions concerning a certain ship? Need help deciding on a stateroom or suite? Maybe you're planning to extend your stay and would like to know more about excursions and … [Read More...]
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