Viking Chef Michael fed us well

The crew… chef Michael is the skinny guy in his white uniform. A skinny chef from England. Doesn’t sound like a good combination! Chef Michael was a pleasant surprise. He introduced every dinner in an entertaining way!

Nice surprise ! Great presentation and very good food!

Cod fish and chips for lunch. Very nice and good portion size for lunch.

Nice soups available at every lunch and dinner.

Good Spanish and Portuguese wine available with lunch and dinner!

The Douro River Valley

Steep slopes with grape vines and olive trees. We went thru several locks on the river. Some beautiful weather made for a nice time on the deck while cruising up stream to the Spain border then back downstream to Porto.

Leaving Porto Day one on the Douro River.

Notice the steep banks down to the river. The vineyards and the olive orchards are planted on steep terrain.

The Narrows present some interesting navigation challenges. Unlike boats in Western Europe we only traveled in daylight.

3 buses followed us on our journey and allowed for some interesting excursions. This is a view from the Sandeman Port winery.

Speaking of Port wine! We enjoyed a tour and port tasting at a winery that dates back to the 1700s.

The tasting of white, tawny, and ruby port. A new appreciation of port wine. Smile ladies.

Also did a tour of a Muscatel winery! The shirt was the highlight!! The Muscatel was too sweet for me.

Life on the Helgrim, a Viking river ship.

The Helgrim is considered a baby long ship. The small locks on the Douro River demanded a smaller ship. It is 262 feet long and holds 106 passengers. It was built in 2019.

A Viking bus takes us to the ship and three buses follow us on our journey to take us on various shore excursions.

Boarding our ship for the first time. A rare rain shower felt good after several hot days in Spain and Lisbon, Portugal.

Waiting for our ship to dock after an excursion to the Sandeman vineyard and winery.

Food on the ship has been very good! A fish stew on night number one

Patty enjoyed a hot dog with French fries. Choices on the menu always included local cuisine as well as westerners favorites!

Everyday includes excursions

A fun excursion…A quick tour of the Sandeman port and sherry vineyard and winery

View from the winery

Grape stomping the modern way! No more stomping by bare feet! These machines are set up so they smash the grapes and using computers and A I, the machines don’t smash the seeds of the grapes. Why you ask …… smashing the seeds imparts a bitterness to the wine.

Another lesson learned…. port wine , once opened will keep for 2 or 3 months, if kept in the refrigerator.

Portugal … tuk tuk tour and more good food

Two hour tuk tuk tour of Lisbon. The capital of Portugal and the the city of 7 hills.

Traffic competes with cars, bikes , motorcycles, tuk tuks and cable cars!!!

This much silverware … food has to be good!!

Linguini with shrimp…. even Patty said it was great!

The lamb was fantastic!!!

White wine with Linguini and red wine with the Lamb!!! Perfecto!

Pastel de nata !!! The Portuguese sweet treat that can’t be beat!

Day two in Seville

Greg and I took a morning walk and found a replica of Christopher Columbus ship, The Santa Maria, that sailed to the New World !

A wedding across the street from our hotel. Reception and dancing took place in the street.

A donkey and old car was part of the wedding!

Night life went passed midnight with crowded streets and live music and dancing.

Last dinner in Seville. A busy Friday night and we ate at the bar, as the dining room was full

It’s off to Seville!

Another high speed train, this time thru miles/kilometers of Olive groves

Olive trees as far as the eye could see.

299 kmph!!! That’s 186 mph, a smooth ride!!

A nice boutique hotel in a great location. Our room is top floor, far left window.

First night in Seville we had front row seats for a Flamenco show!

Interesting!! Modern day Flamenco has its origin in Seville dating back to late 1700s.

Nice cafe at our hotel. Seafood Paella for me, spaghetti bolognese for Patty.

Fun to have early breakfast. Only me at our hotel sidewalk cafe watching the city wake-up.

4 hour walking tour with a wonderful guide.

Beginning of our walking tour. All smiles as the morning temp was about 70 degrees!

Another beautiful church. Christopher Columbus son is buried here.

One full day and two nights in Madrid…. we did our best to fit in lots of sites on a very hot day

Didn’t take long to find a sidewalk cafe with cool drinks. A great people watching place. Madrid is the capital of Spain and has 3.4 million people in the city limits and 6.8 million people in the metro area. Madrid has over 11 million visitors per year!! The streets were crowded with people and vehicles.

Dinner in Madrid, I decided it was time to eat healthy…..Kale and Quinoa salad, not bad as I washed it down with red wine!!

Hop on hop off bus, nice way to get a quick overview of the city…… Except when….,.

The bus breaks down!!!! We were told another bus would be there in a few minutes. 40 minutes later a full bus shows up! We were told to walk to the next stop….. we weren’t falling for that!! We took a cab back to the hotel.

And we found a frozen yogurt shop to soothe our overheated bodies. It was 94 degrees!

Then it was time to take a siesta from the heat and we headed to our hotel to cool off for two hours.

Then it was off to see the Prado National Museum. It is the finest art museum in Spain and has over 8,000 paintings and several thousand sculptures. No photographs allowed in the museum. It was a great hour and half and I only saw the high lites. It was air conditioned and a great afternoon activity as the Spanish heat wave continues.

We left the museum and had to find a way back to our hotel. Remember the hop on bus….. the broken down bus….

Our tickets were good for 24 hours so we took a chance and jumped on for a ride of 3 stops to get us back near our hotel. Success!

Need more time in Madrid!! That means another trip!!

Off to Madrid

Used my Uber app and got the 4 of us and bags a van to take us to the train station. It worked!! The Uber ride was on time.

Nice train station. It was crowded but we moved through the various lines of people in good time and got seated with 15 minutes to spare.

Here we go!!

Taxis at the Madrid train station, lots of them.

A nice Sunday in Barcelona

We started with a Cafe 85 visit for a Grande Americano Coffee and a pastry. A fun place to people watch. Then the next event was a 1pm taxi to the other side of town……..

What came next was happy accidental surprise.

So many pastries!!! And so good too!! Glad I lost a few pounds before the trip.

We stepped outside the hotel and headed to the taxi stand…… and we were surprised by the music and the parade of “Giants and Dwarfs”. This is a celebration held every September over the last 150 years. The figures tell the story of the Poblenou history. The community began as a strict, deeply religious community then transformed to the present day vibrant cultural hub.

Then it was time for lunch and a little ice cream

A guided tour of the Sagrada Família was next on our agenda. Construction began in 1882 and it’s still under construction. It is the tallest church in the world at 566 feet. The original architect, Antoni Gaudi, is buried in the Crypt. Current work is being done using CAD design work and CNC machining. The Catholic Church made it a Basilica in 2010.

Sculptures on the oldest part of the cathedral were from the Spanish Gothic and Nouveau school.of art.

The newest sculptures are from the Cubism period.

Train ride, Dali museum, and a Spanish dining experience

5 minute walk to a beautiful tree lined street with shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants.

So many pastries and deli sandwiches. Cafe 85, our breakfast stop for our first two mornings.

Waiting for our train to Figueres. It was a little over an hour late. We found a nice young man from Montreal that could explain what was happening to the train. Very few people we tried to talk to spoke English. I guess they expect us to speak Spanish!

The Salvador Dali museum. A surrealist of world wide fame. He was a rare artist in that he was wealthy and famous during his lifetime. Born in 1904, died in 1989. His wife, Gala, was his business manager and promoter. She gets credit for his economic success.

Seafood Paella, very good first Spanish dinner! Wineglasses were large with a “healthy pour” of a nice house table wine…. half the price of a glass of wine at home!