I slept 11 hours last night – I almost missed breakfast!
At breakfast, I discovered that our guide, Filipo speaks fluent French, and we started chatting away. We agreed that we would speak French when there was no one else around, as we don’t want to be rude. I was so happy about this. As we were leaving, the restaurant manager spoke to us in French. He had overheard us speaking.
We had started sailing around 7 am, and after breakfast, we went outside to watch the ship moving through the first of 5 locks. It was cool and sunny out, and we were on the sun deck, which felt great. The Carrapatelo Dam was built i from 1965-1972, and the difference in the water level is 35m (>114 ft.), making it one of the highest dams in the world.
Sticking to my routine, I power walked 40 laps around the sundeck while listening to podcasts. It felt great.
At lunch, the restaurant manager found me and started speaking French with me, and a couple near us asked where I was from. It turns out that they are from Quebec, so…we spoke a lot of French, and they want to join us tonight for dinner. They spend 6 months of the year in Ft. Lauderdale, so this could be a new long-term friendship.
The views along the river are incredible. The homes built along the steep cliffs are beautiful, and again, everything is so clean. Many Americans now call Portugal home, and I can see why.
I spent the afternoon at a cooking class, enjoying the pool/hot tub, and watching some documentaries about wine. We docked in Pinhao, a small, attractive town right on the river. The area is surrounded by vineyards. Go Next hosted a lovely reception before dinner, and I was introduced to Port Wine with tonic – it was light and delicious.
Dinner was exceptional, and our Canadian friends joined us. I tried the grilled Portuguese octopus which is very tasty. It’s on the list of things you must eat while in Portugal. We will be touring vineyards tomorrow, so we have an earlier start. So far, I’m very impressed by Emerald Cruises.