We finally left Porto/Gaia this morning. The ship cast off at 7:00 am. I slept in until about 8:00 am. At about 8:30 am, we encountered the first of five locks we will pass through on the trip. The Crestuma-Lever Lock has a lift of 46 feet, the smallest of all five locks. All the locks are 40 foot wide and range from 290 feet to 316 feet long. The Crestuma-Lever lock is a "book" closure as does one other of the locks. The other three are "guillotine" type closures. All five of the locks on the Douro River were constructed between 1965 and 1985 and generate a combined 3.31 TWh of power each year out of a total consumption of 50.9 TWh (2018). Portugal has an ambitious renewable energy goal.
 |
| Wind turbines on the hills along the river |
About 11:30 am, we encountered the Carrapatelo Lock with a lift of 115 feet. This is a guillotine type lock.
 |
| Mast lowered to clear bridge over lock |
 |
| Crew member calling out clearance to wheel house |
 |
| Not much room to spare along side |
 |
| Lowered the sun deck cover |
 |
| Going up |
 |
| Wheel House gets shorter and Captain's head sticks out of top port |
 |
| Can touch the underneath side of the bridge as we pass underneath |
 |
| Pedestrians on the bridge |
 |
| Leaving the lock |
 |
| Passed another cruise ship |
We arrived at Cais da Régua at 2:30 pm. Here we left the ship for our shore excursion and loaded on a motor coach.
This included shore excursion was to the Mateus Palace & Gardens. We drove for about an hour through some truly picturesque wine country. We arrived at the palace. Built in the first half of the 18th century this palace set in beautiful gardens on a vast farm is considered to be one of the finest examples of baroque civil architecture in Portugal. Its interior decoration includes some intricately carved wood ceilings, furniture from several periods.
http://www.casademateus.com/?lang=en
 |
| Beautiful ceilings |
 |
| Thick walls |
 |
| Family Chapel |
Then we headed to the Sandeman port winery. While we were out touring, the ship departed from Cais da Régua at 5:00 pm and passed through the third lock of the day, the Lock of Bagaúste with a 84 foot lift. It then docked at Folgosa at 6:00 pm and waited for us to arrive.
 |
| American oak barrels |
 |
| Granite stomping vats |
 |
| Port tasting |
 |
| Our ship sitting at Folgosa |
 |
| Maxine, ??? and Patty |
By the end of the 19th Century all Europe was invaded by phylloxera, a wine disease caused by an insect, which has devastated many vines by attacking the roots of the vines. We passed many areas which obviously had, at one time been terraced for vineyards, but were now over grown and abandoned. When trying to fight this fatal disease it was found that the American grapevines were resistant to the insect. From that time on, growers started to graft the grapevines, i.e., to use an American root and a European upper part (this last one determines the fruit produced). They also discovered that the phylloxera preferentially attacked rose bushes even before they attacked grave vines. Therefore, rose bushes are typically planted in the vineyards as a forewarning of infestation.
 |
| A huge rosemary growth outside the winery |
Tomorrow we cast off at 8:00 am. We will pass through the Valeira Lock and arrive at Pocinho around noon where we will drop off guest for an optional shore excursion before proceeding to Barca. Our included shore excursion does not begin until 3:15 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment