November 21

Morning Scenic Sailing

Last night we had a wonderful evening.  Started off with my traditional cruise drink of choice and then we had dinner with our good friends Dennis & Mary, and were joined by our new friends Tom & Mary Pat and Bob & Pam.  The latter couple live in Lawrence, Kansas area so they are very familiar and supporters of Kansas athletics, which is where our older son Jeff has worked previously.  So we've had several interesting conversations with them.  Then last night at dinner we discovered that Mary Pat went to college at Miami of Ohio, where I graduated....and was there when I was there, just a couple years behind me.  AND she grew up in the Columbus, Ohio area, which is where I grew up.  Small world.  The eight of us had such a great time that we closed down the restaurant ..... literally were the very last table of people to leave as the staff had already begun setting up the other tables for the next morning's breakfast!

At 7 am the ship departed Porto and began it's trek eastward along the Duro River.  The morning scenery was spectacular, including going through our first lock.  And we were told this would NOT be the most scenic, or "best" lock we'd see today.

Later in the day we passed through the deepest lock in all of Europe and let me tell you it was really, REALLY deep!  Following that we had more scenic sailing.  In spite of the weather forecast being for rain all day, it was mostly sunny the entire time.

The day was topped off with two excursions - one to a palace/mansion and then to a winery where we were treated to Portugese port wine.....it was on top of a mountain/hill that had MANY hair pin turns.  It was a great day.  The evening saw the same group from last night get together and enjoy "A Taste of Portugal" for dinner, and then we all played a music trivia contest.