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Today’s port was our only stop in Portugal, Porto. The ship actually docked in Leixões (pronounced “Leh-CHOYSS”), and we took buses into Porto. We were only here for five and a half hours in the morning, so our day was rather rushed.
Our excursion for the day was supposed to be “Porto Orientation,” the free Viking tour. We say “supposed to be” because things didn’t turn out that way.
One of our requested duties as lecturers is to help escort Viking excursions when needed. At the beginning of the cruise, Russell wasn’t sure when he would be speaking, so he didn’t sign up for anything. Gail put her name in for a number of excursions, but she never heard anything back from the Excursions Desk.
This morning we got up at 7:00 am for an 8:15 departure. As we were gathering, Gail noticed another lecturer wearing an escort shirt. He told her that we are supposed to be checking in with the Excursions team on a daily basis to see if they need us. Gail ran over and sure enough, she was due to escort a different excursion this morning. So she and Russell parted ways for the morning.
Russell’s “Porto Orientation” tour was a four-hour bus ride with a few walking stops. The hilly town is reminiscent of San Francisco, but its buildings are covered with colorful tiles and filigreed balconies. Porto is famous for three things, and Russell saw two of them. First was the Dom Luís bridge, the last thing designed by Gustave Eiffel before he went off to Paris and constructed the Eiffel Tower. Russell also saw the Livraria Lello Bookstore, where J. K. Rowling wrote the first draft of “Harry Potter” when she was in Porto as an English teacher. People were lined up down the block for a chance to see this bookstore.
Gail got to experience Porto’s third claim to fame: port wine. She escorted the four hour “Porto Walking Tour & Port Tasting” excursion, which visited a local Port winery. This was one of her first choices, and she was thrilled to get it. Gail got to wear a red Viking shirt and count heads on and off the bus. She also ended up purchasing two bottles of Port wine (a steal at $6 each).
Back aboard ship at 1:30, our day only got better. Another responsibility for lecturers is to defer to the regular passengers. In addition to excursions, this applies to the specialty restaurants. We had good luck getting into Manfredi’s Italian Restaurant at the beginning of the cruise. Last night, we tried getting into the Chef’s Table specialty restaurant at short notice. Nicolas, the maître d’, said he had no openings but told us to come back tonight.
So for dinner tonight, we got to dine on an Asian specialty menu. Gail didn’t purchase the additional wine pairings, but tonight’s complimentary house wines included two of her favorites: Tempernillo and Moscato.
We finished off the evening with a “Decades” show of popular music hits by the Viking Band and Vocalists.
Tomorrow will be our second “at sea” day… and Russell’s first lecture! If you’re sending positive thoughts, it will be at 6:30 pm GMT, 10:30 am PDT. (Yep… right in the middle of dinner hour.)
