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Another Country Visited, Portugal-Part 2
- Patti Mills-Roy
- 7 minutes ago
- 7 min read
In my previous blog, I focused on our pre-trip to Lisbon, Portugal prior to boarding the river cruise ship in Porto with Tauck on the MS Andorinha. I also highlighted a little about the ship itself and some of the onboard activities that we had as well. I’m now going to proceed with the Douro River cruise itinerary in Portugal.
Our particular itinerary with this Tauck Douro River cruise was interesting as it wasn’t quite the traditional one that most cruise lines, including Tauck do. This particular cruise was Tauck's final one of the season, and it occurred during America’s Thanksgiving week. This is one of the primary reasons that I didn’t have more people join us, I believe, as it was such a great deal based on Tauck’s pricing and, in fact, was only about ½ full. I would have enjoyed being able to share this experience with more people if they’d been willing to take this time to actually do it.
Anyway, we had a wonderfully smaller group of just 10 who truly enjoyed each other’s company in spite of most people meeting for the first time.
I arranged a private walking tour for our first day in Porto the day following the boarding of our vessel with 2 vehicles and a separate driver/guide for each vehicle. We were able to more easily get around in 2 smaller vehicles with the 10 of us.
We made our way from the port into the city of Gaia first, with a view looking across to Porto on the other side of the river. In fact, the spot where we first went is apparently very popular to witness the setting sun and interestingly, we found our way back there with Tauck for a very special experience the following day.
After this, we crossed the river over one of the 6 bridges they have from Gaia to Porto learning of the fact that these 2 locations are like Buda and Pest in Hungary with the famous city of Budapest. Buda and Porto are the ‘older’ historical areas, while Pest and Gaia are the ‘newer’ areas where people moved to in later years as the population grew in both locations.
In Porto, we visited many of the famous churches and cathedrals, including one of the oldest, ‘Porto Cathedral’ and Clerigos Church and Tower that stands almost 250 feet tall with a magnificent pipe organ.
Another ‘double’ church that we visited was Igreja das Carmelitas. This has an interesting story with the 2 churches side-by-side and a tiny, roughly 3-foot building in between.  One church was for the nuns, while the other one was for the monks so that the building in the middle was alleged to have been built to prevent the 2 from sharing a common wall and to prevent any relations between the nuns and the monks. The side wall façade is beautifully adorned with Portugal’s typical blue and white tile.
We also visited the train station with it too being decorated with Portugal’s lovely traditional tiles that depict detailed stories about Portugal’s rich history on all four walls. It’s quite incredible to witness it in person and hear the stories that these walls tell.
After the train station, we visited Porto’s historical Bolhao Market, first opened in 1837 but was recently renovated in 2023. They have very traditional fish, fresh produce, and florists but also coffee and cheese shops, meat stations, wine stalls and so much more. It’s a beehive of activity with the 80 or so stalls doing business there.
After our second night on board the ship, we were treated to our first included tour with Tauck beginning with a traditional fishing boat ride on a Rabelo boat from our dock to get closer to the downtown area of Porto. It was very scenic arriving into Porto that way as we floated past the many old ‘port’ warehouses including such familiar names as Sandeman, Taylor, and Graham to name just a few. Once docked, we had another brief walking tour to board our 2 luxury coaches back into the historical downtown area of Porto where we were the previous day.
Since it was Sunday, we were fortunate to catch a choir warming up as we visited inside the Porto Cathedral where we were previously but hadn’t had time to enter the day before. We then crossed over from Porto to Gaia on the Dom Luis I Bridge, the double level one that was designed by Edgar Cardoso, a student of Gustave Eiffel who beat out Eiffel to win the contract to design this bridge.
Next up was our special surprise experience with Tauck at the same very spot that we visited the day before with the sunset viewing. We were treated to special port tonic cocktails, champagne and coffee along with some snacks, all while enjoying the view again across to the historical city of Porto.
Afterwards, we headed back to our lovely ship for lunch and an interesting presentation about Christopher Columbus who apparently never really discovered America in 1492 but actually only landed in Cuba and the Dominican Republic…
We experienced locks with our Douro River sailing including one that measures a whopping 115 feet in height difference between the 2 waterways, called Carrapatelo Dam Lock. It’s always interesting going through locks no matter where they are in the world.
The following day, we had a couple of suggestions for touring including the one we chose with a visit to the 18th century baroque-style Mateus Palace. This visit intrigued me more considering my memories of drinking this particular wine many, many years ago. The inside had many great pieces of rich furniture and art and the formal gardens were delightful to view as well. The ceilings were stunning with their sweet chestnut wood.
After lunch, that same day, we were off again to Quinta de Pacheca Winery to do a winery tour and ultra special cocktail making experience with their port wines. It was a tasty, amazing experience to both participate in and taste too, of course!
That very same day, we ended up having a very elaborate multi-course/wine-paired dinner at a restaurant called DOC and located on the waterfront of the Douro River. We did end up eating indoor considering the chilly weather although with better weather, their patio would have been even more outstanding.
Our next day was longer considering our roughly 31-mile drive to the historical city of Guimaraes, located northeast of Porto. This city was originally settled in the 9th century when it was named Vimaranes and is commonly referred to as the "birthplace of Portugal". The weather was perfect there as we enjoyed a lovely leisurely lunch following our tour and sat to people watch before we headed back to the ship. Funnily enough, as we departed the ship, we were each handed an envelope with 25 euros of 'lunch money' in it! That was pretty cool!
That night we celebrated Tauck's 100 years with a Roaring 1920's party that was absolutely fabulous! The surf & turf meal was amazing along with all of the other exceptional options for those not interested in this one.
The next day we were treated to some great wine tasting along with a visit to the magnificent gardens at Quinta da Aveleda Winery. The gardens were actually planted well before the winery ever existed in the late 19th century. They reminded me a little of Monet's Gardens in Giverny on a past Seine River cruise that we did a couple of years ago. Both are well worth a visit, especially if you're into horticulture in any way.
Once back in Porto, the following day, we had our final tour with Tauck that included a tour in the old city visiting the train station and the market again as we'd done in our private tour on our first day in Porto. We also had yet another tasting of their sparkling wine along with a couple of their specialties including sardines and mackerel. Surprisingly, they were quite tasty in spite of the fact that they're never part of my usual diet.
We had one final night on board the ship with yet another great meal and some more amazing local talent with a jazz band that was incredibly good. We finished up packing and disembarked the following day bidding good-bye to the wonderful ship, staff and the lovely Douro River.
All-in-all, our Douro River cruise with Tauck was superb with amazing customer service, fabulous food, great tours, stunning scenery and the beautiful MS Andorinha ship. I would highly recommend a Douro River cruise, the country, Portugal and Tauck, as well, as a great tour operator for both land tours and river cruises.
