After a long day of bus travel and multiple outings in Favois, we had a lazy morning on our new ship located roughly 120 miles east of Porto. The program director delivered a talk on the Douro River and its history, followed by a live cooking demonstration, where the ship’s chef had two volunteers try their hands at making Pastel de Nata pastry. One volunteer’s filling pretty much turned into scrambled eggs to their great chagrin and their fellow passenger’s delight.
After lunch, we went on an outing to a nearby medieval hilltop village called Castelo Rodrigo. Though it was cloudy and rainy, from the heights of the village we could see far into the distance:
It was also really windy that day. This video gives a bit of an idea of what it was like:
Our walk began with a stop at the modest village church:
You’ll note the large red Viking umbrellas that many of our fellow passengers were carrying. A tiny lady on our walk was knocked down when a blast of wind caught her umbrella; she said that she was lucky she didn’t take flight like a character in the Wizard of Oz.
There were several art works inside the small dark interior, including a small statue of Saint Sebastian in a nave. Click on any image to expand:
The modest buildings in the village were all made of stone. Even their rain downspout-fed “washing machine” was made of stone:
Like the other villages on our trip, Castelo Rodrigo had its own rustic nativity scene; this one was made out of thin cross-cuts log sections:
That evening back on the Hemming, after dinner we were treated to a performance of Spanish Flamenca dancing by three dancers and their drumming accompanist. Of course, passengers lined up afterwards for the obligatory selfies with the pretty dancers:
Here are the Flamenca dancers in action:
In our next post, we’ll be back on the bus headed into Spain to visit the city of Salamanca.
Halfway There Travelers 