On a typical Viking River cruise on the Douro, the bus trip to Salamanca Spain is anticipated with dread by some travelers because of its duration. Since flooding had kept our ships from actually cruising, for us this trip was just another day on the bus. To help psych us up for our long ride, … Continue reading Not So Sunny Salamanca
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 … Continue reading Castelo Rodrigo & Flamenca
I suppose it’s about time to dive back into a recap of our December, 2019 trip along the Douro River with Viking. (We explained in an earlier post why we’re calling this a trip and not a cruise.) Our last post from this trip was all about Port wine, with entries from Grahams in Porto, … Continue reading Favois: Nativity Scenes & Bread
Ahead of our Rhône river cruise through Provence with Viking in 2018, we took an all-day wine tour with Olivier Hickman of Wine Uncovered that we wrote about in our post: Our Wine Tour in the Southern Rhône. We are delighted to learn that Olivier is now also sharing his deep knowledge of wine on … Continue reading Throwback: Terroir
It’s been a while since our last installment here on Halfway There Travelers. We’ve been back home for three months from our trip to Spain and Portugal for a Viking river cruise on the Douro, and it’s been nearly six weeks since our last post about the brief stop we made in Coimbra on our … Continue reading Sipping Port
Viking’s Douro river cruise starts out with a two-night stay in Lisbon, followed by a bus transfer to the ship in Porto. Along the way, there’s a stop about midway in Coimbra where we visited Portugal’s prestigious Coimbra University. The college was established in 1290 in Lisbon and relocated multiple times, but it’s been permanently … Continue reading Coimbra, Briefly
Viking’s river cruise on the Douro is preceded by a two-night stay in Lisbon. It often feels like we don’t get to spend enough time in the stops on a Viking cruise, but it’s especially true of Lisbon; based on our limited exposure to the city we definitely need to come back here and explore … Continue reading Lisbon: Tour and Tiles
On our last full day in Spain we went on a tour of Toledo, which is a short bus ride from Madrid. Our tour included almost all the travelers (~dozen) who were also on the Viking extension with us in Madrid. An early stop was at a scenic overlook of the old city, located on … Continue reading Our Tour of Toledo
On our first outing during our time in Madrid we headed to the Royal Palace. Its front facade is shown in the picture at the top of this page. The Palace surrounds the gigantic Plaza de la Armeria, with the similarly imposing Catedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena church nearby. This video … Continue reading Madrid Sights
We ate and drank quite well while we were visiting Madrid. Everywhere we went, one of the food specialities regularly on hand was Iberian ham, some of which is featured in the butcher shop above. If you look closely at the brightly-lit charcuterie shop below, you can see its name – Museo del Jamón – … Continue reading Madrid Food & Drink
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