Porto, Portugal

April 29, 2024 - Today we spent a short day (back onboard was 3 PM) in Porto, Portugal today. Since we had been here in September, we opted for a short tour labeled “Tram Ride Into the Past”, and were very happy that it included some narration, time for us to roam on our own, and was covering a part of the city we really didn’t explore on our trip last year. Our guide gave us narration as we took an hour drive to the downtown area of Porto. Once we arrived, we were at the Church of St. Francis, which apparently has the largest collection of gold inside a church of anywhere. We were given the option to buy tickets for an interior tour or to have 75 minutes of free time. Anyone who really knows us can probably guess that we opted for the free time. While we love churches, we are more of the “simpler is better” mindset. So we walked around the area, up and down the hills, and ran into several people on a tour from the Viking river cruise — you can spot the “quiet Vox”, headsets and red lanyards anywhere. We made a brief stop at a store to pick up a few snacks for our cabin steward Komang who rarely, if ever, takes time to explore off the ship. After our shopping we had 20 minutes before we had to meet to board the tram, so we opted to sit at the cafe near our meeting point and enjoy a glass of Sangria! It was wonderful to just sit, sip and watch the people (and boats) pass by. We agreed at that point, that as we moved on to France and England, we would do less “long excursions” and spend more time just exploring on our own, enjoying cafes, and the sites we want to see on our own.

The tram car pulled up to our meeting spot and it was a reserved tram car just for us and they had taken it out of the Tram Car Museum and it was built in 1928. The ride did not go anyplace special just road along the river, but we were served some Port Wine (which Portugal is known for) and some of their famous pastries during the ride. The end of the line took us close where the Douro River flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Given we had a back on board time of 3 PM, we were not able to take the shuttle back into town to explore on our own, which was disappointing to many since the weather was ideal by the time our tour ended at 2. And, it was even more disappointing for some that we didn’t actually leave the port until 4:30 as the tour to Coimbria and Averio, that many of our friends took, was 90 minutes late returning to the ship. Their guide insisted that they didn’t need to be back until 5, despite all their efforts to convince her that our back onboard time was 5. To say the Shore Exursion Manager was unhappy would be an understatement. It sounds like it was a very costly delay — not just for the port workers overtime as they waited 90 to to remove the gangway & release the ropes, but we also had to burn additional fuel overnight to make-up the time lost by our late departure. Our guess is that guide will never be used by Viking again!