Portugal and Spain - Sept 8-22, 2023

We arrived in Madrid and spent our first 3 days exploring the city. We met some fellow travelers and went on a Tapas tour, sampling great food from several local restaurants and another evening sharing Paella. We then flew to Lisbon and spent 2 days exploring that beautiful city. On Friday September 15th, we traveled to Porto to board our River Cruise on the Viking Torgil. We spent the next six days cruising the Douro River, learning all about the region and passing through 5 locks on the way up the river and then again on the way back to Porto. One of the locks was the deepest one in all of Europe. The Douro River is very narrow in spots and therefore we could only travel during the day, so very often we would get off the ship in one location for an excursion and board it further down on the river. The scenery was beautiful and the river is know as the Golden River any many of the vineyards along the river are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. We learned a lot about the region, the people and their wine, cork, olives and enjoyed the the food especially all the fish dishes.