After a long delay in Dallas due to weather, additional delays, racing for planes we made it to Lisbon. We were sure we would be without luggage again. First bags off the belt were ours. I guess last on = first off.

Just a few of us are doing the Douro River cruise first. We transfer to the river boa tomorrow. Tonight we have an early dinner planned with Ralph and June then crash time. Portugal moves their clocks early this morning so we get an extra hours sleep.

Life is good - we are here - we have bags - extra hours sleep - dinner to look forward to this evening.

Have a great time. Looking forward to SEAMAIL. Glad you and your bags made it.

Awesome! I was concerned about your departure from DFW. There were 400 cancelled flights there yesterday. Hopefully Ken has his camera! (hehe) Looking forward to the SeaMail! Have a great trip!

We're getting the ship in shape for all you AFRICA buddies!

Uugh I slept most of the day after jet lag hit me but now it's 2:00 am and guess who is wide awake?

We had a fabulous dinner last night. I will post a picture later. Seabass freshly caught. Now we are in a us with free wifi driving to our river boat in Porto. Looking forward to seeing Leslie and Brad who are joining us for the river cruise.

fun posting from a bus never done that before

We won trivia AGAIN!!!

Ngaire, we had a wifi bus in Israel last month--better wifi than on the ship.
I will be interested in how the river cruise goes.

From the Douro

We cannot post on LCT from the boat. We can read only. Some sort of block. This is why you have not had posts.

I am going to send this to my office to post

The boat.
The Queen Isabel is a uniworld ship. The junior suite has a lot of storage room and a reasonable sized bathroom. Plus a nice desk for a computer and LOTS of plugs both 220 and 110. We were comfortable. The regular cabins looked small. Not sure that would have worked so well.

The food
Food has been overall fine. It does amaze me how river boats put out the food they do with such small kitchens. Staff have been outstanding doing all they can to please. The salmon and steak on the available anytime menu have been better than the featured items.

The weather
We are late in the season so the weather has not been kind. Ranging from sunny to cloudy to rain. Also quite cold at times. As we are about to embark on a trip on the mariner that will have hot weather ken and I do not really have warm enough clothes. Some of the others were smarter than us.

The tours
There was a long day tour to the Mateus Palace. The same Mateus palace that was featured on the Mateus wine we all drank years ago. This was followed by a dinner at a farm getting back to the ship at 9.00 pm.

We wanted to go the the first part of the trip only to the palace just about three hours. The manager and cruise director were so helpful. They put us on the tour bus to do the Mateus Palace and arranged a taxi to bring us back to the ship. That was perfect. The grounds were stunning and the palace just like the bottle. We really had a great day. Unfortunately it rained a lot but was not cold.

The next tour was about three hours. A ride to a medieval village on the top of a hill. Scenery was great on the way up and the village very authentic. There was a funeral taking place in the church. Would have been a great day but it was freezing cold . The little bar in the town was offering almond snacks and port tasting included in the tour. So we very quickly left the guided walk and went to the bar. A couple of hot coffees to warm up and then onto port. The snacks were good so we ended up having a good day. After a while the sun came out and the boys went out to take pictures that will follow at some point.

Right now we are embarking on long tour to Salamanca Spain. Two hours to the town and then about four hours to wander on our own. A walking tour is offered if you want to take it. We like free time. There is a lunch allowance and we plan on finding some more sea bass. It is outstanding here. There is a hotel hosting the group where we see a flamenco show before driving back to the ship. Five of the group opted to stay on the boat.

Thanks for the update Ngaire. I was wondering how you would like Uniworld. Always nice to hear about new places, itineraries and ships.

Hey, hey, hey! Mateus Rose! I remember it well and can still picture that bottle! Hope you have also found some good Porto! Have fun and can't wait for more updates!

Great to get some updates, been thinking about everyone and wondering how it was going. A Riverboat cruise is so on our list, but we just haven't found the timing to work with other trips. Uniworld is high on our list as well.

I too remember that wine, we drank a lot of it in our younger days

Salamanca

So we are on the way home from Salamanca. It was a good day. Only a little bit of very light rain and not too cold.

We started at the market that was all fresh foods. Fish, meat and fruits primarily. It was spotlessly clean and there were no fish smells. Impressive.

We had a tour of the town and then had free time. Seven of us left the group early to have lunch at a restaurant called DOZE that my sister, June, and I saw during the tour. It had a nice menu with fish, meat, hamburgers, pizza, tapas; so something for everyone.

We were about to order when Brad and Leslie arrived and joined us. Brad wanted to eat goat. It had been on his list of things to try on his trip. They had toured in Portugal for days and never seen goat. There was a goat burger on the menu. He ordered it and the waitress made faces suggesting strongly that he should not order the goat. Not to be deterred he and Ken decided to take the risk equally and split their orders. Ken got a hamburger and Brad got the goat burger.
You guessed it they both liked the GOAT burger the best.The food was all good , the waitress was lovely so we had a nice time.

I failed to bring cards so we decided to buy some. So we played a game in the hotel until it was time to have the tea, coffee, cakes and sandwiches that the ship had provided. This was followed by the flamenco show. Good singer, good costumes and dancers.
We were able to get internet so everyone was happy.

Overall it was a good day. Again pictures will follow once we are on the Mariner and we can post again

Don't forget that Lancer's bottle either! They were also my candle holders way way back! Hahahah, we were sooooo sophisticated, drinking wine in the sixties!

Loving all the posts from the river cruise. Hope Laurie and Andrea team up with some KLT'ers to build another winning team when the others get on. Last time I with them, I was the sixth wheel just sitting in as an observer, and passed out a lot of tickets/points to the others...those gals are GOOD!

Olivia you are too kind!! We did fairly well on this segment. Won outright a couple of times & tied for first a few times. Yesterday was tough but we came in 3rd with 8 correct. We have met a lovely couple from England who will be on your cruise in January. They were on our team so I told them about you & Peggy so hopefully you can get a team together. I'll send you her email address.

We are sailing into Lisbon this morning. The seas have been like glass until last night & the ole Mariner has been rocking & rolling. I'm sure some of the guests will be happy when we dock.

Ngaire, tell Brad and Ken that if they want to eat goat, they just need to come over to my house. We eat goat all the time, and I am expert at cooking it. George trades out some of our beef for goat and lamb, so we have a steady supply.

For everyone boarding tomorrow there is quite the convoluted routing through the embarkation area and onto the ship. If you aren't too good at wrangling your carryons let the porters bring them onto the ship for you.

Photos courtesy of Leslie B.

Castelo Rodrigo | Portugal

Photos courtesy of Leslie B.

Mateus Palace | Vila Real, Portugal

Photos Courtesy of Leslie B.

Salamanca, Spain

Photos Courtesy of Leslie B.

Thanks, Andrea -- always looking for good Trivia partners. Wish you were going with us in January.

Photos from Ken

And finally some photos from Porto, where we started and ended the river cruise. The weather improved and Brad and I enjoyed two days of walking tours and exploring on our own. It is a very colorful city.

Our cruise mates departed the ship one day early to catch the Mariner out of of Lisbon, so we held down the fort for the last day. We are now passing through Madrd on our long way home, while they are all no doubt sleeping in and enjoying the amenities of the Mariner.

And a few taken by Ken Simpson at the Sandeman winery.

And a few from Lisbon from a couple weeks ago to send them on their way.

Leslie and KenS, wonderful photos. June, you need a refill.

Thanks for the great photos you guys!

Love all the photos!

A Few More Photos From the Duro:

Remember Mateus Rose.


Goodbye to Porto.

Thanks to all for posting those beautiful photos! Everyone looked like they were having such a great time. Can't wait for more sea mail from the Mariner!

Great pictures, looks like everyone is having a super time. We've had such unseasonably wonderful weather here in France...hope ya'll are too !

Pictures courtesy of Nikon Ken

Pictures Courtesy of Nikon Ken

Once again Andrea and I (with our team from last segment) won trivia. DOMINATION,!!

Yes Andrea and Lauris team is winning constantly bunch of smart people in that group. I see it as a win for LCT and am very happy.

We struggle along but have managed a tied first and lost in the tie breaker and a third place. We are having fun a repeat of the team we had a few cruises ago. Ken, Sheila, June, Jim, Pam and me.

Sorry so few posts I seem to be rushed every minute. Will write something up in word (so I do not lose it and post soon)

Finally I will update you a little on our adventures on the Africa cruise.

Departure went smoothly from the river boat a nice bus for 22 with just 12 of us onboard. The luggage totalled 22 pieces and we barely managed to get it all packed in. It was totally full not one more bag would squeeze in.

First two nights quite a bit of swell but been super smooth since then with sunshine and not too hot.

Dinner in Prime 7 with Jennifer and John was a wonderful way to start the cruise. We have eaten in Compass Rose each night since and the food has been excellent from my point of view. Lots of familiar faces in the crowd all waiting to be pinned! Dennis the Menace is onboard if any of you know the waiter Dennis you know that is a plus.

Our first port of call was Funchal, Madeira. We had a great guide and the tour was terrific. We stopped at three neat spots with about 30 minutes of free time at each stop. An extremely interesting and fun tour. Then back to a few hands of cards – of course Mark (of Cheron and Mark) rules!

The second port of Las Palma and unfortunately this tour was not great. The guide could not speak English well enough to understand and NEVER stopped talking. The good thing was the island is stunning with beautiful vistas of the town and sea from the hills and all types of plants. I think anything grows here!

This was the night of the free cruise drawing. There were a lot of new faces at the cocktail party and I am looking forward to getting to know them better. Some really nice new people in the group.

We did the preliminary drawing early on in the party and then the final drawing at the end. Meredith ( of Bo and Meredith) looked totally shocked and thrilled all at the same time. Her cute face was just beaming! Every year I am anxious to see who wins and each year we have had a great winner.

The third port was Tenerife. I was so behind on emails and some work related issues that I decided to bail and stay onboard. Everyone one enjoyed their tour here. Cannon Ken and Nikon Ken went ashore and walked for about 2 – 3 hours. They came back with some super pictures that will get posted eventually.

Trivia has been fun a reunion of the trivia tour from a few trips ago. Lots of fun and pretty good questions, not too hard and not too easy. Cards we have played when we have had the time and sister June and I are in the heat of battle on a very high scoring game of scrabble.

We had a lovely tour in Las Palmas. The garden tour, not usually my cup of tea but the guide was great, the gardens had amazing cactus I have never seen, unique trees. To top it off some liqueur tasting my favorite being the Bananna liqueur.

Two days at sea and our next stop Cape Verde.

Great friends and food - can it get any better? We will see some interesting ports are ahead of us.

I really love that grape leaf photo, it's stunning!

Photos From Funchal - Madeira, Portugal:














A couple having fun on our sail away party.


Goodbye Funchal - Madeira.