River of Gold Viking River Cruise
November 8, 2024 - November 21, 2024
Summary
We really enjoy the Viking River Cruises - in case you weren't sure. This will be our seventh VRC. While some people
like to take the ocean bound cruises - not that there is anything wrong with those - we prefer the river cruises.
We prefer having land visible from the ship at all times.
This trip is similar to last year's Cities of Light and
Elegant Elbe combo trip in that we are following the
Holland and Belgium VRC with the
River of Gold VRC. Also, like last year's combo, though this
year's cruises are back-to-back, they are, technically, separate cruises and will be chronicled as such too.
These combos are not "offered to the publc" as-is, but rather we had to plan the two cruises as they are and get
ourselves from one airport at the end of the first cruise to the airport at the beginning of the second cruise.
For this second leg of our journey, we have a pre-cruise extension in Portugal, and a post-cruise extension in
Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
We print a packing list and a house checklist (thanks dad) before we leave. One item on the list is to turn the clocks back or ahead, in case. Since the time change was going to occur one weekend we were away, we turned them back just before leaving. And Europe turned them back the weekend we were leaving - so we didn't "gain an hour of sleep", we had to adjust for 5 hours of time zones instead of six. Or however that works.
Trip statistics:
- 5,983 [approximate] miles traveled not including all the walking or location / local shuttle / buses.
- 127,145 steps or 9.08 [approximate] miles walked by Linda.
- 159,813 steps or 11.35 [approximate] miles walked by Steve.
- 5,407 photos retained (yes, that's more than 200 pics per day... and "retained" because some images were deleted immediately after taking due to blurriness [probably] or a missed opportunity or whatever). This summary does not include all of them either, also because all phone pictures were taken twice due to the lack of preview, and some were combined to create stitches and or panaramic shots.
- 13 videos (though some were clips of the same event, then pieced together).
- 3 countries visited, 2 new ones to add to our list.
- 6 exotic cars spotted: a Bentley Bentayga, and a trio of Porsche Carerras, a Rolls-Royce, and a Mercedes GT.
As with our previous Viking cruises, this trip was great. The weather was pretty good and there was only one day with some
brief drizzle. Temps were generally in the mid to upper 50's F, with a couple days in the beginning in the 60s.
Day 1: Travel
including to the River of Gold origination point in Lisbon, Portugal
Day 2: Lisbon, Portugal
including a walking tour, Bairro Alto, and the Church of Saint Roch
Day 3: Lisbon, Portugal
including a walking tour, National Palace of Queluz, Sintra, Cabo de Roca, and Cascais
Day 4: Lisbon, Portugal
including tile mosaics, a bus tour, Maritime Museum, and a food tasting tour
Day 5: Batalha and Fatima, Portugal
including the Monastery of Saint Maria of Victory,Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima, and the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity
Day 6: Régua, Portugal
including cork, Mateus Palace and Gardens, and Sandeman Port Winery
Day 7: Barca d’Alva, Portugal
including a walking tour of Castelo Rodrigo
Day 8: Salamanca, Portugal
including a walking and bus tour, Cathedral Nueva, and Museum of Art Mauveau and Art Déco
Day 9: Pinhão, Portugal
including the Favaios Bakery and museum, and the Quinta Avessada winery
Day 10: Régua, Portugal
including the Cistercian monestary and church, and the Casa Santo Antonio de Britiande winery
Day 11: Porto and Guimarães, Portugal
including a walking tour, Porto Cathedral, Porto Sao Bento train station, and Guimarães
Day 12: Braga, Portugal
including a bus tour, basicila Bom Jesus do Monte, Santa Maria de Braga Cathedral, and a walking tour
Day 13: Santiago de Compostela, Spain
including a walking tour, Saint James Cathedral, a food tasting tour, and the library
Day 14: Travel
including to home
