Day 28 - Friday 19th May 2023

Today there would be no excursions because it was a navigation day. We'll be sailing from Regua to Barca D'Alva near the border with Spain.

So there was no need to get up early. In fact, breakfast didn't start until 8am instead of the normal 7:30. We went down to breakfast at about 8:45. Chris had done an early morning exercise class on the sun deck.

They had told us last night that this afternoon we'd be travelling through an area that had no internet reception and no mobile phone reception. People were asking me whether I would be able to cope. Time will tell.

At 9:30, there was a talk in the lounge by a local woman about life in the Duoro Valley.

The ship departed Regua at about 11am and approached the first lock of the day at 11:30. At about 12 noon, another vessel emerged from the lock and it was our turn to enter. This lock was 28m tall.

After passing through the lock, we had lunch in the area at the front of the boat as usual. This time the area was quite crowded - probably because nobody was out on excursions today.

The cake of the day was a delicious chocolate cake.

At about 2:15pm, the four of us participated in the trivia competition and, to our surprise, we won. The prize was a bottle of white wine.

The next entertainment was a wine tasting at about 3pm where the wine was matched to various meats and cheeses.

At that time, we were passing through a narrower part of the river lined with steep rocky cliffs. Our ship had to wait for another cruise shop coming in the other direction before we could proceed.

When we entered this even narrower channel and went around a corner, there was another lock to navigate. This time we didn't have to wait. The light was green, the gate was open and we sailed straight in.

Beyond this lock, there was a particularly narrow section. Apparently many years ago, the queen ordered her navy to blast a passage through the granite here using cannon balls.

At about 4:30, the sides of the river changed from the steep rocky cliffs to the green hills covered in vineyards as we'd been used to for most of our journey along the Duoro River.

This evening's events started with "sundowner cocktail" on the top deck at 6pm - just as we were entering another lock. They served us drinks based on port. I had a red port with ginger ale but I didn't drink it all.

After the port talk at 6:30, we went to the Portobello Dinner that we'd booked for tonight. It was held at the front of the ship near the lounge. It is a special dinner with multiple entrees and desserts. We all had the tenderloin for main course.

They offered us a range of wines starting with a bubbly rose, then white wine, red wine and port. None of us drank the bubbly rose but we enjoyed the others.

It was a very elegant meal but I thought it wasn't as good as some of the other meals we've had on this cruise.

During the port talk, the ship docked at Vega de Terron (instead of the original destination of Barca D'Alva) which is just inside the Spanish border. In fact, according to Google Maps, the border between the two countries runs down the middle of the river.

Spain is on a different time zone to Portugal and so we wondered if our Apple devices (watch, iPhone, iPad) would change to Spanish time or stay with Portuguese time. Would our alarms wake us at the right time or an hour late?

The evening entertainment was a group of student Flamenco dancers. Unfortunately we couldn't see them from where we were sitting and so we retired to our rooms.

Soon after arriving in our room, the lights failed. At first we thought it might be just us but it turned out to be the entire ship. Fortunately the blackout only lasted about five minutes.