From here, the boat makes a U-turn and we begin a two-day sail back to Porto.
At the Valeira Dam, we watch as another river cruise boat rises in the lock…
…and exits.
Here, we use the lock in the opposite direction, entering with the lock filled…
…and then waiting for the water to drain out so we can continue downstream.
We pass familiar sites as we head downstream to Regua where we will dock for the night. From there, our bus and guide will take us to the nearby Mateus Palace and Gardens.
Mateus and I have history. When I was growing up, Mateus was a popular wine, their empty bottles frequently serving as candle holders. The night of my high school senior prom, my date and I went to a nice restaurant in Phoenix, she in her gown and I clad in a rented tux. The server took our order and asked if we wanted wine with that.
We were both 18 and the legal drinking age in Arizona was 21, but things were looser back then and we probably looked older than we were. “We certainly do,” I told the waitress. Ordering the only wine I knew by name, I said, “We’ll have a bottle of Mateus, please.”
Now in Portugal, I was eager to visit the source of my early exposure to wine.
We arrived at the Mateus Palace, the exquisite edifice which provided the background for their bottle labels back then.
We would soon get a tour of the inside of the palace. In the meantime, we were free to wander the gardens.
Then it was time to venture inside.
It was good to see that the Mateus family put the profits they made off that bottle of wine I bought back in high school to good use.
For old times sake, Dianne and I bought a small bottle of Mateus (they only offer rose now) to try later in the trip.
Perhaps my taste in wine has changed, but this stuff was downright awful. “Tastes like watered-down Kool-Aid,” my lovely wife suggested.
Fortunately, onboard that evening, we were treated to a sample of vintage bottle 2008 port.
That was followed by a wild night of karaoke singing…
…with even my favorite wife participating.