These are the last days of our trip. We had an excellent visit at a winery that makes port wine. We visited the cork museum. Today we split off on our own and visited the drinking museum. This has almost nothing to do with Portugal but is absolutely fascinating. We saw all manor of drinking vessels going back to the 7th century BC, and always about drinking wine.

I learned about a civilization I hadn’t previously known about. They were contemporaneous with Mesopotamia. They were the largest civilization in Europe. They were experts at long-distance trade. They made sophisticated metal, pottery, and ceramic vessels. They were the first to use copper tools. The were the first to use a bird as a symbol of rebirth and also as the transition between the earthly world and the heavens above. The museum did not give them a name, other than the civilization along the Danube River. Take that, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece.

The earliest vessels were made from horns or clay. They held a generous pour of wine on the top and a hole at the bottom. One would put their finger over the hole and fill the horn with wine. To drink, they removed their finger and let the wine shoot into their mouth.

Many drinking games were documented by Pliny the Elder, among others. Taking interesting pictures in a wine glass museum is quite a challenge. Here’s one of radioactive glasses.

On the way back to the boat, we encountered this famous rabbit, composed solely of metal trash.

Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 4:00 AM. We fly to Amsterdam, then Atlanta, and arrive home after 11 PM. I hope this finds everybody doing well..

We visited the CAO museum today where we saw 30,000 year-old rock art. This is contemptuous with the cave art we saw on our French trio a few years ago. There is a lot of similarity between the two. Initially, both displayed only animals. Depiction of humans came much later. We have proof of a robust trade with other humans over large distances. The cave art used colors that weren’t available locally. The rock art uses lines etched into shale rock using tools made from flint. Flint is not available locally. Both sometimes depicted animals with two heads to indicate motion.

There is also a lot that is different. Cave art was more expressive of the spirit of the animals. It’s more difficult to scratch lines than it is to paint. Paint can be used to express more than an etched line. Cave artists often used the three-dimensional cave rock to make the depiction more life-like. Rock artists were stuck using shale, which is flat.

I’m including just one picture which clearly shows a cow. The other pictures are of less interest to most folks. Some of the images are high-definition (which makes opening the page take way too long). If you want to see the other pics, click the link at the top of the page. Be prepared to wait.

I hope this finds all doing well.

Early rock art displayed only four animals.

Here’s our museum guide, along with a copy of a rock.

Here’s a second rock. You will see more if you zoom in. If memory serves, this rock has over 60 animals. I zoomed into the upper left corner to display the cow in the Email version of this blog.

The town of Salamanca (in Spain) is a 2-hour bus ride one way. But the town was worth the ride. The cathedral is one of the most unusual. They built it in the 11th century. Then in the 1500s they decided it wasn’t big enough, and built a new cathedral adjacent to the old one, Then they decided what the heck, why not keep both. Finally, in the 1980s they decided to renovate both. We didn’t take the option to view the cathedral interior, but we did see some unusual things in the exterior facade. Below you can see an astronaut in the upper left corner, and a creature eating an ice cream cone in the lower right. I’m fairly certain these characters weren’t in the original building.

The most interesting part of our visit was the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. We have never before seen a museum with this focus. Unfortunately they didn’t permit photos. Too bad, because they had an extremely interesting collection.

After dinner tonight, we will get a dance troupe. They will do some folk dances, then do some flamenco dancing.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We visited Amarante. It’s a quant little town. The visit was somewhat disorganized. The locals were having a marathon race today. We had to flip the activities for two days.

On our way up the Douro river, we came to a lock where the was high. As you can see, we had to sit down to avoid losing our heads.

But he real excitement was this low bridge. Those of us brave enough to sit on deck ended up squinching down to protect our heads.

We’ve visited some more areas around Porto. Here’s an old trick. When somebody buys a plot of land in the city, they are limited to how close the building can come to the street. If you want a larger house, you can’t extend the ground floor, but you can extend the second, and even extend further on the third floor. Here’s a great example. Notice the poles that support the extended floor and balcony.

All this is quite interesting, but the focus for the last day has been the river boat ride. We enjoy beautiful vistas outside our floor-to-ceiling windows. We can even open the window to enjoy the weather as well as just the view. Here’s a picture of our ship. It’s easy to have a good time.

We started the day with a lecture about Porto architecture and how it intertwines with Porto’s history. It was incredibly interesting. Then we went on a bus tour. I had a couple of pics, but the computer had a critical failure while transferring the files to my laptop. They are gone forever. But we had a good time, we saw some sites we hadn’t seen before, and we noticed the architecture we heard about in the morning’s presentation. After lunch, Danita and I split off the tour and picked up her painted tiles. They came out pretty good.

We had plenty time today. We kept an easy, relaxed pace; eating interesting looking treats and of course some very good geleto. Our most impressive stop was the Clerigos Tower, a Catholic church. As the name implies, the church comes with an imposing tower, which we most definitely did not climb. But the church itself is still an amazing edifice. The church was recently renovated to “it’s full glory”, which unfortunately did not always include handrails for the stairs. We finished our tour at 11:30, then waited for the organ concert at Noon.

Very close to our hotel is a monument with the catchy name of “Monumento aos Herois da Guerre Peninsular”. Napoleon tried to invade Porto three times. Each time he was repulsed — with the help of an English gent named Wellington. The monument shows the English lion attacking Napoleon’s imperial eagle. Until very recently, it was the tallest construction in Porto. It is said to be tall enough that one can see it from France. I couldn’t get a good pic, so I finally decided to steal one from the internet. That’s when I found out that my pic is as good as anybody’s. So here it is.

We are in our new hotel. We’ll join with our Road Scholar group at 6:00 this evening. I hope this finds everyone doing well.

The old tour is gone. The new tour has not started. Danita spent the morning in a cooking class, learning to make pastel de nata. Hers were better than the ones they serve for breakfast at our hotel.

In the mean time, I walked across town to get a voltage converter. This project surprised me. These days, most electronic gizmos accept either 120 V (US power) or 240 V (European power). I have one device that requires only 120 V. Until now, our room has always had at least one 120 V outlet. Not so in Portugal. The hotel maintenance man offered to lend me a convertor. I never thought to question a maintenance man. But he offered me a universal outlet, which only offered 240 V. Fortunately, my device overheated but was not permanently damaged. Since the number of tourists in Portugal is about three times the nation’s population and since the vast majority of tourists are from the US, I expected any phone shop to offer a convertor. Not so. I could find only one store. The converter is very heavy, making a major difference in the weight of my suitcase. But now I have 120 V and all is well.

In the afternoon, Danita painted to ceramic tiles. We won’t see them until tomorrow because they have to be fired. We’re looking forward to seeing how they came out. I was scheduled to take a bike tour, but I cancelled it. Participants ride on the sidewalks, which are crowded with tourists gawking and not paying attention. I didn’t want to take the chance of hurting somebody. So I did the next most sensible thing. I got an espresso and read my book.

Our dinner was one of the better ones. I had a traditional Francesinha sandwich. Danita settled for a more traditional chicken wrap. The desert was the best on this trip so far. It was 100% chocolate and 150% good.

We closed off the day with a concert, four pieces offered by a string quartet. We did not recognize any of the pieces. The first two were written to celebrate April 25, the date they threw out the Salazar regime and became a republic. The last piece was by Ravel. I sas surprised that didn’t recognize the Ravel. Come to think of it, there only a few Ravel pieces that are frequently played.

We check out of our hotel this morning. Later on in the afternoon we will join the new tour in a different hotel. We will officially be homeless vagabonds for several hours.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

There is only one national park in Portugal, and it’s a great one. We spent all day yesterday at the park. One needs permission to stay overnight. If they stay more than one day, they must move their campsite daily. Here’s a pic from one of the park’s overlooks. Those clouds look ominous, but we only had a small shower near the end of our visit.

You will find beautiful sites, plenty of wild life, and lots of greenery. Here you see Danita inviting me to use a staircase down to the river, and why we all declined.

Very narrow treds, overgrown with slippery greenery, and no hint of a handrail guarantee that only an imortal teenager would try this path.

Farmers are having a problem with wolves killing livestock. One solution is this wolf trap. Villagers chase the wolf, scaring it to run away from the hunters and towards the trap. Once in the trap, the walls come closer and closer together. At the end, the wolf jumps the barrier …

… to land in this 40-foot well. Goodbye wolf.

The most unique thing I saw was was the corn silos. These are small because each farmer has his own silo. They are mounted on stones in such a way that a rat would have to hang upside down to get into the crib. Rats can’t hang upside down. Hence, there are no rats in the silo. The weight of the supporting stones encourages farmers to make the silo narrow.

We saw a lot of small wild flowers, including these a beautifully iridescent blue color. The pic doesn’t do them justice.

This time of the year, there’s plenty of water for numerous and impressive waterfalls.

We had an amazing time. The park is restful, beautiful, and relaxing. There’s no contest. It is the best day of our visit so far. We were lucky to come when we did. Once school is out and the water has warmed, the park is packed with people.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Dinner was on our own last night. We decided to visit the Imperial McDonald’s. The imperial eagle is obvious, but you need keen eagle eyes to see the word “Imperial” just below the bird’s wings and above “McDonald’s”.

Today we took a walking tour and a one-hour river ride. We saw plenty of buildings, but nothing that inspired a snap shot.

Coming off the river boat ride, there were too many tours leaving at the same time. I got separated from the group. I could hear them talking about me over the walkie-talkies, but only the guide could transmit. They decided to have Danita call me. I told the tour guide where I was, and she retrieved me. When we got back together, I tapped the screen to end the call, but for whatever reason the phone didn’t disconnect. It was over an hour before I realized that our two phones were still connected to each other. I have no idea what we will pay for a 1-hour international call.

After the formal tour, Danita and I decided to visit the stained glass museum. Google assured us it was open after 2:00. Unfortunately, the museum staff didn’t get that memo. We settled for a pizza pastry and double gelatos instead. It’s a tough life around here.