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Viking Osfrid Douro River Cruise review


beanpittsburgh
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I will try to update this review daily depending on the Internet and free time. Please excuse any spelling errors as Siri sometimes makes mistakes lol.

We started our trip Thursday. We flew from Pittsburgh to Atlanta then into Madrid and got into Madrid about 8 o’clock in the morning. A Viking representative drove us to the hotel where another Viking representative was waiting to meet us. We had paid for Viking air and Viking transfers.That was about 9 AM. We stayed at the Intercontinental hotel which is a very modern five star hotel. Our rooms were ready as soon as we got here, which was fantastic. We decided to start an early tour of Madrid on her own so we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon traveling around by ourselves. Madrid is very modern. The metro is very easy to use and goes all over the city. That evening, the Viking representative, had a meeting for the 16 of us that signed up for the Madrid pre-extension trip. She had wine and tapas for us to try and explained the daily activities to us. We had signed up for the excursions ahead of time, but if one wished to sign up at the last moment you could sign up with the representative then.

The next days included tour was OK. We drove around the city for a little while, and then stopped and had coffee at the Plaza Mayor. We then spent about 1 1/2 hours at the Prado Museum which was a lot of fun.The total time of the tour was four hours. This left plenty of time to explore Madrid on our own.

That evening, we went on the optional tapas excursion tour. We stopped at three different tapas restaurants throughout the city. Each stop included wine or beer, and tapas. The tapas were all different depending on what part of the city you were in.The cost of the tour was €99 and well worth the expense.

The next day we did the optional Toledo excursion. Toledo is the complete opposite of Madrid. Madrid is very modern and new, while Toledo is more old European. The streets are narrow and made of cobblestones. The architecture is absolutely beautiful and the scenery breathtaking.The cost of the tour was €119. Again the trip was well worth it. Toledo is about an hour and 15 minutes away so we spent a little bit of time on the bus. Walking in Toledo was moderate while walking in Madrid was easy.

A few words about the Hotel Intercontinental. The rooms were nicely laid out quiet and comfortable. The staff was most helpful. Breakfast was delicious with many options. Susanna, the Viking representative, was there a good bit of the time. She led the tapas tour.

We got up at 3 o’clock in the morning for our flight to Lisbon this morning. Of the 16 of us on this pre-extension trip, only four of us had that early of a flight. The rest had various flights later in the the morning. Unfortunately this means we got into Lisbon at 6 AM in the morning. Of course our hotel room was not ready till two in the afternoon. The Viking representative was there but she was tied up with the people leaving for the cruise part of the trip. So we were not able to see the next Viking representative for another 1 and a half hours. The hotel Trivoli is another 5 star hotel in a great location. The hotel let us have coffee in the breakfast area for no charge so we killed time till the shops opened up at 10 o’clock. Lisbon is a beautiful city also. It is much more old world than Madrid. We again explored on our own. A marathon started about 10 o’clock so we had fun watching the runners cross the finish line at 11:30.We met the rest of passengers at 7 o’clock for a speech by the Viking representative. The details for the next two days were explained to us. We are a couple in our late 50s, traveling with a couple in their early 40s. We were the youngest people there.

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Love reading what you wrote so far. We did the Douro River cruise just under two years ago, and loved it. We did not do the Madrid extension (Not sure if they offered it then), pity as I would love to see Toledo. Don't think I would have enjoyed the getting up at 3am part of your journey, but Lisbon is a wonderful city and I am sure you will enjoy exploring it. Looking forward to ready more.

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Day two Lisbon.

Today we had an included Viking tour of the Maritime Museum. We also went to the Belem tower for a few minutes and took pictures. We spent about 20 minutes walking through the Alfama district. This area of Lisbon is very narrow with buildings that are 500 years old. The guides were very informative and interesting. Portugal has a varied history.

This afternoon at 4 o’clock we went on the excursion a ‘taste of Lisbon’. Viking took us to three different places up in a very scenic part of the city with great views. We stopped at three different places. First we went to a small bakery and had the cream tart made famous in Lisbon. Next we had a steak and garlic sandwich. That was OK nothing special. The tart was wonderful. Lastly we stopped at a wine bar and had cheese and meat from Portugal along with generous pours of two different wines. Again, very tasty. The total time was about three hours and Cost about €70. The sky bar on the ninth floor of our hotel has very wonderful views of Lisbon. We stopped up here after our tour for snacks and sangria, what a beautiful view at night. Of course we have had beautiful weather so far this trip. 75 to 85 degrees daytime temps to 60 at night. No rain so far. We don’t expect our luck to last much longer.

Tomorrow at 8:30 AM we leave for Porto and the cruise part of our vacation. We have had a total blast for the first five days so far this vacation.

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We met several passengers today (and in Madrid). A lot of well traveled and interesting people. I’ll revise my estimates a bit and say there are at least 10 couples in their 50’s with maybe only 2 couples in their 80’s. Have met 8 couples from Philly, 2 from Texas, 1 each from CO, SC, Tenn, Ottawa, and London. Half the fun is meeting someone new. It might take me all week to remember their names though.

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Thanks for the info about the Taste of Lisbon excursion; we are signed up for that. We are down to 16 days until we depart. Keeping our fingers crossed that our connection in Frankfurt goes without a hitch and we make the last leg of our journey. Does the hotel in Lisbon have an ATM, or are you able to exchange money with the hotel? What about nearby money exchanges? We plan on bringing raincoats and umbrellas just in case.

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We left Lisbon early Tuesday morning at 8:30 on four buses. One of the buses was reserved for the optional excursion going to Fatima. The other three buses drove for about an hour and a half to a rest stop. After the rest stop, we had another hour Drive to Coimbra, a university town. The city was similar to Lisbon with steep, narrow streets. We visited an old, beautiful library and took a few pictures. We spent time also in town and enjoyed a bakery there. After the tour we stopped at a Fado restaurant. They served us a three-course dinner with all the wine you can drink. They had some Fado musicians for a short excellent show. It was a slow paced meal, as we were probably there for two hours. After dinner, we had an hour and a half drive to the ship.

Onboard we had a short fire drill to start things off and then we had the welcome toast and introduction to our captain and crew. The crew seems very young and very fun. The crew was from 8 different countries. From reading past reviews I was under the impression that everyone was from Portugal. But that is not the case. Plenty of joking and carrying on during the presentation. We just absolutely love the crew so far.

Dinner was fantastic tonight. Lots of wine, lots of good food. I’m not going to go into all the different varieties of stuff they had, but we loved what we chose. We had a real good starter of soup, followed by Châteaubrian, with chocolate dessert. The wine kept flowing all night. A little bit more on the wine. It looks like they will only have one red and one white every night and this will be the same wine every night of the cruise. The waiter said that one night of the cruise they will offer a special wine. The wine was OK, but I would like to try some different wines every night. We did not buy the silver spirits package. I really don’t think it would be worth it but that’s up to each individual. I think you would be better off buying wine in town and then having them open it at dinner if you wanted something different. Viking does not charge a cork fee.

The rain has finally started, we’ve had fantastic weather so far this week but tonight the rain started.

Tomorrow we tour Porto at 8:30 in the morning.

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Thanks for the info about the Taste of Lisbon excursion; we are signed up for that. We are down to 16 days until we depart. Keeping our fingers crossed that our connection in Frankfurt goes without a hitch and we make the last leg of our journey. Does the hotel in Lisbon have an ATM, or are you able to exchange money with the hotel? What about nearby money exchanges? We plan on bringing raincoats and umbrellas just in case.

 

I remember being able to exchange money at the hotel. There is also an ATM less than half a block from the hotel. Exiting the hotel go to the left and walk up the street. The bank with ATM's will be on your left.

 

Many people in Portugal speak excellent English, so asking for directions is easy. Also the hotel staff speak English and can give you directions to ATM's, the HOHO buses, and restaurants.

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Just a little bit of information about the Viking Osfrid. We are staying in a French balcony ‘B’ room. While the room is not as big as many of the suites we are still comfortable. Luggage fits under the bed. Can’t fit both of us in the bathroom at the same time but that’s OK. There seems to be plenty of closet space. There’s a small refrigerator under the television. The TV is a flat screen with a nice choice of channels. Of course we are not here to watch TV. There are plenty of plugs in the room including European,American, and USB ports. The bathroom has a combo 110 voltage 220 voltage American plug.

There is a coffee station located outside the dining room where you can get espresso, coffee, tea, hot chocolate etc.

There is a unisex bathroom and elevator located right by the reception desk.

Because it was raining we did not get up to the sundeck to see what was up there. We will explore that later.

There are three other riverboats parked nearby that are rafted together. Viking has its own dock. That’s not to say that we won’t be tied up with another ship later on. I will keep you informed of that.

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Today we did a tour in the morning to Porto. We left the ship at 8:30 and returned about 130 o’clock. It rained for part of the morning so that put a damper on things. We didn’t really get a chance to stop at any scenic views although their appeared to be many on the way. Traffic was really bad and it took us about 45 minutes to go from the boat to our first stop which was just across the river. We spent time visiting a Cathedral and then did a short walking tour around shopping district. The four of us stopped in a gelato shop which was wonderful. For the final stop of the tour we stopped at Sandeman’s port house and tasted two different ports. I am a port lover, but neither of the two ports were very good. One was a white port and the other was a young Tawny port. Then it was back to the ship for lunch. There are four optional excursions scheduled for this afternoon. One is to a winery, one is a helicopter ride over Porto, one is to a nearby city, and the fourth is to the Graham port house for dinner and a tasting of 8 ports.

The sun has finally cleared up and it is a nice day with temperatures around 70°. Viking is running a Shuttle bus to the shopping district this afternoon for a couple hours of shopping pleasure.

The Internet was nonexistent this morning. We had no service until after we got back to the boat this afternoon. I don’t know if it was because it was raining or the satellite couldn’t work through the clouds. Satellite has worked well rest of the day.

 

 

We did the Graham port tour excursion and wine dinner tonight. Wow! What a fantastic dinner. We did a tour of the cellars and saw all the casks and barrels and bottles of vintage ports. Then they took us to a tasting room where we had four vintage ports (2007,2000,1985,and 1980) and then four tawny ports (10,20,30,40 yr old). After the tasting we went to a five course dinner where we sampled more Portuguese wines and had a fantastic dinner. There were only six of us that went to this excursion. I think people missed out by not coming to this because it was the best wine experience I’ve ever had. Probably the cheapest one we had tonight was $40 while some of the ports went for $160 a bottle. The cost of this excursion was €260. So definitely, we got our moneys worth. I bought three bottles to take home. They do not ship to the United States. If you are into port, then this is excursion for you.

I can’t give any information on the shipboard activities tonight since we were gone for the dinner and after dinner activities.

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Today we left Porto early for the sailing part of our trip. We left Porto at 7:30. It did feel strange to finally feel the boat move as we have already been on this trip for a week and this is the first time we set sail. The cool part of the morning sail was when we went through the locks. I suppose the boat was lifted about 40 feet at least to reach the upper River. From here on the river started to get a little bit more scenic. We reached Regua by 230, then we got on our buses for a visit to Mateus Palace. We toured the inside of the palace in groups of 12. No photographs allowed inside. Very interesting decor in an interesting place. There are still people living in part of the palace, which was blocked off. We then had about 30 minutes to tour the beautiful scenic gardens and take pictures.

Next we traveled to a vineyard higher up in the hills. Some of the most fantastic scenery I’ve ever seen. The drive up the hill side was not for the faint of heart. I would compare it to Switzerland maybe even a little prettier. The Vineyard makes wine and port for Sandeman’s.

We arrived back at the ship about 615. Dinner was at 7:30 tonight. Dinner was very good but they had some interesting choices for dinner tonight. Octopus was one we did not try, others may take the plunge. An interesting side note, we bought a bottle of Mateus at the last winery we were at. We had the waiter pour that for dinner tonight. The maître d’ gave us an already chilled bottle of Mateus to try instead. When we finished that, I asked for the original bottle that I had already exchanged it for. I paid less than four euros for the bottle from the winery, Viking charged me €18.5 for the other bottle. I think that is kind of a rip off, but hey I’m on vacation. I’ll let it go this time. Overall, a very fun, enjoyable day. We met many new people and just had a wonderful day.

For those of you concerned about the Internet, it was very spotty today and not working very well.

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We left early Friday morning at 7:30 to continue on our cruise. Weather was just slightly better than yesterday. It is not raining but it is close to 55°. More sailing along a beautiful portion of the Douro. We went through lock number four about 10 o’clock this morning. One of the crewmembers gave us some information on the lock system. The locks are 40 feet wide and this particular lock raised us 100 feet. It took about 15 minutes to be raised that far which I think is very quick. We went through the lock while sitting up on the upper deck. Soon after though, the crew cleared the deck because we were going to be going under some very low bridges. While we were cruising, the cruise director gave a lecture on the history of Portugal. I believe on our return trip this way, Viking will make more of a big deal on this section of the river and hopefully they’ll provide some wine or beer while we cruise the scenic area again.

After lunch we passed through the last and fifth lock on the river. We arrived at Barca d’Alva at 2:30.This is as far as we go on the Douro river in Portugal. Right across the river is Spain. Tomorrow then we will set out for Salamanca on the bus. We set out for a tour of the Castelo Rodrigo , an old castle and small village. We bought several different types of Almonds here with different coatings on them. Also the gift shops were kind of neat with lots of stuff made from cork.

Back to the ship by 530 for a returning guest toast at 615 followed by a special Spanish dinner at 7. They had typical Spanish dishes tonight with different wines(finally). The night ended with Flamenco dancers and singers instead of the usual piano player. All this is to set up our day in Salamanca tomorrow.

I will talk more about our trip tomorrow but they explained a few things to us tonight. Buses leave early tomorrow (815,830,&845). There will also be a slow walker group too. The trip is 2 hours each way with a rest stop on the way. 91/2 total time of tour. In Salamanca, we will start out at a market with a wine and a cheese tasting followed by an actual guided tour. More tomorrow.

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I would guess that there are slightly over 100 people. I think they announced the crew as close to 40. We have three buses that are following us along the river. They are mostly full with a couple of empty seats. I would say most passengers are between 65 - 75 in age with probably 20 younger and 20 older than that. The crew probably averages 25 years old.

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Saturday morning.

As I mentioned yesterday we left early Saturday morning in three different buses at three different times. After driving an hour and a half we stopped for a rest break. We arrived in Salamanca after about a total of two hours and 15 minutes driving. We went to a local marketplace and sampled wine, cheese, and various meats. Then we had approximately 2 1/2 hours to explore Salamanca our own. At 2 o’clock we met the guide for a one hour guided tour. Finally, we went to a local hotel for light snacks for about 45 minutes before heading back to the ship on the bus. Salamanca is a very beautiful city, the architecture is just fantastic, definitely worth the long drive. We could have easily spent another four or five hours there. Salamanca is known for its inexpensive silver jewelry. Make sure you also try the chocolate and churros at a place called Valet’s. The cruise director said that in the past, they did a one and a half hour lunch in Salamanca which did not leave much time for exploring on your own. So Viking changed that around this time with just light snacks instead of a meal and lots of independent exploring time. Overall a very long day, but well worth the time spent. Saw lots of interesting sites on the drive. Storks are the big thing in Portugal and Spain. While the storks weren’t visible now because they’ve already migrated for the season, there are huge nests there still to be seen. Storks mate for life, and return every year to the same nest which can weigh up to 1 ton. Lots of olive and almond trees and cattle farms also on the drive.

Dinner was the typical Viking dinner tonight with the usual entertainment.

The internet did not work at all last night for about 12 hours. Viking moved the ship 100 yards while we were in Salamanca so reception is better tonight.

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By any change have you met a couple by the name of Don and Barb Sancombe from Georgia? They are on a river cruise right now in Portugal and wouldn't be surprised if they are on your trip. If you talk with them, please tell them Peter and Cathy Dillon from Jekyll Island say hello. BTW, I am loving your reviews each day. Thanks for sharing.

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Haven’t met anyone from Georgia yet. We have probably met 40 people so far. It’s difficult sometimes when u travel with another couple to meet everyone. We generally have enjoyed everyone so far. There is always one or 2 that get on ur nerves. Maybe I’m one of those to someone else lol.:o

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Saturday morning.

As I mentioned yesterday we left early Saturday morning in three different buses at three different times. After driving an hour and a half we stopped for a rest break. We arrived in Salamanca after about a total of two hours and 15 minutes driving. We went to a local marketplace and sampled wine, cheese, and various meats. Then we had approximately 2 1/2 hours to explore Salamanca our own. At 2 o’clock we met the guide for a one hour guided tour. Finally, we went to a local hotel for light snacks for about 45 minutes before heading back to the ship on the bus. Salamanca is a very beautiful city, the architecture is just fantastic, definitely worth the long drive. We could have easily spent another four or five hours there. Salamanca is known for its inexpensive silver jewelry. Make sure you also try the chocolate and churros at a place called Valet’s. The cruise director said that in the past, they did a one and a half hour lunch in Salamanca which did not leave much time for exploring on your own. So Viking changed that around this time with just light snacks instead of a meal and lots of independent exploring time. Overall a very long day, but well worth the time spent. Saw lots of interesting sites on the drive. Storks are the big thing in Portugal and Spain. While the storks weren’t visible now because they’ve already migrated for the season, there are huge nests there still to be seen. Storks mate for life, and return every year to the same nest which can weigh up to 1 ton. Lots of olive and almond trees and cattle farms also on the drive.

Dinner was the typical Viking dinner tonight with the usual entertainment.

The internet did not work at all last night for about 12 hours. Viking moved the ship 100 yards while we were in Salamanca so reception is better tonight.

 

When I read "Light snacks" I was wondering what had happened to the lunch I remember so well. We had Paella, and it was the best I had ever had. It seems that in just two years they have tweaked this cruise quite a bit. For example you have more options for premium excursions then what we had. That dinner in Porto sounded wonderful. Reading your review is bringing back fond memories from our cruise, and getting me excited for our next Viking cruise, Lyon & Provence, which we leave for in one week.

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