Portugal River Cruise Days 7 & 8: Pinhao to Tavora to Regua to Porto & End of Trip

Sunday, May 31: Lamego

As usual, I explored the waterfront area near our dock for my morning walk but had to be very careful of the time since the boat was due to leave Pinhao at 7am. 

We were back to our usual morning excursion routine so joined the rest of the English-speaking group for our 8:30am departure for the visit to Lamego. Our guide was Sandrine again, who had also accompanied us yesterday as well as two days ago for the Regua area excursions. Lamego is known for its sanctuary at the top of a hill with its 686 stairs. Our group visited the church (which was having a Sunday morning mass), and then a few of us decided to walk down the stairs to meet up for our tasting of local smoked meats, cheese, and sparkling wine.

We had some free time to explore the historic center of the town, and Mr. E procured a Portugal football jersey to add to our souvenirs. Then we returned to Regua to meet up with our boat. I had enough time to buy some fresh cherries from the local vendor situated just above the dock area before we all had to be on board. 

The afternoon began with a pre-lunch briefing about the schedule for the rest of the day and departure procedures for the morning. After lunch, we were able to visit the Captain in the pilothouse and learn a bit about how the boat operates, which was quite interesting, especially to see the control panels. The rest of the afternoon was just sailing and relaxing and getting ready to head home tomorrow. Mr. E also got to watch the "show" of the new pool getting installed. Apparently, it was quite an adventure with lots of onlookers!

Our final dinner was unfortunately not very successful for me, as the kitchen staff had prepared a lovely piece of salmon instead of beef but included leeks in the mixed veggies, and that's part of the allium family so I couldn't eat it. The replacement was a vegan shredded patty and the same puff potatoes as we had another evening. But I'm not a fan of faux meat, since I don't miss or like the flavor anymore, and the potato puffs were cold inside. Quite disappointing, but luckily I wasn't very hungry and just finished off the evening with popcorn and wine in my room. Oh, and the wine was the bottle we bought in Salamanca, and it was delicious! So that was still a positive way to wrap up the trip.

Monday, June 1: OPO > EWR > ORD

Our final morning was overcast and grey, and I had to walk across the equipment barge that separated our boat from the dock, which hadn't been in place last week when we began our cruise. I headed across the boardwalk towards the beach and was accompanied by a swan and also saw a momma duck with two babies on my way back (couldn't get a good photo of them).

We had our final breakfast on board and bid farewell to our lovely table companions, whose flight home to England wasn't until the evening. Our taxi pick-up at 8:45am was prompt, and we had allowed plenty of time to accommodate any rush hour traffic on our way to the airport. The lounge was rather underwhelming, mostly because it was obviously in the midst of being renovated and updated so had areas that were closed off and no restrooms available, and then we encountered the loooong line for passport control before going to our gate. Yikes! Not a very efficient process at all, especially since our info had been verified when we checked in at the counter before the initial security and was then checked yet one more time before we actually boarded the plane. Triple checks? Really??!!

The flight from OPO to EWR was just under 7 1/2 hours, and I watched three movies, all of which were quite enjoyable for very different reasons: Scream 7, How to Make a Killing, and Solo Mio. We had a rather long walk from our arrival gate through customs but didn't have to worry about rushing because of our nearly 3-hour layover. We still had about 90 minutes to spend in the Polaris Lounge before boarding the connecting flight from EWR to ORD. I opted for a short movie to align with the 2-hour flight and watched the thriller, Cold Storage. We landed a bit early and arrived on time at the gate after one of the typical ORD long runway taxi process. 

Mr. E and I made sure that L was all set for her ride pick-up and then we grabbed a taxi home to Evanston. One of the worst taxi experiences ever!!! Very strong unpleasant sulfur-ish smell that didn't dissipate at all even though we had the back windows wide open and lots of reckless driving, including totally running a red light. Ugh! We really need to find a more consistently professional and reliable service for our airport trips here. But we eventually made it home to the kitties, and Louis XIV and I got lots of nesting and snuggling time during the night.

A wonderful trip overall and so grateful to make these memories with Mr. E and his mom!