What Happened

Some of you have asked about what really happened in Portugal, so here it is.

The Duoro Prince was a beautiful boat with 24 cabins that took us up the Duoro river and back. We went through 4 dams and visited varios places along the way.

There were some wonderful towns in which we got a taste of Portuguese life; folk singers and folk dancers came aboard. At one stage, I was invited to dance with them. Why do I take up these offers?

The weather was very warm. The hottest it got was 41 degrees (112F), which was overpowering. Even when it was windy, it was still baking hot.

The food was great; at the times I wasn't partial to it, the waiters would change it for something else.

My father and I spent a week on the Duoro Prince and three days on a tour extension. It was the latter that turned out not to be so good. The hotel was miles from the city of Braga, and virtually deserted. If we wanted to go to the city, we had to use a taxi.

The worst part came when my father fell over a large concrete stone in the street near the end of the vacation. There were many of these, and they were hard to see. The Portuguese are not very good on safety procedures. As a result, my father got a cut on the arm and a black eye. His glasses were twisted as well.

Fortunately, he is alright. His eye is now healing and he will get a new pair of glasses from the insurance.

All in all, we agreed that we had a great holiday week on the boat; it was only on the tour extension things started going wrong.

I'll try and get some pictures in the near future.