The Douro River has become one of the highest demand waterways for river cruisers.
With plenty of sunshine and a beautiful country, it's easy to understand why.
If you seek scenic cruising, Viking's "River of Gold" itinerary is a great choice.
Those who see the cruise as primarily a means to get to shore excursions may be disappointed by Viking's approach, unless they choose to buy optional excursions.
Our ship stopped at 11:30 AM in Pocinho for guests who had booked optional excursions. Both excursions included lunches to provide a bit of local flavor, metaphorically and literally.
Julie and I enjoyed the standard itinerary, including the leisurely starts simply cruising. Based on what others shared, our fellow cruisers also enjoyed the trip, regardless of whether they did optional excursions. Viking knows their clientele.
Other river cruise lines have distinctly different approaches on the Douro and other rivers. They may stop at different ports entirely in some cases.
If you regularly add optional excursions with Viking River cruises, you may want to give further thought to AmaWaterways, Avalon and Uniworld, which may provide deeper immersion in the region, albeit at higher prices than Viking.
Some of those competitors include both morning and afternoon excursions at no additional charge, as well as choices for different levels of activities based on physical fitness of guests. Always review the specifics of an itinerary and what is included when choosing a river cruise. They vary considerably.
It also means you can return to a river you love and have a very different experience based on what excursions you choose.
Basically, a ship cruises into the lock. A huge door closes. Then, if the ship is going to a higher elevation of river, the lock fills and floats the ship higher. If the ship is going to lower elevation, water is released, allowing the ship to slowly drift lower.
Prior to 1791, boulders that blocked the Douro at various points caused dangerous rapids. This meant that land that could be productive vineyards could not transport their product. By removing the boulders beginning in 1790, upriver vineyards became financially viable.
In the 20th century, modern technology delivered bulldozers and dynamite to make easier work of the task of making the Douro easier to transit. This is another case where I find myself wondering what a modern state like California would do, given modern environmental concerns.
We again dined at a river view table for an unhurried lunch.
Our ship wasn't scheduled to stop at Barca d'Alva until 2:00 PM. We were delayed a few minutes by another ship using the lock before us. Locks hold only one ship at a time on the Douro, and even those are shorter than traditional ship sizes in Europe due to lock lengths.
That afternoon, the buses took us to Castelo Rodrigo, where we had what I would describe as a Jewish heritage tour led by our tour escort Inis. We followed her through the ancient cobblestone streets, stopping to observe subtle markings on homes which held hidden meanings.
The story goes that the hill on which Castelo Rodrigo is perched was used for hundreds of years before the medieval fortress was built on the site of an old castle. However, there are no artifacts from those civilizations.
It may very well be that if excavations were done on the site, other layers of civilization would be revealed. For example, in Cartagena Spain, a 6,000-seat Roman amphitheater built at the dawn of the "Common Era" had been buried for centuries before new construction dug it up in 1988, and that's not a unique example.
The pre-historic village of Skara Brae was uncovered when a massive storm hit Scotland's Orkney Islands in 1850 after being forgotten for 5,000 years.
Jay's friend Kim is an archaeologist in Los Angeles County, called out to investigate relics discovered in new projects, often forcing reconsideration of how to proceed.
In any case, if you believe the lore, then a forerunner village and likely fortress of some kind has been there since 500 years or more Before Christ. Some say that might have been a Jewish village. Over the years, it changed hands between conquering kingdoms, including the Romans, Visigoths, Moors (perhaps Moops if you believe George Costanza from "Seinfeld") and Spanish.
It seems accepted by many scholars that during Muslim rule in Riba-Coa, which included the site of Castelo Rodrigo, as in Al-Andalus in Spain, was a time of peaceful coexistence between the followers of various religions.
Generally speaking, the primary religion or ruling class has exploited dominance of others in days of yore and --- with the exception of Western Civilization --- to this day. I doubt there was an exception anywhere in Iberia a thousand years ago.
This Gothic Castle goes back to the 12th Century, which if you recall was the time of the Crusades to re-claim the Holy Lands and Iberia from Muslim rule. The Almohad Califate was a Berber Muslim empire, though it you're like me, perhaps neither name rings a bell.
Parish Church of Our Lady of Rocamadour founded in the 13th Century
The UN calls Castelo Rodrigo "a rare example of Leonese architecture in Portugal." I will note that the eastern gate seems to be a Moorish arch though Spanish architecture adopted many Moorish touches, merging them into their own styles.
Almost immediately, Portugal challenged Leon's presence. After back and forth battles, King Denis of Portugal captured Castelo Rodrigo in 1296. Portugal remodeled the fortress, including building the wall that still surrounds the hilltop village.
In 1492, Spain banished Jews, and many took refuge in Castelo Rodrigo.
A tax of a third of their wealth is said to have been extracted to be allowed to stay.
Scallop Shell Marking Pilgrimmage Route for Santiago de Compostela
Spain became dominant in the area again, and Jews were forced to convert or go into hiding. They hid their religious ceremonies and took surnames that didn't sound Jewish. They even did things like making spicey sausages out of alternative ingredients to pork in order to appear more like their neighbors.
There's more history that unfolded there, but most prominent is that Spain burned down Moura Palace, which had been built there for the Spanish appointed Viceroy of Portugal.
Hard to believe, but among the ruins, about fifty residents still live in Castelo Rodrigo, some of them selling almonds and souvenirs to tourists.
There were stories about marks on buildings and the height of doors, some of which seemed more logical than others. The Viking TV video below tells some of the stories.
After our guided tour, Julie and I went to the site of the castle ruins, which to us was more interesting visually than the streets through the Jewish quarter, as evidenced by our photo choices.
Back on the ship, we opted for Diet Pepsi on the sun deck.
After the usual happy hour, including a description of what to expect the next day, we enjoyed another tasty dinner.
That evening, we had flamenco dancers join us in the lounge.
Solearte put on an energetic show, with several costume changes.
All three women were excellent dancers.
The dancers had come aboard the ship from their home in Salamanca, Spain.
Oddly, walking down a busy street in Salamanca during our free time the next afternoon, we saw the percussionist walking towards us.
He pointed at Julie and me and said, "Viking River Cruise." At first we were sort of amazed he recognized us, but we remembered we still wore Viking lanyards holding our Quietvox listening devices.
After touring the Temple of Luxor in the late afternoon, we returned to the ship with time to shower and change clothes for dinner.
Our comfortable, nicely adorned stateroom had a large shower relative to most cruise ships. Another nice feature was a French Balcony, the first we've ever had on a river cruise. On the next few hot afternoons, we could sit in the air conditioning and enjoy the scenery along the banks of the Nile through the large windows, occasionally opening to feel the warm breeze.
When we went down to dinner, I was disappointed that as with lunch, dinner was a buffet. On our cruise through France the prior year on Viking, sumptuous dinners with fine local wines served course by course had been highpoints each day. This cruise did not include wine and beer with lunch, like most river cruise ships that cater to Americans.
Alas, this was not a Viking Cruise, and the sooner I focused on what it was rather than what it wasn't, the sooner I would be able to enjoy our shipboard experience to the fullest as what it was instead of what it was not. As a Cruise Planner, however, I must notice differences to share with clients who want to make informed decisions.
Anyway, as a general rule, I personally prefer a more formal approach for dinner than rushing to stand in queue in a horseshoe shaped line to glop out servings of dishes on a plate that ends up looking like a Dali painting gone awry rather than an appetizing meal.
Nonetheless, many individual dishes were quite good, utilizing that vast array of spices found in Mediterranean countries. Each night, a chef sliced roasted beef or some poultry as a featured main course, with an alternative meat also available at that carving station. There were plenty of vegetarian dishes, including East Indian fare which have become quite prevalent on cruise ships.
Several delicious dishes were marked as Egyptian, and I gave special attention to those, finding them always delicious.
After that first night, I decided to do my own meal by courses, going first for some cheese and soup as starters to accompany my wine.
While the delay in going through the buffet line often left the dishes somewhat picked over by the ravenous horde, occasionally I was fortunate and a new dish arrived just as I was ready to serve myself, as happened one evening with a delicious fish in an Egyptian sauce.
As with my first impression of the dining experience, the lobby of our ship and carpets seemed rather rundown in comparison to European river cruise ships.
We also had some maintenance issues in what otherwise were nice staterooms. First, our stateroom door would not close without slamming it.
Laszlo's room next door had the opposite problem. He would lay down for a nap and the door would open on its own, resulting in him being quite surprised when he awakened to see me standing at the foot of his bed talking to him on one occasion.
Later, we realized that our French balcony sliding glass doors would not close entirely. This particularly concerned Julie after she saw how little boats could tie onto the side of our boat and possibly even scale the walls like pirates, though we never saw any climbers.
To their credit, maintenance personnel did come out right away to address these issues, though the French balcony doors were never perfect. This wouldn't happen on a ..... STOP IT, WES!
You get the point, it was a ship that had flaws compared to a newer ship like those we've become accustomed to.
The sun deck, on the other hand, featured a relatively large (by river cruise standards) swimming pool and very large covered bar with tables and chairs.
Because it was usually 100 degrees in the afternoon, even cruising down the river, we enjoyed that area most for morning coffee and in the evenings among the nightlights of other boats.
A belly dancer was scheduled to perform in the large lounge a deck below the sun deck on that first night. I staked out good seats on a couch up front while Julie and Laszlo went to find a pharmacy in town.
When they never showed up, others sat down, eventually filling my couch and all of the adjacent chairs.
I was a bit confused by the first "belly dancer," who was obviously a man. It was only after returning home that I figured out that he was doing a dance called the Whirling Dervish.
I had heard the term before, because my dad used to use it as a metaphor when someone came in with a flurry of activity. In my mind as a child (and not corrected until I read about it), I pictured a Tasmanian Devil, not a religious dance.
At one point, the dancer turned on lights, so he was kind of like a one man disco ball as he spun around, making me question how authentic this regional "folk dance" could be. Anyway, he was a good performer.
The belly dancer devoted most of her show to getting "volunteers" from the audience to learn to belly dance, beckoned without the necessity of English or any other words.
It was amusing in its own way, and those who participated seemed to have fun, usually laughing.
The dancers were backed by three talented musicians who sounded quite authentic playing the regional tunes.
The complete show lasted about thirty minutes.
Where were Julie and Laszlo? They had gone to a pharmacy, which turned out to be a very funny story, but I have been asked to not share that in my blog, which I will respect.
Suffice it to say that they had an adventure that took longer than expected, including a stop at a spice store.
On another evening, we had an Egyptian Night, where guests put on their best Egyptian outfits, having been encouraged to buy clothes in local markets.
It was a festive occasion with most in attendance dressing appropriately. A highlight was an extended group dance, with lots joining in the conga line, or whatever it is actually called.
The best entertainment we watched on the ship came in that same lounge a little later in the cruise. Julie and I had decided to splurge for pre-dinner drinks from the historic bar, Julie having her usual white wine while I had an Egyptian beer, which put us in the right place at the right time.
We could hear some yelling outside the ship, and a guy at a nearby table said, "You have to see this."
Outside, two Egyptians in a small boat had tied up to the side of our ship, so we were pulling them along the Nile. They were beckoning people on the pool deck above us to check out their beach towels and scarves which they would unfurl to display the beautiful patterns. What had been indistinct noise turned out to be those guys yelling, "Lady. Lady..."
They were fantastic salesmen, rolling the towels back up to tuck them into plastic bags and then spiral them like footballs up four flights to the pool deck. These were really impressive passes considering these QBs were throwing almost straight up from a bobbing boat. An errant toss would have resulted in a splashdown.
Eventually, the bags of rejects would come back down, dropped in the boat from four decks above, but sometimes the bags included payment for towels purchased by a rich lady. Talk about trust in the customer paying and not just keeping the wares.
These salesmen could not have boarded the ship to collect the money if the customers decided to just keep the towels, but it all worked out. After they'd sold as many as possible to our ship's passengers, they motored off to find customers on other river cruise ships.
By the way, we were surprised by how many other river cruise ships were on the Nile. I would have guessed there were maybe a dozen, including the big brands that cater to Americans like AmaWaterways, Uniworld and Viking, but there were lots of ships catering to other nationalities, with Europe and Middle East neighbors obviously much closer to the Nile than we are in the USA.
At night, we would see forty or fifty ships in each port. They would be joined together side by side, forming a bridge through their lobbies to the pier as we have seen on the Danube, but not with this many side-by-side.
Queues for locks often had several ships waiting, sometimes requiring ships to stop for hours, as happened to us one night.
While cruising between port stops, we sometimes used free time to sit by our large French balcony windows watching the Nile go by, occasionally reading, which gets to the reason for this post's title.
No, I didn't replace Julie or Laszlo with a French historical figure of note during the cruise.
When I downloaded the book from Amazon a few years ago, I was attracted to the rather odd title, Napoleon's Pyramids. I hadn't known enough about Napoleon's life to realize that as a very young general that he had indeed led a famous expedition to Egypt before he became the leader of France.
I never got around to reading this novel until this trip, which turned out to be the perfect time and place.
Napoleon often created his own opportunities. While still in his twenties, the General came up with the idea to conquer Egypt, just as he had already gained fame by "liberating" Italy. The conquest of Italy returned huge dividends, filling the French coffers with plundered treasures and earned Napoleon leeway in choosing future deployments.
Napoleon saw this foray into Egypt as a chance for personal glory. The novel theorizes that he also wanted the chance to tap into the mystical powers rumored in long forgotten texts. If he was drawn by the chance of immortality and being considered a god, he certainly would not have been the first.
A definite roadblock to his plan was the fact that Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, one of the few allies of Revolutionary France, but even so, they were only allies because of the old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the Ottomans had opposed the European kingdoms for centuries.
A loophole was that Egypt was under the local control of the Mamelukes, a fierce fighting horde who had become rather autonomous and beyond the control of the Ottomans.
Napoleon came up with the rationalization that France would be liberating Egypt from the Mamelukes on behalf of their ally. The Mamelukes were a band of mercenaries made up of white slaves captured from Eastern Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
The fact that Arabs had captured Europeans as slaves was not a surprise to me. Nor was the fact that Arabs had started and been central to the African slave trade.
But learning that slaves from the Caucasus were banded together and abused into submission while being trained to be a vicious private army that served the Ottomans was a completely foreign concept to me before reading William Dietrich's novel.
Why would I believe anything from a novel to be true?
So, by the time I actually read this novel, I was ready to understand the context. As I read the book, I found we were traveling through many of the sites mentioned. Of course, I double-checked some of the facts as we went along, checking them out on the internet and asking our guide Fawzy, who is an Egyptologist.
Having been on that French river cruise a year ago in conjunction with the novel, our experiences cruising the Rhone River kept coming to mind as a point of comparison to this Nile cruise, although as I have already said, we would all be well-advised to avoid making comparisons until after we return home, accepting each vacation as it unfolds in its own right.
Napoleon proved to be a great literary companion for this trip, and without him, we may not have been drawn to this vacation.
Aswan's Dome of Abu Al-Hawa, home of Tombs of the Nobles
For his Egypt expedition in 1798, Napoleon assembled a team of about 160 "savants." These savants were scholars in science, history, art and other intellectual disciplines to accompany tens of thousands of soldiers. They uncovered many secrets, including the Rosetta Stone, which translated ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics into Greek.
Their curious inquiries resulted in many astonishing discoveries and stimulated European interest in Egypt, spurring an Egyptian fashion and decorating fad. They gave birth to a new field of study, Egyptology.
Without Napoleon's insight to include those scholars, history might only remember his version of "shock and awe" with dates of battles. The French square formations with well-trained soldiers firing accurate rifles and supported by distant big artillery overwhelmed the simitar and musket wielding Mamelukes.
Western civilization still might know little about ancient Egypt were it not for Napoleon's curious mind.
Lest it isn't obvious based on my petty complaints, we enjoyed our climate-controlled, comfortable Nile cruise, which nicely punctuated hot days touring remarkable sites.
