Duoro Princess - Travel Report - Small Ship Cruises

CRUISE REPORT FROM A CRUISER
ON UNIWORLD’S DUORO PRINCESS
DeGaulle Airport was degalling. I arrived on time, but was bused to the terminal, then had to take another bus to another terminal. The buses were about six meters apart, but an unpleasant and officious French lady (officious, unpleasant and French may be redundant) refused to let us walk those six meters. Instead, we had to go into the terminal and board the second bus. We also had to go through passport control twice and security (I have never before had to go through passport control even once when changing flights in an international terminal), then there was a hike worthy of a Boy Scout merit badge. Nevertheless, by running -- carryon in hand -- I was able to reach the gate for the Lisbon flight 10 minutes before departure time. An unpleasant and officious French man told me the gate was closed. It seems that, unbeknownst to Uniworld (or whoever actually made the flight arrangements), DeGaulle recently imposed a new rule: gates will close 20 minutes before departure time. I was directed to the "transfer desk," where five people are kept busy rebooking all the passengers who have missed connections they expected to make easily (mine was one hour and 25 minutes to get from one Air France flight to another).

I got a flight leaving 2.5 hours later, and a voucher for lunch. I headed for Maxim's (the one in the airport). An unpleasant and officious French waiter at first refused to accept the voucher, explaining that it was to be used at the nearby fast food eatery. An unpleasant, tired and seriously annoyed American who can read tres peu French (me) told him the voucher was valid at any restaurant in the airport and demanded food. I got served and it wasn't bad. I didn't have time to see if I could obtain a second cup of coffee. Conclusion: despite what I have heard recently, the French (subspecies Parisian) are not one bit nicer than they were in the 70's.

The cruise was excellent; everything was organized like clockwork. Only three Uniworld passengers arrived on the belated Air France flight from Paris, but we quickly found the booth in the Lisbon airport and were sent by taxi to the hotel. (Taxis in Portugal are a real bargain. The most I paid for a taxi was $5 for a long roundtrip ride to see the church which housed Thomas Becket when he fled England. The driver parked -- with the meter running -- and took me all around the church, doing his best to be a guide.)

The Douro Princess was excellent. I don't think I have ever had better, more pleasant and accommodating service. The food was outstanding, a mix of indigenous and international. The presentation was exquisite, showing that much time and effort were put into preparation. I recall a model of a wine boat (the sailing craft which carried the wine from the quintas to Porto) on a sea of melon balls decorating the buffet, for example.

Having no knowledge of Portuguese wine, I felt at the mercy of the wine steward. He started by talking me into trying a less expensive (about $10) Portuguese vinho verde instead of the French stuff I was ordering. It was quite tasty and I stuck to sampling various vinho verdes for the entire cruise. Of course I tried ports after dinner, and they sometimes served white port before meals. The bartender was so friendly we exchanged e-mail addresses at the end of the trip.

Even when we were taken to eat off the ship the food was excellent, wine was plentiful, a second and even third cup of coffee was available, and service was great.

One cautionary note. This cruise docks mostly at small, uninteresting towns. As a result, busing to more interesting places is required. The longest bus ride was 1:45 each way to Salamanca.

The Portuguese people were very friendly, most spoke at least a smattering of English and were extremely helpful. In a previous visit to Portugal several decades ago there were communication difficulties and I felt it was necessary to stick pretty close to the places tourists go. This time I branched out, in one case accepting a taxi driver's advice. I gave him the address of a fado club. He said essentially "it's phony, only for tourists" and suggested another in a different part of town. Along the way he chatted (very fluent in English) about a number of things -- including his complaint that violence on American TV programs is ruining young people.

I was prepared for a disappointment, but he took me to a beautiful, new restaurant with excellent food, a pleasant staff and the best fado I have heard. It was not cheap, but it was a bit less expensive and had better food, ambiance, service and singers than one of the fado clubs Fodor's recommends which I went to the next night. In case anyone asks you, this so far undiscovered gem is Grand Tasca, Rua Manuel Bernardes, 10ABC. Phone: 21 395 52 90. A really lavish dinner for two with lots of wine runs just over $100 and the fado goes on until 2 a.m. It's in the Alto Bairro. The maitre d' speaks flawless English, makes good suggestions, and gives every indication that he really cares whether you enjoy everything -- without hovering over you annoyingly. And when you're ready to go he calls a taxi and several people accompany you to the door and wave goodbye.

On another day I enjoyed a "sidewalk cafe" in the middle of Avenida da Liberdade which served excellent sangria and sandwiches. It wasn't fancy and many tourists would probably pass it up, but it's fun to mix with the natives (many of them conducting business over a drink and some food) and watch traffic flow past. Noting my camera on the table, the waiter offered to take my picture.

Fado, by the way, literally translates to fate, but it is a unique Portuguese music form. Most of the songs are slow, somewhat dirge-like, but a few are up tempo. I can't understand a word, but I believe they all tell a similar tale: boy and girl meet, they fall in love, horrible things happen to them, and one or both die (it sounds like the death(s) is (are) agonizing). The singing is accompanied by a 12-string guitar, and perhaps a few other instruments. I bought a CD "Antologia do Mais Triste Fado," which I translate to mean "Anthology of Very Sad Fado." It contains 32 songs, one of which is called "No Disgrace to be Poor" and another is "Everything is Fado." (Feel free to drop in to hear it while sampling the 20-year-old port I lugged home.) The boat provided fado and other Portuguese folk music one night and flamenco the night we were moored in Spain.

The return trip was uneventful except that the transatlantic flight was on a weary old 747 with seats that make church pews seem like the essence of comfort. With true Gallic wit, they showed movies, ads, news, maps and flight data on a screen in front of the cabin, but there we no earphones since these ancient birds have no jacks.

---Jim

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