Trip to France, Spain and Portugal

Mike and Judy Henderson
September 1 to September 25, 2017

I'm going to leave the map on each page describing this trip so you have an idea of where we are.

9/15/2017  We arrived in Portimão about 11:30am, after a night of relatively smooth seas.

Several of us were on the back deck talking as we sailed into port.

 Portimão is a resort town and appears to be clean and fairly wealthy.

Here we are pulling into port.

Just ahead of us was another Variety Cruises small ship - smaller than our ship!  We talked to two of the passengers who told us they boarded in Málaga and were heading to Lisbon but the captain decided that the seas were too rough for the voyage and the passengers were going to be bused to Lisbon.

Vantage had a tour bus take us into the main part of town - which was not far away.

We walked along the waterfront while the tour guide told us about the various restaurants and coffee shops in the area. He also pointed out the public restrooms.  He admitted there was little to tell us about the town.  Portimão used to be a fishing village but has become a resort town.

The we went to the main square and had "free time" to explore the city on our own.  Judy and I walked one of the shopping streets but then we walked back to the ship. My free time was used taking advantage of the WiFi in the port to upload some pictures and a web page to the server.

In the evening, we had the Captain's Farewell Reception and Dinner.  The reception was held on the top deck. I'll post some pictures from that event, especially for the people who were on the ship with us.  If you were not a passenger, you can skip the next series of pictures.

Okay, now back to the regular blog.

Dinner was special, with chateaubriand, and for dessert, Baked Alaska.  It was the only open flame allowed  on the boat.

Then the crew came out for recognition.  They had done a marvelous job all during the cruise and deserved our sincere thanks.  This was not the whole crew, of course, just the part of the crew that had frequent guest contact.  The deck and engine crew was not represented, although they were mentioned by the captain.

The captain gave a very nice speech, thanking his crew and the passengers for a successful trip.  He is a very well spoken man, approachable, competent, and with a good sense of humor.  It would be a pleasure to sail with him again.

We sailed that evening for Cadiz. 

Our adventure continues here