After the gorgeous picnic on the banks of the Douro, we started the final day of the Viking River of Gold cruise with a morning tour to the pilgrimage city of Lamego. This historic city started its life as early as the seventh century, but then was captured by the Moors, reconquered by the Christians, and then returned once again into Muslim hands, until it was definitively reconquered in 1057 by Ferdinand. Standing proud on the hill above the city is the Santuario de Nossa Senhora dos Remedios which can be reached by just 686 steps from the town below!
Our coach dropped us off at the church itself so the walk was actually down these stairs, but the church itself was pretty spectacular:
And, inside, as we found so often in Portugal, an ornate and very rich decoration of the altar and ceiling:
The top level of the steps is decorated with a large impressive fountain with the water coming from carved figures:
Each level of the staircase had the stone carvings but also beautifully created tile pictures of scenes from the Bible:
Walking down was certainly easier than the opposite direction and with each level we got a different view back up the stairs towards the church itself. I think the walk up is more rewarding in terms of having a destination to reach without the constant looking back to check on the view!
The town itself is interesting in its own right, with historic buildings surrounding the main street, and a second, gothic cathedral at the far end of that walk. Nothing like as ornate perhaps as the church on the hill, it is well worth a visit:
Our coach picked us up here and drove to meet the boat, which had already made part of the journey from Pinhao. After lunch, we continued our cruise down the river, entering the impressive Carrapatelo dam and lock with its 35m drop to the next section of the river:
Impressive engineering to be sure and again shows just how violent the trip down the Douro must have been before all these taming dams and locks were built!
Our sail continued through the afternoon as we passed pleasure beaches on the banks of the river and got buzzed by the occasional jet-skis!
By late afternoon, we were approaching the bridges that marked the entrance to Porto and had just our final evening to look forward to (with the task of packing our suitcases) before we disembarked on the following morning.
Our trip was not finished though – we had reserved a rental car for pickup at the Porto airport to make our own slow meandering drive back through Portugal to Lisbon and the flight home. This is one of a series of articles reviewing the Viking River of Gold Cruise in Portugal with the introductory article here.
