First Daffodil

 

The first daffodil bloomed today, it would have been the third but the first two blooms were killed by  frost and can be seen lying on the ground.

In eight years the earliest has been 1 Feb (2020) and the latest 21 Feb (2025)

Alice in Blunderland

To Criccieth on Friday 2 January for The Starlight Players Pantomime  Cinderella in Blunderland. 

We stayed in Min y Traeth, a modern detached house in a close, but it was lacking champagne glasses, anywhere to hang towels in the en-suite bathroom, and a cutlery basket in the dishwasher. And it was cold, the wooden window fittings had warped.

Krisie was Front of House Manager and Dan was Stage Manager.

We saw Cinderella in Blunderland on Saturday night, after dinner at the Prince of Wales. It's a blast, so fast, with none of the standard tired pantomime tropes and with a huge energetic cast.

picture courtesy Dan

Written and devised by the team, it's a totally bonkers mashup of Cinderella and the denizens of Alice's Wonderland with Aladdin's lamp and Genie, Goldilock's Seven Dwarves, the Wicked Witch of the North and was that Tom Baker's Dr Who?

I loved it; it was the best Panto the Starlighters have delivered. So new, lovely costumes and a confident cast. The jive-talking high-fiving White Rabbit (Paula Carr) with his lighted shoes and bow tie dominated the stage, Awen Pritchard played a feisty Cinderella who wouldn't accept any sexist crap from anyone, her bearded Ugly Sisters (Paul Dunn & Dave Roberts) had jaw dropping dresses and I particularly enjoyed the King and Queen of Hearts, (Bryony Green & Swyn Williams), he with his jaunty curled moustache and roving eye and her with a haughty gaze and a penchant for chopping off heads. And then there's the Dormouse (Shon Williams) whose thunderous snores probably were heard in Porthmadog.

How will the Starlighters top this in 2027? I suspect they have a cunning plan.

picture courtesy Krisie

Sunday we had a roast with Dan & Krisie after they had cleared the Memorial Hall of stage props after the final show that afternoon.

picture courtesy Krisie

Monday we were joined by Caroline, Stuart and Elliott. Dylan's was closed that week for renovation so Dan & Krisie brought a takeaway from Sima Tandoori in Porthmadog.

Then home on Tuesday 27 Jan to a Deliverood Nando's

Goodbye 2025

 

Goodbye 2025

Hello

Finley George Robert May - born 19 May 2025

to Emma and Toby

Vaccinations:

 31 January - RSV Vaccine

  04 April - Spring Covid Vaccine

11 October  - Flu & Covid Vaccine

Travel:

Criccieth - 23-27 January

Lanzarote, Puerto Calera - 24 February - 9 March

Great Yarmouth - Tales of a Sommelier 21 - 24 March

Cannes- 25 - 28 April 

Great Yarmouth - Museum of the Broads 14 May

Viking Kadlin - Capitals of Eastern Europe (Vienna>Bucharest) 22 June - 8 July

Criccieth - 24-29 August

Viking Skaga - Paris & Heart of Normandy (Paris>Paris) 5-12 Sep

Riviera Thomas Hardy - Burgundy, the River Rhône & Provence (Avignon>Lyon) - 11- 18 Sept

Viking Osfrid - Portugal's River of Gold (Lisbon>Porto) 17-26 Nov

Lanzarote, Puerto Calera - 15 December - 12 January 2026

Goodbye

François Naudé - 10 Sep 1945 - 12 Aug 2025

Portugal's River Of Gold – Lisbon>Porto – Viking Osfrid – 26 November 2025

 

Day  10 – Wednesday 25 November 2025 

– Cruise Day 8

Last day. Time to vacate the cabin was a reasonable 09:00, but we had depart the boat at 08:30 for a 12:25 flight. As usual, Viking wants to get you to the airport way too early. It’s normally a 20 minute drive to the airport, but that morning it took twice as long, though of course we had to wait for check-in to open.

And so we arrived home, but without my case which was delivered the following day with the Port bottles safely inside.

Summary

This cruise wasn’t planned; we took up a promotion of huge discounts on November and December Douro Cruises, thinking that while it might be November, it wouldn’t be too cold in the south of Europe. We were wrong, it was very cold.

We tried sitting out on our veranda one bright sunny day wrapped up in our cold weather gear, but lasted about 45 minutes and that was the first and last time we used the veranda.

 We've been to Lisbon many times and have both worked there. But if you want to see Lisbon – and it’s worth seeing – then the two nights of this cruise is not enough. There’s one full day there of which half is the included excursion. To maximise sightseeing don’t return from the morning excursion. Leave at the Maritime Museum. Enjoy a custard tart at the nearby Pastéis de Belém café, stroll down to the Monument to the Discoverers on the waterfront then stroll with the river on your right to the city square and enjoy Lisbon. You can get back to the hotel on the Metro.

 

We didn’t have the Silver Spirits package. The cruise was so discounted it wasn’t offered. We would drink Portuguese wine with meals and I am not familiar with the names, so correctly calculated that the included wines would be local and would be good. And they were.

I bought a bottle of Port for €9 locally for an after-dinner drink and a pre-dinner glass of Champagne from the bar each night.

But we enjoyed the trip overall.

Click here to go to Day 1

Portugal's River Of Gold – Lisbon>Porto – Viking Osfrid – 25 November 2025

 

Day 9 – Tuesday 25 November 2025 

– Cruise Day 7

Our last full day was moored in Porto, or to be correct, on the opposite bank at Villa Nova de Gaia. There was an include excursion Porto on Foot leaving at 08:30 which we missed preferring a leisurely breakfast.

In the afternoon at 15:20 was an optional excursion to Port Wine Cellars. The time scheduled for this was 1h25min including   walking to and from the cellars where 3 Ports – white, ruby & tawny – would be tasted. The cost was £83 per person (about €95). The cellar name was not on any documentation but it was Ferreira which could be seen close by the boat.

This excursion seemed a trifle expensive to me. There are a great number of Port Lodges nearby the boat, and we walked two minutes to Sandeman where we booked the superior 1790 tour which was lead by James, a young Canadian who’d worked in Ontario wineries and moved the Portugal to be with his girlfriend.

After an informative history of Sandeman, including some early TV adverts, the 7 people on the tour walked through the cellars. All our many questions were masterfully answered. Then instead of the public tasting room, we went into the private 1790 room where an illuminated opaque strip in the middle of the table enabled us to judge the wine’s colour by holding our glasses before it.

We tasted five wines, Apitive Reserve white, ruby Founder’s Reserve, 7 year old tawny Imperial Reserve , LBV (Late Bottled Vintage 2020) and a 20 year old Tawny Port which were explained and in turn we were asked our favourite. Mine was Imperial Reserve, a seven year old Tawny.

The 1790 tour lasted more than two hours and cost €32 each, thus for two of us it cost less than one person on Viking’s optional excursion and we tasted more wines

 We asked for our usual pre-dinner glass of Champagne but they’d run out and offered us a Prosecco which we declined. Then the barman had a bright idea, popped across to the boat rafted to us and came back with two bottles of Champagne. No-one talks about the benefits of rafting, but that’s one!

 Location: https://what3words.com/trunk.director.searched

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Portugal's River Of Gold – Lisbon>Porto – Viking Osfrid – 24 November 2025

 

Day  8 – Monday 24 November 2025 

– Cruise Day 6

 The cold that had been dogging me for some days was at its worst today, and I spent most of the day just lying on my bed. I didn’t go on the included Lamego excursion. I roused myself for afternoon tea at 16:45 and enjoyed a cup of loose leaf Dragon Pearl green tea and a rather good scone.

This was followed by the disembarkation briefing, about which nothing of import is ever said that’s not on the Viking Daily delivered to your cabin. All one needs to know is when the cabin must be vacated, when to put cases outside the cabin and when to leave to the boat to catch coach to airport.

By 18:00 we were tied up at our Porto mooring and we settle down to a demonstration of opening a Vintage Port using Port Tongs. We were each handed a glass of Port afterwards.

Location: https://what3words.com/trunk.director.searched

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Portugal's River Of Gold – Lisbon>Porto – Viking Osfrid – 23 November 2025

 

Day 7 – Sunday 23 November 2025

 – Cruise Day 5

At 08:45 was an excursion to the town of Favaios where we’d visit its museum, a bakery and co-operative winery and have lunch, while the boat cast-off and continued down river. It was quite a long coach ride, going up through low-lying patchy clouds.

There were 3 coaches and each visited the three sites in a different order. We first visited the small museum featuring the wine of the town, Moscatel de Favaios. The variety used is named Moscatel Galego because it was introduced by Galicians. (But Wine Grapes book says it is a synonym of the widely planted Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains).

The other local speciality featured in the museum is Four Corner bread, which is a large soft roll looking like crossed dumbbells. The enthusiasm of the young guide in the museum was infectious, but I wonder if he could maintain it for the next two groups.

Next we visited Favaios co-operative winery where the winery guide wore a fleece with ‘Follow me, I know where the wine is’ printed on its back. And so we did, taking the route grapes took from the receiving bay through  the cellar and finally to a glass of Moscatel de Favaios. This is a fortified wine, made like Port, but using Muscat grapes.

Then we were supposed to go to a bakery, but instead of a roaring fire the oven was cold and it was an exhibition kitchen, not a working bakery. The cook rolled dough and swiftly made a couple of Four Corner breads. She then reached out a basket of previously cooked rolls and we were invited to tear a roll in two and help ourselves to various savoury and sweet toppings.

Then all three coaches rendezvoused at Quinta Avessada at a large dining place set in vineyards. We had a watery soup, a slab of meat (which I was assured afterwards was beef) with mash. Dessert, which was chocolate cake with a whole pear poached in red wine, was best. Disappointing meal but plenty of wine.

Then to the coaches to meet the boat at Folgosa and onwards to stop at Regua, at 17:00, for our overnight mooring.

Location https://what3words.com/supermarket.merchant.farces

Click here to go to Day 8

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