Hi all!

We are currently in Porto Santo, which is one of the many volcanic islands in the Madeira Group.

 

But firstly, back in Douro Marina, we decided to take a trip across the river to Porto. There we caught a Victorian style tram into town and walked all the way to the cathedral, that had some amazing views! After that, we walked to the bridge D. Luis I , looked at the stunning views of the river and took a cable car down to the bottom. The cable car offered some great bird's eye views of the traditional wooden boats, old red brick wine store houses and maze like streets, leading down the river’s edge. Unfortunately, the good weather we had the day before did not last and the next week we spent in Douro Marina was a wet one!

 

The pretty town of Porto, with it’s traditional river boats.

 

To avoid the bad weather, we hired a car and escaped for a day to the traditional town of Guimaraes. This town is famous for the fact that apparently the first king of Portugal was born there and therefore giving the town it’s motto: Portugal was born here! We went to the Museum Alberto Sampaio and saw lots of silverware sculptures, paintings and  a large silver guild, that represents the birth of Jesus and apparently was owned by one of the Portuguese kings. Next, we visited a large stone fort and a palace filled with rooms full of richly embroidered tapestries, ancient weaponry and huge oil paintings.

 

The dramatic fort that is perched upon the top of Guimaraes.

 

A day after our interesting trip to Guimaraes, we were interviewed by BBC Radio Gloucestershire and they played us recorded messages from our friends back at Ribston. It was great to here our friends again!  

 

Finally, the day came to say goodbye to Douro and get ready for our 4 day trip to the Madeira group. Kerry and I had never done a very large sailing trip before, so were a little anxious at what the sailing conditions would be like! Luckily, the weather was good and we managed to sail for all of the trip, at an average speed of 6.5 knots. The whole trip was quite uneventful and the majority of the time we were either reading, sleeping or doing school work! (While some of fiddled with the sails – Dad.)

 

Mum, Kerry and I enjoying the spare time we have while sailing.

 

Eventually we arrived at Porto Santo, the oldest of the Madeira Group, in the early hours of the morning. It was very lucky that we made a reservation in the marina before we set sail, because we only just managed to find a place to berth up.

After a couple more days spent in Porto Santo, we’ll be going to Madeira, where we will be meeting some of our friends, Alan and Jan Haynes, who will be sailing with us to the Canaries.

Goodbye for now,

Robyn