At the start of the day we’d found ourselves waking in the port of Leixões to drizzly weather before we set off towards Amarante. After our return from the Douro Valley the cloud that had hugged the coastline (and followed us inland for the first part of the day) was almost completely gone, leaving just a low sea fog in the port under an otherwise vibrant blue sky.
Upon our return we found a birthday card for me in the cabin, signed by the captain, James Brown. Not that one. It was my birthday, so that was nice, but I’d not requested any special treatment because I am a shy little thing. You can indicate that you’re celebrating a special occasion when you book a cruise but the idea of having a cake while being sung at in a dining room doesn’t appeal to me and I’m constantly bemused by how many other people seem to enjoy the excruciating attention.
We grabbed some drinks and sat on our balcony in the increasingly clear and sunny conditions at the port while we awaited Ventura’s departure. This gave us a lovely opportunity to admire the architectural delights of the cruise terminal building. The building of glass wrapped in white concrete ribbons was opened in 2015 and has won awards for its design, and it’s not hard to see why.
There are people who don’t like the look of commercial or industrial ports, but I’m not one of them. I love the contrast between the sea – the restful haven that serves as the conduit to new places and experiences – and the functional metal structures that keep the world moving. It also helps that I grew up on a diet of post-apocalyptic movies on video and I can’t help but wonder whether roving gangs are still keeping motorcycles and leather repair workshops operating in there while the rest of the world is rubble and rags.
Just ahead of Ventura getting the okay to sail away from Leixões there was a public announcement made from the captain. No, he wasn’t wishing me a happy birthday. There was an itinerary change to announce.
We only had one more port scheduled on this cruise and that was supposed to be Guernsey after a sea day but the weather forecast was apparently unfavourable for the Channel Islands in 48 hours’ time so the captain had made some calls – well, he probably had someone else do that for him; perk of being a captain and all that – and had arranged to finish on a sea day instead after a visit to the Spanish port of A Coruña.
“Oh, for God’s sake!” came the loud voice of someone on the next balcony. “We’re missing Guernsey again!? Why do they even put it on itineraries!?” It went on in a similar manner for a couple of minutes.
Now, it’s true that Guernsey has a reputation for cancellations on cruises given that it requires tendering into it and wind and sea conditions will often disrupt that, and I suppose some people might really, really be looking forward to setting foot on Guernsey. We like Guernsey too. But we like A Coruña more. Rainy Guernsey, or sunny Spain? Yeah, Spain for the win.
We might have started talking loudly “to each other” about how good it was that we were going to A Coruña instead of Guernsey just to counter the negativity drifting over from our neighbours on their balcony.
After a pleasant sail away from Portugal we headed to a bar as sunset approached and treated ourselves to some fizz since it was my birthday. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that yet.
And so to dinner for the evening. People like to search online for dinner menus in the main dining rooms on cruise ships – someone’s even told me on social media that they’ve found this site more than once while doing just that thing – so here’s what we ate aboard Ventura.
The next post in this 2024 Iberian peninsula cruise will be the first of three covering what we got up to in Spain’s A Coruña.