In May, at the International Inner Wheel Convention, Manchester, I won the prize draw for a Riviera Cruise, I chose the cruise on the Douro River in Portugal. The prize was for 2 and as 1 am a widow I chose my best friend to accompany me.
We flew from Bristol airport, as we live in Worcester. The Bristol flight meant we arrived late on the first day, around 10pm but the crew greeted us with a beautiful cold buffet and drinks. When we went to our cabins, we discovered a complimentary bottle of wine which helped us relax and get a good night’s sleep.
The following day we went for breakfast to discover a fantastic array of food catering for all tastes. Everything from cereals to fruit and cheeses with any combination of hot food was included. I loved the way the chef cooked scrambled eggs and had them most days. There were two gala dinners on board, and I enjoyed them both. Breakfast was usually followed by a briefing from our tour director Kassima about the plans for the day and there were plenty of activities including trips to a Sanctuary, dinner at a Quinta (a wine estate), a castle and Mateus Palace. The best one in my opinion was when we went to Salamanca. It is a beautiful city and our time there was very enjoyable. On the last day we toured a winery in Porto who made delicious Port, I brought a bottle of white Port home with me!

Towards the end of the week the chef made a delicious cake to celebrate Riviera’s 40th anniversary and Kassima asked me to speak to the guests and tell them about Inner Wheel and winning my prize, it was because of this that I discovered there were two other Inner Wheel ladies on board, Jennifer from District 4 and Chris from District 12, it was lovely to meet them.
I couldn’t do a report without mentioning the locks, there are five on the Douro, one of which is the deepest in Europe. It was a thrilling experience to watch the ship being guided into the lock with only a little clearance on each side and then going down as the walls surround you, it was breathtaking.