Portugal’s Algarve was on our list of long-stay places for the winter of 2020/21.  We had a beautiful condo booked, and were excited about spending the month of February near the ocean.  But, Covid. That trip never did get rebooked.

But we were excited finally to get here today, at least getting a glimpse of what we missed, and maybe some incentive to come back.

Ted and I both learned to enjoy the dramatic Portuguese fado music genre  – a beloved, UNESCO-listed national musical style  – after first hearing it in Porto on our first Viking world cruise. (Episode 266) We even attended a fado concert in Mérida Mexico when we lived there in 2023 (Episode 384) 

That made it easy to choose a full day (8-1/2 hours) excursion billed as including live fado, plus tours in Faro, Olhão, Tavira, a lovely Portuguese lunch, and a stop at Cacela Velha for spectacular views of the Ria Formosa Nature Park and lagoon.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for us.

The local tour companies were obviously watching the weather forecasts, since fellow passengers on private kayak excursions had them cancelled a couple of days ago.

We started to watch the forecasts yesterday, and saw high winds predicted. That wouldn’t be an issue for a tour like ours if this were a docking port, but it’s one where we have to anchor and then take the tenders to the coast – a 25 minute ride.

Captain Fredrik made the call by 7:00 a.m.: it would not be safe or prudent to run tender operations. As always, he apologized (because it’s his fault?), empathized with passengers’ frustration, and reminded people not to take it out on the crew. Who does that? Apparently someone, or there’d be no need for the reminder.

The sun was indeed shining brightly when the Captain made his announcement,the coastline gleaming, and the seas at 7:00 a.m. only rolling slightly, but the prediction was that by noon the winds would be blowing at 35 km per hour/22mph with gusts up to 52 kph/33mph. Given how very sick I was on the tender back from Thursday Island (and I was not alone), I’m grateful to be spending the day on board.

The Algarve? Clearly we’ll have to try again.

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So, how did we spend our day?

Breakfast at 6:30 a.m., not yet knowing we could have slept in. Once we knew, coffee in the Explorers while kibitzing and commiserating with the wonderful staff (Martin, Rati, and Grace) and guest lecturer Gail Nigh Lee. Then an unexpected opportunity to walk before the ship started rocking: Linda and I completed 12 laps/4.8km/3mi before 10:00 a.m. She’s such a good influence!

Our Cruise Director and her staff scrambled and came up with a full day of activities and last-minute guest speaker arrangements, and Chef Alistair organized an impromptu Caesar salad lunch event.

I honestly cannot even imagine the behind-the-scenes scheduling magic that our Hotel General Manager Marcel and Restaurant Manager Antonio must have performed in order to reassign crew who would have had port leave – or well-deserved extra sleep – had today proceeded as planned.

Viking staff really are amazing!

Captain Fredrik is hoping to get us early docking tomorrow in Leixões Portugal, which (if I drag myself out of bed before 9:00 a.m.) will give us extra time in Porto to potentially do more than just our planned afternoon shore excursion outside the city. Fingers crossed.

In recognition of our upcoming visit to England, enrichment speaker Craig Connors delivered his lecture on “The Birth of British Rock & Roll”, talking about the early days of British rock leading up to emergence of The Beatles. It was not really intended for this cruise, but rather for the Liverpool stop on an upcoming Viking’s British Isles Explorer itinerary. As such, we got his “world premiere”.

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• #1 in June 1955 Unchained Melody, sung by Jimmy Young.
• #1 in October 1956 The Green Door, sung by Jim Lowe
• #1 in January 1957 Singing the Blues, sung by Tommy Steele
• #1 in May 1958, Lollipop, sung by The Mudlarks
• #1 in December 1959, What Do You Want, sung by Adam Faith
• #1 in August 1960, Shakin’ All Over, dung by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates”
• #1 in October1961, Walkin’ Back to Happiness”, sung by Helen Shapiro
• #1 in January 1962, The Young Ones, sung by Cliff Richard and the Shadows.

Craig went WAY back to the music of America’s enslaved peoples, morphing into the Delta Blues, and later New Orleans jazz, and then Rhythm & Blues. That music, added to folk music primarily made famous by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, combined into a new genre melding rhythm and storytelling.

After WWII and into the baby boom era – in the US with their new postwar prosperity and in Britain whose postwar experiences were the opposite – there was a new spirit of youth rebellion on both sides of the Atlantic. One set of teens suddenly had a lot of spending money; the other needed a diversion from deprivation. In the US that led to the rise of “greasers” in jeans and t-shirts, while in Britain the “Teddy Boys” in tailored suits and coiffed hairstyles appeared. Through Radio Free Luxembourg, American “teen” music reached the UK, and British bands began to cover, imitate, and adapt it into a uniquely British sound: skiffle. John Lennon, Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, Graham Nash, Rod Stewart and many more started out playing skiffle.

It was interesting watching the evolution of British rock as it differentiated itself from the U.S. version, and then – with the advent of The Beatles – eclipsed it.

An unexpected sea day was the perfect opportunity for an exhibition in the Wintergarden of all the wonderful art projects that passengers have been working on, some independently but most with the onboard art instructor Deborah Ayres. I’ve been too busy reading, blogging, and attending lectures to take part in the classes, but not too busy to appreciate the results! This wasn’t just painting, but also jewelry, sculpture, boxes, tiles, fans and more – all themed to underscore our itinerary.

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We enjoyed dinner in Manfredi’s with Resident Guitarist Alan. He has been such a special part of our journey; his music, his stories, and his charm have captivated us. He’ll be one of our favourite memories of this trip.

As I’m writing this (April 28, 2025) a massive power outage has hit Portugal, Spain, and parts of France and Belgium – in other words our next 6 ports of call. Airports, rail, subways, hospitals and businesses all either shut down or on emergency power. From euronews.com: “Such a widespread grid failure is extremely unusual and could be caused by a number of things: there could be a physical fault in the grid which brings down power, a coordinated cyber attack could be behind it, or a dramatic imbalance between demand and supply has tipped the grid system over the edge,” Taco Engelaar, managing director at energy infrastructure experts Neara told Euronews. “If it’s a system fault, then the interconnectivity between different regional and national grids could be leading to the large footprint of outages we’re seeing today,” he added. “The same goes for a cyber attack – lots of these systems are connected and share assets – taking down one could take down many.”

We’ll be kept posted on what it all means for us.