Amarante
From its description, I expected to fall in love with this town. I didn't, but it was very pretty. The São Gonçalo bridge spans the river to the town, and is one of the famous views of this area. The bridge held off the marauding French in 1809, and the locals are rather smug about it. (I mean, who wouldn't be!)
Crossing the bridge, we stopped off at Confeitaria da Ponte, a bakery overlooking the river, and tried three desserts. Again, they were just too eggy for my liking, but the views were great!
Having had a long day, we managed to find the best campsite ever, in the vines with only one or two other people staying there, and had an excellent evening cooking by our tents.
Lamego
Lamego had an impressive baroque staircase leading up to a church, something we were beginning to realize was rather common in Portugal. We attempted to visit the castle and the cistern, but both were unfortunately closed.
Duoro Region
This was one of my favourite areas in Portugal (two guesses why!) and home to Port. We had decided therefore that we would be remiss to not do a Port tasting, and picked Quinta da Roeda. It was smaller than many of the other vineyards, and we were able to choose ourselves what to taste rather than a set menu.
We chose a rosé, a late harvest bottled vintage, and a ten year tawny, and it was only 12 euro each which I thought was very reasonable. We were lucky enough that a tour bus had just left when we arrived, so we had the place almost to ourselves, and were able to sit very privately around a wine barrel with beautiful views!
The whole area was extremely scenic, and actually reminded me somewhat of the Rhine Valley in Germany. It's definitely worth having a car to explore the area, and I wish we had done more port tastings to compare other brands. Next time!!
Casa de Mateus
One of the things we had developed a taste for in Portugal was a cheap rosé wine called Mateus. We discovered that the Palace of Mateus was open to the public, and thus decided to check it out! Sadly no wine tastings seemed to be on offer, and one could only see the palace by guided tour, so we paid to wander the lavish gardens instead. It's expensive, but worth it!
Trancoso
This walled city was amazing to walk around at night, lit up and atmospheric. Of course, night shots are much more difficult to take than day ones, so we did return for photos the next morning. Its medieval past was clear from the fortified walls and old buildings, and in fact Trancoso was once of great strategic importance to the country. A small word of warning though, for fear of sounding like Professor Trelawney, Beware the Grim! (By which I mean, massive stray black dogs crouched over rubbish bins scaring the crap out of unsuspecting tourists at night). But never mind that, look, pretty flowers!
Monsanto
This unique village is built into boulders in the mountains, and it's amazing to wander around! Apparently in 1938, it was named the most Portuguese town in Portugal, whatever that may mean. It's a bit of a clamber, but it's worth going to the top where a Templar castle sits, though unfortunately was partially destroyed in the 19th century when the munitions storeroom exploded (why do they always keep explosives in beautiful old buildings!??)
After an amusing stop at a campsite where everyone but us wanted to know where the Bean festival was (it turned out they were looking for the Boom festival, a Rastafarian music festival, not a farmers paradise as I had imagined), we headed for more history.
Idanha-a Velha
This village was awesome, as it had layers of different ruins, and was very scenic. There were no other tourists there, and we had a local man run up to us and ask if we liked cheese! On saying but of course, we were then convinced to buy a sheep cheese which keeps for two weeks at room temperature! It was stinky, but delicious (though it got ever stinkier as time went by). After a good wander along the walls (My brother's favourite pastime) we headed off for the next town on our list.
Castelo de Vide
This lovely town of white-washed walls and red roofs is brilliant for a relaxed day of exploring, slowly making your way up the hill to the castle that dominates the view. The area was settled by the Romans, destroyed by the Vandals, and then conquered by the Moors, before becoming Portuguese in medieval times, with its name changing from Vide, to Castelo de Vide with the construction of the castle in the 1300s.
All the walking made us hungry, so we made a little stop at Toca do Chocolate, an excellent shop within the town, where we sampled chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, white hot chocolate, and caramel milk hot chocolate... so it was more than a little stop. But it was a great one!
Vila Vicosa
Quite unlike humble Castelo de Vide, this was a town of important buildings, impressive squares, and of course, statues of men on horses. It reminded me a little of Vienna, at least in the central square. Very grand, worth a wander, and full of fancy marble.
Monoliths on the Outskirts of Evora
Taking a small break from towns, we went in hunt of something far older. The Almendres megalithic settlement (known as Cromlech) is one of the oldest in the world, which is pretty crazy when you're just wandering around it as you like (a far removal from Stonehenge, which you can't really get close to at all). About 100 menhirs stand, and were in use for a very long period of time, from about the 6th century BC. It was very hard to see, but there were also carvings on some of the stones, with lines and circles. Weathering has of course, faded many of these beyond what the human eye is capable of seeing.
No comments:
Post a Comment