Heading South in Portugal to the "End of the World"

The last few days we have been cycling in the Costa Vicentina National Park occasionally skirting out to the coast for an ocean vista to see some of the most beautiful beaches in the world..  The cliffs along here are amazing!

We finally reached the most southern part of Portugal  which many called "The End of the World" when they thought the world was flat and are staying our last night in Sagres. Prince Henry the Navigator had a mission to facilitate further exploration in the 1400's and attracting navigators, marine scientists, astronomers from Europe who came to study and sail effectively against the headwinds.



Last night we stayed in Aldeia da Pedralva, a formerly abandoned town.  100 people used to live in the village and about 7 live there today.  Someone had a notion to located the 220 owners and heirs of the village and acquire the property to turn it into a tourist destination after rehabbing many of the homes built together on the side of the hill. It was charming but a steep walk for those on the upper level.  To the right is the charming little tiny house that Jan and I shared one evening.

At a previous stay, we had a cooking lesson from a chef for stuffed tomatoes.  Here are our collaborative efforts ready to go into the oven for our appetizers at dinner that night.


What a fabulous trip!

Riding to the Atlantic Ocean

Some of the places we stay in are cute country places.  This was a cork and sheep farm.  Janet had a bedroom downstairs and I had a bed up in the loft.  It was complete with a little kitchen, ideal for people traveling and staying for a while with a pool out back, tennis courts, and a ping pong table.


One one of our long rides we ended up leaving the higher ridge areas and traveled down to a river with rice paddies. Sometimes the terrain was flat. Towards the end of our trip we will travel near the Atlantic Ocean.  We all took a river boat ride on this vessel right near our hotel.

Portuguese Food

At a wine tasting in Evora, there was an older Portuguese woman doing needlepoint based on Moorish patterns.  The back of the pillow had all of the yarn going in one direction only.  She had a
pillow to her right that she glanced at to reproduce the same pattern. Isn't she just marvelous and her needlework is impressive too!

Sometimes we have the opportunity to find a meal on our own especially on a rest day where they might provide breakfast only.  Sometimes you need a break from the sumptuous feasts they have for us most late evenings.  I think this is one day that we decided to skip lunch and have an early dinner right at the hotel we were staying in.  Roasted pepper with melted Shepherd's cheese with micro greens  on a slice of great bread and a little dab of mustard seed dressing to spice things up! How about some sweet, juicy melon, and some type of ham slices for tapas? Susan ordered some grilled octopus for another lunch and I ordered a pork dish with clams in a special sauce! Jan ordered grilled sardines.

 The restaurant had no English menus and the young waitress spoke very little English so we were having a discussion between us as to what to get.  A very nice man sitting next to us who is Portuguese born in Germany also speaks English, Italian, French, was with her Polish girlfriend and really helped us out and gave us some great recommendations.  Magdelina, his girlfriend, recommended the house white wine which came in  huge glass with  at least two normal servings of vino.  What a fun time we had.  We love meeting other people and hearing of their adventures. He had eaten at this place several times as he is looking into buying a place to serve food in this region.

Evora Two Days

Evora was a medieval town, well known for its Roman  influence, old walls, and a towering aqueduct structure built in 1537 by  Franciso de Arruda .It was interesting how the people built their homes under the arches of the aqueduct. This ancient town has been inhabited for more than 2,000 years and is another UNESCO World Heritage Site.  On our guided walk of the city, we viewed the remains of a Roman Temple of Diana. pictured on your right. Portuguese kings started to live in this area and convents and royal palaces started appearing. We did go see the Chapel of the Bones built with human skulls and bones that was a bit ghoulish for my taste,

We bicycled about 40 miles on this day.

Piles of cork

The next day was an optional rest day, but Susan and I opted to ride our bicycles once again out to the country to visit a Portuguese cork factory as we are in the heartland of quality cork.  More cork is grown in this region of Portugal than other.  To harvest the cork, they cut a strip from the trunk up to some of the branches in the hottest time of the year.  We rode by freshly cut cork trees as you can see by the red color on the base of the tree.  Most trees have a number indicating the year the tree was cut.  For example this tree had a number 6 on it as it was cut in 2016.  I may have mentioned before that they are not allowed to harvest that tree again for 9 more years.  As Luis our guide told us, you plant cork trees for your grandchildren as it takes 25 years until the first cutting which is low quality cork, followed by another 9 years that may not be useful until the 3rd cutting to obtain a dense cork with little veins.

At the factory we saw piles of cork stacked up high.  This place took the cut cork, boiled it for one hour, sorted the cork according to quality, and then reboiled the cork, and then sent it to another factory to be processed. The weight of the boiled cork tends to flatten it out in the stacks.  We have seen a variety of cork products, in addition to the traditional wine corks.  There are shoes, vests, pocketbooks, clothing, etc.  Much of the cork piles we saw today would be for flooring and walls.

This is a sample board of the different qualities of cork. It's hard to see but the best cork is dense and has few veins.

65 km to Evora

We left Monsaraz and the Alqueva reservoir down below and pedaled our way through the countryside to medieval Evora.  Early on in the day we stopped at a potter in Sao Pedro do Corval and visited the potters and artists painting their beautiful wares.  Absolutely loved the large painted bowls.  Too bad I don't have more room in my suitcase! I bought a small butter container with a cover, enough to hold about 4 slices of butter-so adorable. See below the picture of the huge pot as we entered the round-about in the town with many pottery shops.

 We didn't have any really tough hills to climb but mostly rode up and down ridges which gave us expansive vistas to marvel at. The pictures don't do justice to the magnificent views.  We traveled through many olive trees, vineyards juicy with ripe fruit ready to be picked, scattered with gold and stubble of cut wheat and/or hay.  What is a bit different is that the olive trees are growing  among the olive trees.  We could look for miles in all directions and not see another human, car, or house until we vibrated and rumbled our way onto the cobblestone roadways in small villages along the way.

Vila Vicosa to Monsarz

Today we bicycled a short distance for a marble quarry tour.  This are of the county is widely know for beautiful rose and white marble. Portugal is the second largest exporter of marble in the world. We did get to see a huge opening where they were cutting out blocks of marble with a diamond wire saw.  Later we crossed the road to view the cutting of huge marble slabs  by wires and saws.  About 15 % of the marble mined is utilized.  The rest gets piled up in heaps everywhere.  Many windows are trimmed with marble and you often see marble as pavers in the street as well as in hotels as stairs, banisters, and floors around here. After seeing the mining operations, no wonder the price of marble is so expensive with the shipping costs and extraction challenges. Just beautiful!

Today we saw more olive trees, cows, and wheat fields in addition to the largest reservoir in Europe.

We cycled 56 km with a lot of rolling hills for a good portion of the day followed by an uphill climb at the end to Monsaraz high on a mountain with a beautiful view of where we bicycled this day.

Hotel Estalagem

room with a view Monsaraz

Elvas

Monday September 19th
Yesterday we went on a walking tour of the most fortified city in the world, Elvas , located near the border of Spain.  This is another world heritage area. The design of the fortification has some unique features.  Originally the wall needed to be as tall a man on a horse with a spear. Later modifications were made for small slits higher up for bows and arrows. Later walls were made thicker to withstand cannon ball fire  The fortification was also unique as it had had corners coming out at angles  on the exterior walls  as well as another open area and taller wall before entry could be made inside the fortifications.

 Before we started riding we had our picture taken in our matching socks, jersey,s and wind vests, outside the Hotel Sao Joao de Deus that we stayed in. Our trip was 32 km through fields of wheat, olive trees, and oak trees on our way toward marble country near Vila Vicosa. There was little traffic and it was great to be "on the road again" despite the high temperatures.

Flowers growing in soda bottles on the walls of an old town

 This is the Experience Plus Van in front of our historic hotel , Pousada de Vila Vicosa.  It was once a nunnery and several of the well to do ladies that came to the nunnery were accompanied by a servant to take care of them.  I thought that was a bit unusual.  The beautiful 16th century convent was right next to a palace.