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.

Day 6 in Portugal                                                

Pastel de Belem  and Bread of God

Susan and I met Nuno, our guide for the day at 9:00 a.m. this morning and he drove us to Casa Pasteis de Belem for some pasta de nata but here they call these tarts pastel de Belem for their closely guarded recipe since 1837.  They crank out 30,000 of these pastries per day of these fresh and crusty little morsels. In addition we tried some "Bread of God" pictured  on the plate which was a "heavenly" delight of ham, cheese, and soft bread, with a bit of powdered sugar atop to make it even more special!

We made a plan to head directly toward the town of Sintra north of
Lisbon .  Our first visit was the park and palace of Pena as part of Sintra's World Heritage Site.  Nuno dropped off us off at the entrance and instead of waiting for the transportation ride  to the  palace entrance above us, we walked UP the steep incline to this fantasy

castle  with  a blend of Portuguese and German features with Moorish minarets, Gothic towers, and Renaissance domes.  This resident  was built  back in the 19th century for Prince Ferdinand of German ancestory after the Royal Family fled  in 1910 after a revolt.   (Think Disneyland Neuschwanstein Castle type with colorful yellow, blue tiles and red walls). The line inside to see the dining room and palace bedrooms were quite long so we opted to enjoy the courtyard and walk around the former monastery  and along the outer walls with great views instead.

 We walked down through the palace grounds through peaceful and sometime whimsical forest areas that were a combination of lush vegetation including fern gardens, camelias, fountains and tall trees,  Even one of the duck houses had castle features.

Another site in Sintra that we walked UP to was a Moorish Castle or Castelo dos Mouros).  This was built by the Moors and captured Christian forces took it in 1147, The view from the walls or towers were amazing  and the steps up were many.  From here we could get a great view  of the Atlantic Ocean in the distance,  the Pena castle above us, and the town of Sintra with these amazing homes below .

Of course, Susan desires to visit the highest part of any structure we are in so we made our way along the walls on the sides of the cliffs with huge drop offs and upward until we reached the highest altitude.   We met Nuno three hours after he dropped us off.  Together we walked down to the town of Sintra over to one of the wealthy former residence of the Monteiro family with turrets,  massive fireplaces, carved wooden ceilings, finials, and all sorts of carved stones. The Initiatic Well was a tower the went into the ground  and was linked to underground tunnels that we meandered through  many times completely in the dark, save for Susan's phone that lit our way through this strange maze.  We finally made it the beach restaurant at 4 o'clock for lunch!  I wolfed down the bread, cheese, olives, fish soup, and grilled sole.


Afterwards, we headed for the westernmost point in all of Europe to  Cabo da Roca. Hold on Susan and Nuno. The wind, she's a blowing hard today!


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Fado and dinner

Tile Museum

Jan and I walked down to the waterfront to the Fado Museum to find out a little more about Portuguese music.  Fado means "fate" and from the movie we viewed of famous fado singers, the fado style seem to express a yearning or strong sentiment by singing meaningful lyrics  and are often accompanied by the guitarra and viola de fado ( The later looks like a mandolin type instrument to me but has 6 double steel strings) Amalia Rodrigues was one of the famous fado singers born in the 1920's..  My favorite part of the museum was sitting down with a set of headphones and listening to recordings of a variety of fado singers. There was a special art exhibit that I  intrigued me showing one or more fado artists in one painting depending on where you stood.

For dinner tonight we made our way using the metro green line to meet some friends of Susan that will be joining us on our Experience Plus bike tour starting on  Saturday.  We met at Cervejaria Ramiro, a restaurant that featured shrimp and shellfish.  It was a bit interesting trying to order our dinner by weight in kg. but somehow we muddled through and got heaping plates full of large shrimp along with bread and butter.  Simple, plain, no sides, delicious.  We traveled back to a pastry shop right at the corner or "our" street that our apartment is on for a little dessert indulgence.

Good thing we are off early to go on a mountain bike and kayaking adventure through a National Park tomorrow to work it all off!

Day 3 Lisbon
We are beginning to feel quite comfortable getting around the city now as streets and neighborhoods are starting to look familiar.  Of course it helps so much because we have Susan to navigate via maps or her phone that works!!!

Lisbon's name probably originated with Phoencians "alis ubbo" which means "calm port"  here on the Tagus River. Susan discovered this miradouro, or scenic lookout, near the castle which had another lovely view of the river and city of Lisbon.  Later we came back for lunch  at the same spot   Notice the purple flowers on the jacaranda tree in the foreground and the tiled wall scene behind near the cafe terrace.


It's amazing that we are in an area that was settled  so long ago. Up on the castle hill  archaeologists have found traces of artifacts showing that the area  by the castle was settled 7 B.C.  Today we walked through the Alfama neighborhood which used to be where sailor's quarters were in 6-8 A.D. We traveled along narrow cobbled streets zigzagging around like a rabbit warren through this once Moorish and Medieval  neighborhood.  They had tiny balconies in this neighborhood that were one and a half hands wide to comply with a health initiative to keep the town well-ventilated.We climbed our way up to the top of yet another hill to visit the castle of Sao Jorge (St. George). Here is a little statue of St. George just inside the  castle gate pictured  above on the left. You've heard of him of course, from the 14th century with his slaying the dragon connections.  Alfonso Henriques was a Christian noble who asked the Crusaders for help removing the Moors that probably built this fortification, from his country of Portugal.  The Crusaders prayed to St. George and won. Henriques took the castle in 1147. Notice the sloping walls of the castle designed to stand up to 14th century cannonballs- pictured above and to the right.   The Portuguese built an additional wall that once reached all the way to the river to hold off the attacks of the Spain  This fortification has been a palace, followed by a garrison when the palace moved. This castle suffered lots of damage as did most of the city from the earthquake in 1755.



After lunch we walked down and easterly direction near the water to visit the National Tile Museum.  We have seen a quite a few buildings faced with or bordered with beautiful tiles so it was interesting to go see many rooms in a former convent showing
many panels of tiled art.
Back "home" again with fruit, cheese, crackers, pizza, and a glass of white wine,
Sounds like it will be a noisy Tuesday night as people are celebrating a soccer match or something.  We noticed a lot of police around the square In addition, college students are just returning and  we have seen many of the freshmen  getting an orientation,
( drinking) with an upperclassman dressed in a black cape which seems to have become a tradition. .


Ciao!