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 |
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| room with a view Monsaraz |
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