A Surprise Trip to Portugal! February 2022

 It was an unexpected and wonderful gift to have a week of sunshine in Portugal after weeks of winter fog in France. Herman had already planned to visit his folks in Monte Gordo in the Algarve region of Portugal; I was resigned to staying in Auty to watch over the chateau and VinVin the cat. Three days before Herman's flight, a friend of the chateau owner came by for coffee and offered to stay so I could join Herman. It was a last minute flurry of activity and we were able to book an additional flight for me to go along!

Our flight took us from Toulouse to Lisbon. Amazingly, we did not even need to get a Covid test. The vaccination card was enough to travel. It was exciting to figure out the subway into Lisbon and find our hotel right near Rossi Square. The following day we walked all over Lisbon and took a 5 hour bus to Monte Gordo where we met Herman's parents. It was a fun surprise because we had not let them know I was coming along. 

 
Enjoying fresh squeezed orange juice near the beach
  Monte Gordo is a small fishing and beach resort. We spent 4 days enjoying typical Portuguese fare, walking everywhere and lovely sunshine.


                                                       Sunrise pictures - Monte Gordo

                                                                              View from their apartment

The following photographs are from one meal - typical for this area:

Starter of small clams and tuna with bread and olives followed by a choice of salad or soup. Two bottles of wine included with the meal and pictured below are two of the main dishes we ordered...



Choice out of several desserts and a glass of amaretto with your dessert. This was followed by coffee...below is our bill for 4 people including the starter, drinks, dessert and the coffee: 40 euros. We cannot understand how they actually make money if we are only paying 10 euros each for this meal, but we understand in smaller villages, a typical menu like this costs only 7 euros!
 

Below are a few photos from Vile Real, a town we walked to about 5 km away:

 
 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Epic Bicycle Ride - La Sabine, November 25, 2020

Image
 The morning started out cool enough for us to wear coats and gloves as we set out for what promised to be a long sunny day of bicycling. We planned to bike from the house to the nearby town of Chirivel and then take our mountain bikes up a hiking route about 9 km outside of Chirivel. The trail, La Sabine is normally a moderate climb and 10 km each way. We planned to bike/hike through the pass in a circular fashion as opposed to out and back.  Yesterday, I finally located la panaderia (bakery) and it looked as if it would be open (I could see cookies through the bars of the door). So after a cup of tea, we bicycled into Chirivel via the dry sandy riverbed (hoping to get some baked goods for breakfast). We had sandwiches packed for the long ride. 9:28 am outside the bakery and there were no signs of life. The bars were still across the doorway. We decided to head to a nearby cafe in the center of Chirivel that has quiet outdoor seating.  The two sandwiches we ordered were delicious, wit
Read more

Calm before the storm! December 1-3, 2020

Image
Three days and two nights away from our home base in Chirivel found us exploring an area about an hour's drive on the other side of the mountain range we see from here. We are learning that each large valley between the mountains in this area seem to have separate weather patterns. As I sit typing this entry, the wind is literally howling with gusts of up to 68 mph! There is a cloud of rain actually horizontal to the ground. We are thankful for the wood stove that burns chunks of hardwood almond. It took most of the morning to prepare for our departure and run a couple of errands. On our way to La Piza, a nature park area, we stopped in the town of Maria to get some bread. We asked a masked mother and daughter who were walking with a purpose for directions. We were extremely lucky because they were headed to the bakery as well and it would close in just 7 minutes! The town was a bit maze like and after several minutes of winding around, we arrived at the panaderia (bakery) just in
Read more

Oria, Spain - December 23, 2020

Image
  Fuente, Oria We had previously tried to bicycle to the village of Oria nestled in the mountains of the next valley, however, due to outdated and missing signage for the route, we never actually made it on our bikes. In one of my stilted Spanish conversations with the goat herder, Juan, he had told me that he and his 8 brothers had been born in Oria and that he still visits there often to go to the bakery and get water from the fuente (source). The water in the house we are staying at is delivered to a large tank by the city of Chirivel about every 5 weeks. It may be drinkable, but it is extremely hard, mineral rich water. Most visitors to the area buy bottled water because of the impurities. Herman and I decided to try finding the fuente in Oria in order to refill our water bottles. We drove SAM there and were able to fill around 100 liters of drinking water. The water is filtered naturally through the limestone and sandstone of the mountains around Oria.  We love Oria! It certainly
Read more