Another Day Sightseeing Paradise

Wednesday 16th

Well once again we arrived safely in our little fiat in Monsanto. For some of the trip we revisited Gary’s route in Portugal and he was so excited when we stumbled upon a centuries-old farm house where he stopped for lunch on his 2010 bike ride and took heaps of photos. We only found it because we lost our way. I even recognised it from his photos. This morning our destination was high up in the mountains but we only made it to this place because it is such a stunning destination. There are only 150 inhabitants in town and from what I can see the majority are around 60 +. This place is like bedrock city, we are waiting to see Fred and Barney. The mountain is a jumble of huge granite boulders shaped by an ancient glacier with the mountain used as a fortress. Over the centuries it was used by the Romans, Arabs, Christians, Jews and Portuguese. We decided we had to stay to spend more time and fully appreciate the beauty of the place. We are staying in a medieval stone villa with the interior renovated to the best of the 21^st century standards.

After leaving our overnight accommodation we visited Mavao which was a short 12 kilometres drive down the road in the Serra De Sao Mamede National Park. Like everything in Portugal the place was manicured to the 9th degree and had incredible views overlooking the Spanish boarder. 

We are having incredible difficulty finding flat wine and as a result we are getting tipsy very quickly so I better sign off now before I babble on and further. We plan to go out for dinner at the only restaurant in town which doesn’t get started until around 8pm at night.  So until next time I hope you are all as happy as us xx Chel and Gary