From the Sera de Estrela mountains to a wedding at Amarante to the night life of Porto . . .5/27/2019 From the Fishermen’s Trail we headed north again – back past Lisbon and up into the Sera de Estrela mountains to a small village called Sabugueiro. Not content with being Portugal’s highest village, we somehow ended up in an Airbnb at the village’s highest point, accessible by a single cobbled track which seemed almost vertical. I decided to give it a go in the rental car and, accompanied by some sharp intakes of breath from my less than trusting passengers, we made it. Casa Alcina is an awesome two-bedroom apartment with a long balcony designed for sitting, viewing the mountains and blissfully not much else. If you ever want to visit a place where time virtually stands still, visit Sabugueiro. The goat herder brought his charges down our lane each evening, elderly couples worked their vegetable patches and others basically just sat and stared. Staring is a national pastime in Portugal by the way . . . Our host, Alcina invited us on a trek the following day in the mountains. We drove to an old hydro-electric dam and from there hiked around 10 km through the most awesome mountain scenery to a place called Cavão Dos Conchos. When the dam was being constructed, the engineers decided to connect the main lake with a second via an underground tunnel. And at that second lake, a sink-hole was built to provide nearby communities with fresh water. It really was the most surreal sight, with plants growing around the edges and no external infrastructure in sight. I have to say there was also an absence of health and safety barriers and signage. Maybe it’s sort of obvious you shouldn’t swim next to a sink hole where one risks getting sucked into a labyrinth of underground pipes. Interestingly, the place was virtually unknown until about 2016 when the first photos hit the internet. From Sabugueiro it was an easy drive to our next destination, Amarante, a town of around 60,000 where Jo spent a year in 1988 as a volunteer physiotherapist at Cerci Amarante, a school for kids with development difficulties. I briefly visited Amarante back in 1990 with Jo, and so 29 years later, here we were again. My memory of Amarante was of a sleepy, yet picturesque little town with the river Tâmega running through its middle. It has certainly changed since then with a new toll-motorway linking Porto, making what was once a two-hour grind now just a 40-minute drive. There are certainly signs of commercial activity – new apartment blocks, shops and a beautiful hotel on the river-front resurrected from an abandoned sixteenth century manor building. Yet for all that, Amarante still retains its former charm and laid-backness. It really is a beautiful place. We stayed in quite a grand Airbnb house – formerly the home of a Portuguese diplomat. The estate once stretched many hectares but has since been reduced to around an acre which is planted out in grapes, fruit trees and veges. Portugal is so much cheaper than Spain – this beautiful house cost us not much more than our hostel room in Palma de Mallorca. We felt like Amarante royalty. In one of those quirks of travel and circumstance, my old friend Jane Boardman had invited us to her wedding in Monverde Vineyard – just 15 minutes from Amarante. I had worked with Jane at the Electricity Commission in a team set up to drive electricity efficiency across New Zealand homes and businesses. We had kept in touch, including tackling the 160km Lake Taupo bike challenge, and it was so nice to be invited to celebrate her marriage to Andrew Imlach. Monverde is jaw-dropping. It’s kind of out of place in this rural area with its swimming pools, spa, restaurants and luxury accommodation. Not that we were complaining of course. The wedding lasted three days – drinks and dinner in the vineyard on the first night, the wedding ceremony and formal dinner on day two with the traditional barbecue after-match on day three. It was just amazing, and we felt grateful to be invited. The remainder of our time in Amarante was spent wandering the streets, walking an abandoned railway track in the country, going to the market and catching up with old friends. Thirty years ago, Jolanda worked at Cerci with a lady called Suzy and so it was special they could re-connect. The three of us joined Suzy’s family for dinner at their place – which we later found out was also a birthday party for Suzy’s twenty-five-year-old son. After nine days in Amarante we journeyed to the city of Porto, located on the Douro River and home to many of Portugal’s port wine companies. We organised a basic but nice Airbnb apartment overlooking the river – only to find out that a major concert was planned for both evenings of our stay - about 500m away. Well that was an experience . . . Porto is a magical city. Full of history and quirkiness. We visited the São Bento railway station which boasts some 20,000 azulejos (tiles) depicting Portugal’s past. Jo showed us the coffee shop and hotel she once frequented – the former now having turned into a MacDonalds. The highlight though was a visit to Lavaria Lello – Porto’s famous bookshop which was supposedly used as inspiration by JK Rowling when developing the Harry Potter stories. The shop was sumptuous (I can’t think of a better word) with a very Harry Potter like staircase ascending to the second floor. The shop is so popular it costs five euros just to visit – imagine having a queue of people outside your business all day willing to pay for the privilege of simply looking . . . ! My time in Portugal has come to an end and for the next three weeks, Jo, Danielle and I part ways. Jo and Danielle staying in Portugal to attend and volunteer at a yoga retreat while I head off to the Lake District to write and continue my online studies to hopefully become a life coach . . .
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Despite telling everyone our 2019 travels would be free from pre-planning, we did decide in advance to walk the Fisherman’s Trail in south west Portugal with our daughter Danielle. And so on Saturday May 4th Jo and I were at Lisbon Airport eagerly awaiting Danielle’s arrival from the Philippines. Being a frugal traveller, Danielle had chosen an itinerary which lasted nearly two days and included three stopovers - our expectation therefore was to be greeting a slightly grumpy, tired traveller (it’s happened before, believe me). In fact it was quite the reverse . . . We picked up our rental car which turned out to be a brand new 5 series BMW. OMG I have never driven such a beautiful car. European cars are so expensive in New Zealand whereas everyone here seems to be driving around in a Merc or something else exotic. I have no idea what all the buttons do – but I am very happy they are all there, gleaming in quite a self-important manner. OK, yes we could have got something cheaper but what the hell – you only live once . . . From Lisbon to Porto Covo, the start of the Fisherman’s trail, is around 170km which takes surprisingly little time on the excellent Portuguese toll roads. The speed limit is 120 km/hr and, if you happen to be so diligent as to actually travel at that speed, everyone else simply roars past you. Porto Covo is an old fisherman’s village (“covo” referring to a fishing net) and our Airbnb apartment had a great view over the small natural inlet where a few fishing boats still anchor. There are only around 1,000 people living in the village, but there are signs that tourism is a big thing here, judging by the number of restaurants and shops. Surprisingly there were very few tourists to be seen – both in Porto Covo and on the trail – given the almost perfect temperatures for walking. In mid-summer it apparently gets blisteringly hot. The Fisherman’s Trail runs for 80km from Porto Covo in the north to Odeceixe in the south and is actually part of the longer Rota Vicentina trail. The Fisherman’s trail section is popular as it runs virtually all the way along the sea front, taking in some spectacular views of Portugal’s wild Atlantic coast. It runs through a number of small villages and towns, has a reasonable amount of climbing and is, for the most part, sandy. Walking on sand all day is actually tough and so we were constantly searching for firmer ground. One surprising aspect of the walk was the number of abandoned buildings decorated with the most amazing murals. Danielle, that fit little bugger, walked the whole length of the trail in five days with Jo and I tag teaming. We would drive each day to the start of the section and whoever wasn’t walking that day would pick up the others at the end. After five nights in Porto Covo we moved to the village of Odeceixe at the end of the trail. It was great to relax out on the town after our last day of walking – we all had a bit too much of the Port wine that night . . . Next stage of our journey takes us 400km from the coast to the mountainous region of Sera da Estrala.
Jo and I spent our final four Mallorcan days in Palma de Mallorca, the capital city and home to around half of the island’s population of 900,000. In 2015 the UK Sunday Times named Palma de Mallorca the world’s best place to live – and I can sort of see why. It really is a beautiful city – bustling without being crowded, full of history and positioned right on the coast. The old town is definitely the place to head for and so it was here that Jo and I found a room in a hostel. One thing for sure – if you want to stay in old town Palma it’s expensive, hence our decision to opt for the economy option for our four nights. The New Art Hostel is in a reasonably decent spot – just 15 minutes stroll from the main tourist action. At around $NZ 100 a night for a room (tiny) with ensuite it was less than half the cost of staying in a hotel nearer the city centre - and so we thought what the hell. I did have second thoughts when we saw the many photos of various hen and stag parties that had used the hostel as a base in the past. Luckily there were a few other old farts like us staying and so all was pretty quiet. Palma is one of those places that you can quite happily wander around without actually going anywhere. On two of our mornings we took a dog-leg route to the old town by wandering down to the sea and along the promenade. Like everywhere in Mallorca there are oodles of cyclists – but on this route less of the lycra clad variety and more cruisers taking in the view, and thankfully in their own dedicated bike lane. The Catedral Basillica de Santa Maria de Mallorca is simply spectacular, towering above the surrounding buildings on the Palma foreshore. Building began in 1229 but took until 1601 to complete – something to keep in mind next time I moan about roadworks. Like most other churches we have been to over here it was free to enter, albeit there was a brisk trade in candles which can be purchased and lit to remember loved ones. It was a majestic, light and overpoweringly peaceful place. From Palma it was an easy hop over to Lisbon. Two hours direct flight at around $NZ 75 each. European air travel is competitive and hence so affordable. Landing at Lisbon we jumped into an uber (the first place we have been where the local taxi drivers haven’t forced them out) and in half an hour plus $NZ 14 later we were outside our next place to stay. And wow . . . what a place. Lost Lisbon Chiado stretches over one floor on a quiet street in the uber fashionable district of Chiado. It is more of a guest house than a hotel – run and managed by the owner who I suspect has turned his family home into a business. It’s just amazing with older style rooms combined with cutting edge interior design. Picture a tiger’s face painted on to the wall of a classic drawing room – or old-fashioned metal desk lamps melded together into a central chandelier. It all works, and we were sad we only had two days in this beautiful place. Breakfast was provided via a help-yourself buffet – a dangerous proposition if you have a penchant for over-eating . . . While Lisbon is some 1,200 km from Palma de Mallorca, it’s like you could be walking through one city and mistaking it for the other. On our last visit to Lisbon we stayed in the older area of Alfama, full of tiny shops and restaurants with large ladies singing fados - traditional Portuguese music, usually melancholic and relating a sense of loss or hardship. Chiado, while only about 2km away, is more commercial with larger shops and a little more upbeat. I wandered into one place called the “Amazing Store” (well you couldn’t not) which sold ethically made stuff made mostly from wood. I bought a pair of headphones and could have stayed longer. My other highly exciting excursion was to get my hair cut. My mate google suggested Figaros, a traditional men-only place specialising in classic cuts from the 1920s to 1950s. My request for a short back and sides was greeted less than enthusiastically and after a long conversation, most of which I followed, we agreed I would have something different. I sat back and just let it happen. I have to say the result looked exactly like every other cut I have ever had, but was delivered with much enthusiasm and panache. I was effusive in my feedback and everyone was very happy. Our next stage involves meeting Danielle at Lisbon airport (fresh from the Philippines) and picking up our rental car for three weeks in Portugal – first destination Porto Covo and the start of the Fisherman’s Trail.
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AuthorHi - I'm Richard Norris. Jolanda and I are heading off overseas for another adventure in 2019. No real formal plans - but definitely a desire to seek something different . . . Archives
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