6/4/2013 – To the Alentejo with a stop-over in Belmonte From Guimares, we headed toward the Alentejo region (about 6 hours away) breaking up the drive with a stop-over in the little hill town of Belmonte, where we experienced our first Portuguese Pousada. Pousada’s are government sponsored hotels built in old castles, forts and conventos …
Guimares – 6/3/2013
6/3 – Guimares We drove about an hour Northwest of Porto to discover this little oasis of everything that is calm and good. It is no wonder that Arthur, the owner of Quinta da Cancela is coming up at the top of the trip advisor list even though he has been open just 4 …
Porto – 6/2/2013
6/2/2013 – Porto The guides books and available information do not, in our opinion, give adequate respect to the city of Porto. Although we knew that this town was the major trade route for Portuguese fortified wine (you guessed it, port) to be delivered to the rest of the world by boat, descriptions we read …
Coimbra – 6/1/2013
6/1/2013 – Coimbra Coimbra is Lisbon’s university town, and this is one of the oldest continually operational universities in the wolrd….started in 1290 (Wow!). We had a lovely little apartment right outside the old walls and we enjoyed making ourselves some hot soup for lunch before venturing out to explore the town… the university area …
Caiscais, Sintra, Westernmost Europe and Obidos – 5/31/2013
5/31/2013 – Caiscais, Sintra, Westernomost Europe and Obidos Although sad to leave Lisbon so soon, we were excited to continue on our Portugal adventure. One thing we dicovered right off is that Portugal has some fantastic roads. They did a public works project some years back and built some amazing highways with beautiful views …
Lisbon 5/30/2013
5/30/2013 – Lisbon Ahhhh, Europe. It is always like coming home. Our first travels abroad way back in the mid-90s were in Europe and we loved it so much that it gave us the permanent travel bug. Lisbon – fabulous! Fabulous to look at, it is the city of seven hills, everywhere there is a …
Marrakesh – 5/28/2013
5/29/2013 – Marrakesh Our last stop in Morocco, Marrakesh is a large city with a very Moroccan feel, but also has some newer areas. Although the Medina was not as clausterphobic as the one in Fez, it had its own hazards….mainly, other than cars, any form of transportation is utilized down the narrow, windy, stall-filled …
Essaouira – 5/25/2013
5/24/2013 – Essaouira Beautiful seaside village! Essaouira is one of the premier resort cities in Morocco, and it doesn’t take long to figure out why. The madina is small, but filled with high-quality goods for sale as well as the regular local markets and the wharf area contains about 20 stalls where you can pick …
Ait Benhaddou – 5/23/2013
5/23/2013 – Ait Benhaddou On leaving Tinghir, we went to visit the second well-known gorge in the area, the Dades Gorge. It was a harrowing ride in, but a beautiful site to visit. We then drove a few hours further to Ait Benhaddou. This is a traditional ksar containing four kasbahs and being …
Tinghir – 5/22/2013
5/22/2013 – Tinghir Another longish day, waking up in the camel tent and getting on the road around 10 AM, we drove mostly through the desert to the city of Tinghir. Tinghir is home to both some stunning palmeries and is the entrance point to the road leading to one of two stunning gorges here, …