6/12 & 6/13 – Albufeira Last stop in Portugal – the beach! It was lovely, sunny and warm when we arrived in Albufeira on Portugal’s southern coast in the region they call the Algarve. We took a very nice bus, only a couple of hours from Beja. I had really wanted to find a …
Biking the Alentejo – Elvas to Beja in Six Days
6/6-11/2013 – Biking the Alentejo – Elvas to Vila Vicosa, Estremoz, Evora, Alvito, and Beja by Pedal Power As you may or may not know, Steve and I got on the European bike tour kick four years ago after he read an article about somebody doing a bike tour in France. It sounded fun, so …
To Elvas in the Alentejo with a stop-over in Belmonte
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 …
San Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal
5/16/2013 – San Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal We spent two lovely days in San Miguel Island, another lovely Azorean island with Volcanic cones, blue and green lakes and lots of cows and green. We stayed in a gorgeous cottage that was built by a local Azorean who is fantastic with wood work. He grew up …
Pico Island – Azores, Portugal
5/13/2013 – Pico Island Writing this from San Miguel, as we had no internet access at our little fishing cottage on Pico Island. Pico Island is a majestic, pristine place from a time past. If you like to hike rolling green hills or rocky bluffs, to drive on volcanos and visit beautiful little fishing villages, …