Blogs from Alentejo, Portugal, Europe

Another warm morning dawned in Lisbon, for what we learned to be the norm since April. Rain days have been in the single digits since summer began, and the terrain we would see on the southern peninsula of Lisbons outskirts certainly showed it. Parched parks and low irrigation ponds; you could say this southern area is in drought. We trundled to the ferry steadily along the main road bike path, trying to avoid for the umpteenth time broken glass. Our cycle alert system, shouting “glass”, with a waving hand somewhere or other, continued. The weekday Lisbon waterfront was less frenetic, and we got there in ample time for the 11.30 departure, buying tickets “with two bikes, Obrigada”. Our mishap began in boarding, faced with a turnstile fit for an average sized person. With no obvious bike ... read more

A Unesco Town While our time in Spain had temporarily come to an end, we were thrilled and excited to be moving on to Portugal. A new country, a river cruise on the Douro River and reuniting with Travel Brendan . We haven’t traveled with him in some five years and it was long overdue! As we live in the days of the world-wide pandemic, we first needed to get tested in order to gain entry into Portugal, which we detailed in our previous blog. We left Toledo, Spain under the cover of darkness and headed for the Madrid airport. During this trip, we will arrive and depart from Madrid a few times, both by air and rail…but not long enough for a visit. That will have to wait for a future trip. The flight was ... read more

Geo: 37.6389, -7.66216Today we headed north into the hills of southern Portugal. Our first destination is the small riverside village of Alcoutim. Here there are the remains of a 14th century castle which overlooks Alcoutim and the Guadiana River. Across the river on the Spanish side of the river lies another castle overlooking the Spanish village of Sao Lucas do Guadiana. These are visible reminders of the times when Portugal and the Castile were at war with each other.We enjoyed a coffee and a few custard tarts before venturing to the medieval castle. We walked along the castle walls and then visited a museum inside the castle walls. The museum had displays showing the historical path of the city from its inception over 500 years ago. There was also an exhibition of Islamic board games and ... read more

13th April So, up at a decent time & away on time which we needed to be; we had arranged the previous week to meet up with my cousin’s daughter, but we were contemporaries so called each other cousins anyway, on our way North to Ourique. Karen & husband Tony moved to Albufeira last year so we made a small detour to their apartment & were very happy that we did. We sauntered down to a local beach front & had a light lunch at a cafe run by a couple of Brits. We had a fine old chat & reminisce about family & stuff for a couple of hours & Karen gave us some cakes to take away with us. Such a good time, but we had to go & left for Ourique. Arrived at ... read more

9th April Another beautiful day. A lazy start, picked up the bread from the bar & now see with WiFi that US, post Syria, has now sent warships to the Korean peninsula. Must buy some shares in the company that manufactures Tomahawk missiles. It appears this POTUS doesn’t mess about. Interesting how China said it understood the raid on Syria.. methinks China wants the US to hit N Korean bunkers to save them the trouble, keep their hands clean but keep it as a buffer zone. We’ll never know of course. The S. China Sea issue soon... Yesterday Cathy burnt her feet in the sun, so we decided to stay on site & chill, read & enjoy the day in the warm. But we saw & heard pigeons, ring doves, cuckoos, blackbirds, woodpeckers, bee eaters to ... read more