Sagres - Monchique

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We´re finally bestrirring ourselves to get out on the road somewhat. Two of the places we´ve recently visited are Sagres and Monchique.

Sagres is where Henry the Navigator set up his famous School of Navigation in the 16th century. He´d gathered the best minds in Europe to study navigation, which started Portugal's ability to explore so much of the world. They believe his school was out on a promitory of land on the southwestern corner of Portugal (and Europe), called Ponta de Sagres. We visited the site last year and found nothing left of the school itself. This year I learned, to my horror, that it was one of my purported ancestors, Sir Francis Drake, who sacked the place in 1587 and burned Henry´s library to the ground! That is truly awful news.

This year we didn´t go out to the site, but went to the Pousada do Infante for a fabulous lunch. Pousadas are converted ancient buildings, mostly convents and castles, that are now exquisite hotels run by the Portuguese government. We stayed in some last year and will stay in a couple next month. After lunch we drove around to the three beaches nestled among the cliffs in the area. Praia (beach) da Mareta had surfers on it. It was bitterly cold and the wind was howling that day, but there they were--all in wetsuits. Praia de Baleeria is actually the town´s main fishing harbor. There were a lot of fishing boats anchored there and pulled up on the shore. We were there on a Sunday, so there wasn´t much activity going on. The third beach was Praia de Martinhal and that was in front of a development of some big, beautiful homes. It was wide and sandy: a perfect beach if it were a nice, warm, sunny day. But too windy on Sunday to enjoy.

Monchique is a mountain town, about 20 km from the coast. We headed there for lunch and looked for the Restaurante Central as it was well recommended by one of our guide books. Our method for exploring little towns is to follow signs to Centro, knowing that Centro is the town´s main square. The main square is also generally close to the church. So between the church steeple and the Centro signs you can´t miss. The restaurante´s address was on Rua de Igreja (church). Monchique really fooled us. Because it is built in the mountains, we couldn´t get a good view of the church´s steeple and we missed the square on our first drive through town. We doubled back and wound around tiny, narrow streets looking for the church, but couldn´t find it. We did, ultimately find the square and a parking place. We were so hungry at that point, we went to the cafe on the square that had the most people sitting in front of it and had our lunch.

After lunch we walked up the hill, came upon the church and the restaurant we were looking for! The restaurant was closed, permanently, it looked like. The church´s main door was an amazing example of Manualine architectrure left over from 16th century Portugal. The real find was an honest to goodness chocolate shop. One of my favorite movies is "Chocolat" and I´ve always wanted to find one tucked away in a little village. We found it. It´s run by an English couple and she makes all of the goodies by hand. Of course we bought some, quite a bit, in fact.

So it goes as we tool around poking into places on the map. More later...............

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Photos

Ponta de Sagres
Sorry for the bluriness. It was so windy it was hard to hold the camera steady.

Praia da Mareta
Only one surfer shows in this photo, but there were dozens.

Praia de Baleeria
I´m a sucker for red fishing boats!

Centro Fountain
Part of the art in the main square.

Igreja Matriz
The doorway design is molded out of concrete.

Chocolate Shop
Ummm, good!