Pousadas of Portugal

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We have just spent a wonderful, relaxing 9 days in Portugal. We started and ended in Lisbon, and in the middle, we took a tour around central and southern Portugal, staying in different pousadas every night. The pousadas we stayed in are historical hotels - either built in, near or as part of castles, monasteries, convents or palaces. For those of you who have spent some time here, you know that Portugal is not a very big country - about the size of Indiana. But it has all sorts of terrain and climates packed into its small borders. We drove by beautiful beaches and fields of cork and olive trees and we also wound our way up into the hills upon which castle after castle was built to protect the country from invaders, mainly from Spain. We spent our days on the road and visiting different historic sites and spent our evenings exploring the tiny towns we stayed in, looking for restaurants we could all agree upon! Our driver, George, made sure we were delivered safely to our pousada’s doorstep each evening, and we were very grateful for his assistance. Take a look at our pictures and hopefully you can get a feel for the quaint beauty of the towns we visited and the historic significance of the buildings we encountered during our time in Portugal.

P.S. If you want to follow the routing we took, it went something like this:
Lisbon(pousada)-Sesimbra-Setubal-Alcacer do Sal(pousada)-Odemira-Aljezur-Sagres(pousada)-Lagos-Albufeira-Beja(pousada)-Alvito-Montemor-Evora(pousada)-Estremoz-Portalegre-Marvao(pousada)-Tomar-Fatima-Batalha-Nazare-Obidos(pousada)-Sintra-Lisbon(pousada) (We drove through many more towns than I have listed --these are the ones we stopped in.)

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Photos

Sesimbra Castle
A Moorish castle in the fishing village of Sesimbra.

Belem Tower
Built at the entrance of the Tagus River in Lisbon in the early 16th century to commemorate the expedition of Vasco de Gama.

Sesimbra
The fishing village of Sesimbra as seen from the wall of the castle.

Pousada Dom Afonso II
Our pousada in Alcacer do Sal. Just to give you an idea how they build a hotel within the castle walls...

Sagres
Sagres -- the southern most point in Portugal.

Pousada do Infante
The pousada we stayed at in Sagres.

Cromeleque do Almendres
Kind of like Stonehenge -- but not as big -- this megalithic enclosure outside of Evora was built in the 5th to 4th century BC and is the most important such structure in the Iberian peninsula. It had religious functions and probably was also a primitive astronomical observatory.

Cromeleque
Something doesn't look quite right here...

Roman Ruins
This was part of the forum built by the Romans in Evora in the 1st century AD.

Evoramonte Castle
Ted and Griff in front of the castle.

Evoramonte
An example of a village built inside the walls of the castle.

Marvao Castle
Our favorite castle and probably the biggest one we saw, in Marvao. Our pousada was very close by.

Comments

[Diana Miller]

Amazing!
Your photos really make me want to visit Portugal! It sounds like you had a wonderful 9 days.

[Rene Clark]

Happy Easter
Hi sweet friends. Happy Easter. Stuart and I are in Longmont for the Easter weekend and wish you were here. Like always your pictures are amazing and your commentary is so interesting. Be safe and enjoy your next adventure. Love, Rene'

[Carla]

Happy Easter!!
Hope you had a great Easter. We missed ya'll for dinner here. The Clark's were in town and the Rosenthal's were here. We were excited to count down the days until ya'll will be home. Be safe!! Love ya!!