Racing through Portugal!
- Dec 7, 2017
- 4 min read
Journal entry number Four | 7 December 2017 | Douro region.
After six days in Lisbon, we hired a car and raced across the country looking for our new home base, like Portuguese explorers had sailed off to discover the world...well not quite like that...
We had previously taken a fearless one day ride to Cascais and Sintra on our Vespas (in the cold mist) and had planned to take a more leisurely drive in a car down to Faro. On the ride to Sintra we stopped abruptly and met Ana-Maria under the awning of an improvised roadside farmers market. Ana-Maria was a strong boned 82-year old grandmother who sold Marie-Michèle a jar of the best orange marmalade on earth. After explaining that this was the only time of year she could make this preserve, she hugged Marie-Michèle and I bought a gigantic loaf of country bread and several pieces of the best fresh Portuguese cheeses. Two breakfasts later, the marmalade was gone, but the feeling that we had eaten delicious and authentic local foods remained with us for days.
So, on the eve of my 57th birthday, we headed south towards the Algarve on board our diesel powered Opel Astra station wagon, driving along Portugal's western coast. Our first stop along our route was in Herdade da Comporta for coffee and juice. This is an area of the Alentejo province where celebrities are left undisturbed to enjoy simple fish plates or go for long walks along the endless beaches. Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart have been seen here as well as many other celebrities like French fashion designer Christian Louboutin and rockstar Madonna, to name just a few. This being low season, we only met two resident jack russel terriers roaming the streets and generally looking for attention by seeming to direct traffic as they criss crossed the empty streets.
After a couple more hours of driving, we realized that our Vespa rental owner and now friend Nuno Elbling (see previous post) had been absolutely right: outside Lisbon and Porto, the roads are virtually devoid of any cars! You can drive for long, looong minutes without passing a single vehicle. The countryside of Portugal is indeed a most peaceful place.
Racing further south to the seaside town of Sines for lunch, the birthplace of Vasco da Gama, we finally touched down in the Algarve at Sagres Point. You see, Le Couz was driving most of the way and this is where MM and I thought Le Couz to be a close cousin of F1 driver Lewis Hamilton... Catching our breath for a brief moment, we walked around the Sagres Fortress, only to have it taken away again, for the sights are indeed breathtaking! The sun was setting and the ocean was at our feet. We trekked carefully, hugging the fortress walls. Failure to take care at every footstep could mean instant death, so we walked in what felt like slow motion, hoping to remain alive for the remainder of our journey through Portugal!
The Algarve region may be technically located in Portugal, but it is also a whole world in itself. Its undeniably stunning views and beaches and its heart stopping cliffs left an unforgettable impression on us. The Algarve also boasts warm temperatures most of the year. In fact, +40c degree weather in the summer is not rare...along with hundreds of thousands of aging tourists (think of spring break for seniors on steroids). Later that evening, we settled in at Casas da Praia (near Faro) for two nights inside the manicured golf resort community of Vale do Lobo. Right on the beach. We dined at Parilla Natural restaurant over €25 burgers (so much for the low cost of living in Portugal - but this was the Algarve after all). That's when it started to dawn on us: leaving Canada to live in the Florida of Portugal? Visiting in the off season would be just fine, wonderful in fact. But living there? Nope. Too many tourists for our PH levels. After all, we will be locals in Portugal after we move here, no?! Summertime in the Algarve is too hot for us and the area is altogether too far from the action and culture and food and sights of Lisbon at all times. So Lisbon it was to be!
Or so we thought...
Your three musketeers left Faro on the morning of December 5th and set a GPS course for the Douro river valley, en route to our ultimate destination: Porto. On our way there, we stopped in Évora, an elegant UNESCO World Heritage city where university students walk around wearing black capes reminiscent of stand-ins on a Harry Potter movie set. Évora really deserves two days. At least. We only had two hours. At Enoteca Cartuxa, located in the historic center of town, we sipped the whites and reds next to the Eugénio de Almeida Forum, right next to the iconic Roman Temple and close to the Cathedral and the Museum and Palace of the Dukes of Cadaval. Such sights make you feel like you step back in time. This should be reason enough to make one consider taking up history at the Évora University, I thought.
We drove on and spent one memorable evening at beautiful Quinta da Pacheca, also branded as The Wine House. Set in an 18th-century manor house on a 51-hectare wine estate overlooking the Douro River, this boutique hotel is 3 km from the Regua train station and 4 km from the Museu do Douro. We dined on onctuous duck rice and succulent cheeses in the refined, contemporary restaurant of the quinta.
Late into the night, the Sandeman statue (pictured above) set on the neighboring vineyard where they make its renowned port, kept watch over us as Le Couz and I studiously imbibed a bottle of port in record time while enjoying Diplomatico number II cigars and fabulating about where our next home would be. We began to doubt our choice of Lisbon.
Wine not Porto?
That is next...
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