Piodão

Piodão was definitely the craziest thing to do (one of the pictures is taken in another close-by village, but I don't recall its name, sorry). It is 16 km away from a main road but the road to get there is .... impossible mission. Winding roads, high mountains, curves, in the middle of nowhere. The little village is though a beauty, a little jewellery :-), tiny and graceful and lovely and sweet. I entered one of the churches and found some of the ugliest (please forgive me God!) sculptures but they were ugly in a lovely way and the locals were so proud of their newly renovated church that I couldn't help not to buy a card with the statues and even admire them - no photos please in the church. Just too sweet and touching, this one as well.

Covilhã

Covilhã - big city, very high buildings, nice hotel and ....extremely expensive food. I couldn't believe my eyes. A dish that I would normally eat in Lisbon with 5 euros, I could have bought it in Covilhã with 17!!! so we looked and looked for a restaurant for quite a while. This time the meteorogists were right. It started to rain. Cats and dogs. Alternatively. Cats, then dogs, then cats, cats, dogs, dogs, terrible rain. Spotted a restaurant in the last minute and treated ourselvese with some wonderful cheap salad and fish. Total bliss. Bliss increased by the arrival of the "green fairies" - I don't have to explain this term for the ones who already meet them quite often. On the nearest wall there was a huge tv screen (football! Manchester with another team), men watching every move carefully. We tried to chose a bottle of wine. Oh, that was an adventure. Our waiter, a guy from Capo Verde, didn't know what was available from the list so he went to ask. He came back. Then we wanted to know if we should take a big bottle or a small one. Oh no, another question. He asked again. Came back. After a few more similar questions we ended up with a bottle of red wine. Showed it to him, telling him "this is the one that we want" but guess what, he forgot-isn't that sweet ? and he came back saying "please, forgive me, I don't know which one it is, can you tell me once again?". He was just too lovely not to tell him. We even wanted to give him a big tip but he left before we ended our diner. Imagine coming from Capo Verde to Covilhã-crazy world we live in.

Green fairies, green faires, green fairies.....






The next day - exploring Covilhã, actually socializing rapidly with the locals just enough to ask for the famous "church with azulejos" - nice church, fast pictures and here we go.

What should we do now? Headed for the mountain to find the almost deserted resort Penha da Saude.Nobody there. Saw some cars, got out of the car and tried to look at the houses. A second thought-why not look closer at the house and see how they look like inside so we approached the window-that kind of window through which you don't get to see from the outside, but you get to see from the inside. So we approached and got to see something-I saw an open book on a table. Second attempt. Got to see more. Third attempt-hey, enough. A guy was banging on the window desperately trying to make us go away and stop peeping in peoples' houses :-)

Constância and Almourol

Constância was chosen for its crazy reputation. They say that the famous poet Camões misbehaved with a lady from the court and he was sent away from her to Constância.




We looked for the Camões house for minutes and minutes and finally found it - closed, but with a statue in front of it - a couple making love - Camões making love :-) pretty cool. You don't get to see Camões making love every day. I ended up in his lap (another sculpture), then noticed the sexual education people of Constância get to get there. Imagine this. On the agenda of events you get to see-one day the "great" movie "Sex and the City", then at the Alexandre O'Neill library different (many!!) workshops or movies on how to seduce your partner, how to be a good lover - I guess this dates back from Camões' time. Voila. This is what I would call "remembering the ancestors". :-)





and Castelo de Almourol.....

I have been dreaming about this little castle - Castelo de Almourol - for months - "oh, when am I going to see the castle? when am I going to see the castle?" and here we are, on our way to the castle. On the left side military tanks, on the right side of the road military training camps. I wanted to take pictures of some storks but then realised that I am taking pictures of a military base!! so I'd better stop :-) Finally at our destination. Lovely castle, awful military tanks in front of it. Had coffee on a nice terrace and listened for minutes how a girl, who wanted to become a poet (or actress?) I guess, was reciting Baudelaire poems in French to her lover. It was fascinating, a little bit too pretencious though.

Abrantes - October 2008

We headed for Covilhã on Saturday morning, expecting to explore the beautiful Serra da Estrela mountains. And it was a nice choice. I learned never to trust the weather sites as they were predicting heavy rains and we had only Sun, summer Sun :-)





The first stop was in Abrantes - a small village with the most beautiful, romantic gardens I have ever seen(and I've seen some gardens!) from which you have a beautiful view of the Tagus river - the castle's gardens. I took pictures of my lovely pink tree in bloom. Isn't he lovely? :-) Before that, I got to visit the main church attracted by a lady singing Opera. I started to take pictures but was briskly interupted by a gentleman who asked me if I asked for permission in advance. God, there was no sign as to whether I have to ask for permission or to stop taking photos, but he seemed determined to ruin my day. So I stopped taking pictures without saying anything. I guess he saw my sad face and decided to come up with an excuse "you know, you can take pictures, it is just that this church has been rubbed 17 times and we have to keep track of the people that are taking pictures and ask for an i.d.". I was just a "tourist" and he forgave me.

Serra da Estrela

Serra da Estrela - 2000 m!! - great mountains :-) nice, welcoming fog (for me, not for the car drivers, of course). We reached the very top, by car, and wanted to buy Serra da Estrela cheese - they say it's the best. Entered a shop and I literally couldn't escape from there without buying the cheese. It was delicious anyhow. Went further and "met" a shephard who turned into a seller. He made us try ALL his cheese, I guess. Everything. Bought some, as well, but couldn't make him stop asking us to try this and that. "try this", "no, thank you", "eat" and we had to eat and this ritual continued until we were completely full and almost drunk - of course, you cannot eat cheese without tasting some home-made wine. Lovely shephard!

Castelo Branco

Castelo Branco - my guide book has a beautiful, I would say even mystical picture of some statues covered with moss - they are in Castelo Branco. Of course, they did renovated the park with the statues and now they look "brand new". There is even an entrance that you have to pay to get to see them. A little bit kitch, but ok in the end.

The funniest thing was meeting the locals. We instantly made friends with some old guys in their 80s maybe, eager to show us direction, eager to help us park the car. Wanting to buy an ice-cream, didn't find the shopman, waited, waited, watched for a few minutes a Latin American soap opera, then decide to leave the money on the counter and leave. It was a smart decision. We checked afterwards and the lady selling in the shop was very happy-she even asked if we didn't need any change. Quiet city.