Day: February 12, 2016

Marvão to Casa de Insua in the Rain

Friday, February 12, 2016

 

Today it rained all day, non stop, a torrential down pour. And we drove through Portugals highest mountains. The rain meant that we didn’t have much in the way of views but the rain was pouring off the mountains in sheets. It was magnificent and impressive to see.

 

 

Tonight we are staying in the only Parador in Portugal. It has only been a Parador since October. It is in an 18th century manor house with beautiful gardens. Even though it was still raining we went for a walk in the gardens.

 

 

 

We had a marvelous dinner. Duke had pork and I had octopus.

 

 

 

Dessert was perfect. My cake was still warm from the oven.

 

After dinner we played pool in the basement.

 

 

Villa Viçosa to Marvão

Thursday, February 11, 2016

We had an absolutely wonderful drive today from Vila Viçosa to Marvão today. We meandered and stuck to the back roads. We saw lots of sheep and beautiful mountain scenery. Initially we went to Elvas where they have a massive 7 km long aqueduct that was finished in 1622!

 

 

Then we headed north along the Spanish border. Every hilltop had a fortress to protect against the Spanish. We purposely stayed on back roads. On one long stretch of single lane road we never saw another car.
We are staying in the fortress town you can see on the horizon here, Marvão.
It is the most amazing castle town overlooking the surrounding country side. We walked all along the town wall

 

 

We went down to see the cistern.

 

This is the view from the Pousada where we are staying

 

Marvão is my favorite place in Portugal so far.