Category: Europe Spring 2022

Saturday was our longest day of driving so far on this trip. We drove 240 miles south and a bit west into Spain again. Now we are in Marvao on the Spain Portugal border just into Portugal. Marvao is on top of a mountain with a stunning 360 degree view. In the picture below you can see the castle on top of the mountain. That’s where we are.

This morning before we left Zamora we explored a bit the square outside our Parador had beautiful trees trained to grow together to create a canopy.

Before we left Zamora we visited the Ethnographic Museum.

There were many interesting things in the museum. Take a guess at what these are.

On our way to Marvao we saw at least two cars with Ukrainian license plates. You wonder what their story is.

When we stopped at a roadside cafe for coffee and lunch we enjoyed watching the storks.

After we checked into our Pausada we went for a walk up to the castle

Our room at the Pausada da Marvao is charming with a great view.

Our view at breakfast

Portugal is in a different time zone than Spain. It’s one hour earlier. Friday morning I woke up early and got a nice picture of the sunrise and Bragança castle from our hotel room window.

The breakfast room at Pausada de Bragança had a beautiful view too and there was a tree growing out of the floor!

After we checked out of the Pausada we visited the castle. In the castle keep there is a military museum which was interesting.

It took us just over an hour to drive back into Spain to Zamora where we spent the night at the Parador. This is Parador number 71 for Duke and me. We had welcome drinks and played cards in the bar.

I love watching storks. There were two nests on the roof right outside the window.

Duke and I went out to explore a bit before dinner.

Saturday we head back into Portugal towards Lisbon where Ray and Linda will fly home.

Thursday morning our first stop in Puebla de Sanabria was the post office, to mail postcards.

Then Duke bought some fresh bread.

Then we walked around the castle, the church and the central square.

After we left Puebla de Sanabria we drove north to see Lago de Sanabria. According to Wikipedia it is the largest glacial lake in the Iberian Peninsula.

From Lago de Sanabria we dove south into Portugal to Bragança where we are tonight we had drinks by the fire, played cards and had a relaxing afternoon.

Duke and I stayed here in 2016. We ate at the hotel Michelin Restaurant. We had a fabulous meal for €35 including wine pairing. A similar meal there now costs at least €90 and wine is an extra €30 per person. We passed. The chef has another restaurant in town, Restaurante Geadas. That’s where we ate tonight. I had sole, Duke had beef and cheese and egg and Linda and Ray had calamari.

Today before leaving the Parador de Corias we went for a short walk through the grounds.

Santo Estevo is the farthest north in Spain we will be with Linda and Ray on this trip. After checking out of the Parador we headed back south through the mountains.

Tonight we are at a smaller Parador not far from the north east corner of Portugal in the town of Puebla de Sanabria. This is the view from the parador

We had dinner in the Parador restaurant. By now you’ve probably figured out that we like squid. For dinner we had steak and squid. Both were excellent. Portugal and Spain are the only places I’ve ever had wonderful squid like this.

Today is Duke’s 70th birthday. So we celebrated.

Tuesday we visited Las Médula’s where the Romans mined gold. First they did relatively small scale mining with panning and small digs. But eventually they built long canals and an extensive tunnel system and washed away a massive quantity of the hills to find the gold. What was left was rocky outcroppings now called Las Médulas.

First we visited the Las Médulas visitor center where we watched a movie and saw a description of the people in the area and how the Romans mined the gold.

Next we went up to the Las Médulas overlook. It was raining and very foggy when we parked. It is about a .25 mile walk up to the overlook. Although it seemed very likely that we wouldn’t be able to see anything we put on our raincoats and hiked up anyway.

We have been seeing a lot of Chestnut trees in this area

Initially when we got to the overlook we could only see the nearby cliff face with signs of the old tunnels and an overlook where you end if you go down into the galleries (the Roman tunnels).

But luckily a few minutes later the fog lifted a bit and we could see the view and the landscape created by the Romans.

From Las Médulas we drove to the Parador de Corias where we spent the night. It is another stunningly beautiful Parador in an old monastery.

For dinner we ate in a he parador restaurant. We had Venison and Sea Bass.