Castelo de Vide Portugal is a small medieval town in north-east Alentejo, clustered around a castle on a hilltop, and much as we wanted to stop to explore, there just weren’t enough hours in the day. After zig-zagging up the east of the mountain to reach the entrance to the village, we thought for a moment or two that Marvao might also be impregnable to hire cars – the cobbled streets were among the narrowest we’ve ever driven, and we didn’t think our humble little vehicle was going to make it through the archway, but we did, just about, with wing mirrors still attached and intact. The most difficult part of driving around Portugal for us was getting around warrens of narrow medieval streets built 700 years before the advent of the motor vehicle. Some people swear by satnav when travelling abroad. An alluring coastal town that has one of the most active fish markets in the region and where it is possible to get close and see how the boats unload fresh, fresh fish. The most impressive aspect is its location on such a high precipice, perched in dramatic border country. Coming back soon with more unique destinations meanwhile here’s a bit more Portugal goodness for you! No reproduction, publication, or rehosting of any content on this site without express prior written permission. Let us know in the comments below. To lower your meal, after enjoying a leisurely meal in Porto das Barcas, there is nothing better than to venture into one of the coastal paths of the Vincentina Route. The old city is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. We have always gone with the one driver, one navigator set-up, with Faye driving and me reading the map and directing accordingly. Once again, I saw the freshness of the fish that was sold in his tiny fish market and a little later, I was able to enjoy it at the local restaurant. We passed and noted a couple of Castelo de Vide hotels, thinking that we must come back and stay there for a few days. Along with Elvas, this is somewhere we would love to revisit at some point.Instead, we had to bid farewell to those evocative groves of cork trees as we reached the A2 motorway south to the Algarve, and the start of our adventure there. Your email address will not be published. En route to Estremoz, we saw the impressive castle and battlemented town walls of Evoramonte, but sadly didn’t have time to stop. The last one, who I watched for a good half an hour from the top of a cliff, gets the ‘most extreme climber fisherman of the year’ award. Required fields are marked *. The grand town of Vila Vicosa was somewhere we didn’t plan on passing, but we got a good view of the town’s famous marble quarries from the road, so here was another discovery to be revisited in the future. Take for instance its coves, cliffs, and beaches where you feel like stopping every ten minutes and simply getting lost for a while, exploring its beauty. We went by the navigator’s nose, and found our way to the old city, where we were staying – just the wrong part, a minor detail we were soon able to rectify. Estremoz market is amazing. The sign above the door says something to the effect of “We bones await your bones”. Where is the little place called Porto das Barcas? Also, I recommend you to have lunch or dinner at Cafe Alentejo, a restaurant in the old area where you must try the ‘sopa de caçao’. The drive down from Monsaraz and across the Barragem da Alqueva lakes was a pleasure, crossing the water and seeing little flower-covered islands scattered across the landscape. zu Évora und dem Alentejo habe ich hier verfasst. We’ve yearned to be back there ever since. The fourth recommended stop is Sines. No wonder cremation’s so popular these days. A day doesn’t do Evora justice, but it’s worth coming to see the sights we’ve mentioned, and the remarkable Capela dos Ossos, the Chapel of Bones, next to the church of Sao Francisco. Quiet, with its charming squares where the terraces overflow with life and its whitewashed streets, where, fortunately, no construction stands out in height or style. This is a small travel diary that will serve you if you want to visit this area, with some unique directions for eating and sleeping as well as the seven essential stops if Portugal’s Alentejo road trip is on your list. We quickly realised that our car wasn’t going to be able to get down some of the tangle of tight streets, so we extricated ourselves from possible difficulty and parked just outside the old town, around which we walked for half an hour. We joined the N246 just to the west of Castelo de Vide, heading south from the hilly Serra de Sao Mamede to the more typical Alentejan countryside we had seen the first few days of the trip, driving past flower-filled meadows dotted with partly-stripped cork oak trees. We stopped just below it, with uninterrupted views across the park and valley. The next morning, we went for a wonderful sunrise walk outside the village walls before breakfast at Condestavel, and a browse around a couple of souvenir shops and a great coffee near the main gateway to the village. To eat in this area, try Arte e Sal. Learn how your comment data is processed. I went through a section of the so-called Fishermen’s Trail. We had arrived an hour before sunset and wandered the streets and alleyways until well after nightfall, by which time the Monsaraz restaurants had closed, and we were left sharing the streets with a few cats. Monsaraz Alentejo is a long way from anywhere else but has been fiercely fought over in the past, and at various times has been under the control of the Moors, the Knights Templar and the Earl of Cambridge, as well as the kingdom of Portugal. Bring your camera along! It also presented us with our first logistical challenge, as we had somehow mislaid our printout of our map of the approach into the city. The massive Amoreira aqueduct (Aqueduto da Amoreira) was built in the 16th century to bring water to the fortified town. I feel this is one of the such a lot significant information for me. This is a small travel diary that will serve you if you want to visit this area, with some unique directions for eating and sleeping as well as the seven essential stops if Portugal’s Alentejo road trip is on your list. We were soon into the familiar Alentejan landscape, with its cork and olive groves everywhere we looked. It’s a site that you can’t really appreciate from down below – you need to visit the Castle itself to get the full effect. We soon found our Évora hotel, down an impossibly narrow street with an equally tight entrance. One of the smallest ports with which I have ever drop by, Porto das Barcas serves the local fishermen and community. Alentejo is Portugal’s hidden gem. After this, we had a clear run down the N255 to Reguengos de Monsaraz, before taking the M514 the last 15 kilometres (10 miles) or so to our final destination, Monsaraz.

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