Portugal
June 2012
We concentrated our travels in the Alentejo. The Lonely Planet guidebook tells why:
To be bewitched. Covering a third of the country. Portugal’s largest region truly captivates. Think dry, golden plains, rolling hillsides and lime-green vines. ... traditional whitewashed villages, marble towns and majestic medieval cities. Plus a proud, if melancholic, people...who valiantly cling to their local crafts.
Centuries-old farming traditions continue here, ongoing economic stalwarts in Portugal’s poorest (but arguably most beautiful) region.
Alentejo’s rich past offers Paleolithic carvings, fragments from Roman conquerers and stolid Visigothic churches. There are Moorish-designed neighbourhoods and awe-inspiring fortresses built at stork-nest heights.
Lonely Planet, 8th Edition, March 2001, p. 197
We completed our trip with a short stay in Lisbon and a visit to the Pena Palace in Sintra, a place we missed 15 years ago, when the palace was closed after a fierce wind and rain storm that knocked down scaffolding and, with it, a large gargoyle. This year the sky brightened during our visit and the palace did not disappoint.
Please scroll down and click on the links below for text and slide shows for each page/town.
Portugal and the Alentejo are not to be missed!
