Drama in Monsaraz

‘Tranquilio, tranquilo’. It’s not often Graham needs to be calmed down by a Spaniard.

Dickie has just been violated.

Why do people travelling in convoy feel the need to park exactly next to each other? Feeling relaxed while looking out over the expanse of the Alentejo, Graham remarks ‘that van’s a bit close!’ as it tries to park between his friend and us. BANG!! I race to the door in a fit of panic and trip while trying to stop Hugo from dashing out, bashing my ear in the process. Mr Fluffy jumps out to a chuckling Spanish woman who finds it very amusing that her husband has reversed into Dickie, luckily just into our bike-rack. The Spanish chap feigns ignorance, presumably totally deaf to the noise it made when he hit us. There are numerous pieces of tape holding his van together at the back, supposedly where he has reversed into other unsuspecting vans.

Luckily all is well and we can remain tranquilo after all.

Evora Stones and the Chapel of Bones

We have been looking forward to the area around Evora for a while now. It’s a great place for megaaaaaalith (sat nav speak) watching and it didn’t disappoint. We found the major sites of Almendres (a large stone circle) and Zambujeiro (a poorly reconstructed burial chamber with 6 metre high walls) and another very impressive one, the Cromeleque de Vale Maria do Meio which was our favourite as we just happened upon it by mistake.

Vale Maria do Meio

Menhir of Almendres

Zambujeiro

Almendres stone

Almendres stone circle

Almendres was a magical place especially as we found a 5 euro note as we were leaving. Perhaps the elves (or Portuguese equivalent) may have been thanking us for the figs we left for them at the base of the stones. The find was spent on some rather tasty pastis de nata at the café de Sao Miguel in Evora, and I splashed some of my own cash on a new pair of sunnies thanks to the superior skills of the salesman in the glasses shop.

rock booty

Pillar in the Cappella dos Ossos

The city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage site but we couldn’t help feeling it has been rather badly hit by the recession. The streets were dirty and the sites were a little shabby but an interesting place all the same. The Chapel of Bones was particularly interesting if a little gruesome. Over 5,000 monks bones line the walls and normally there are a couple of mummified bodies hanging from the sides but they were off for restoration when we visited.

The Roman Temple sits next to a church and several dozen used condoms sat next to Dickie in the carpark. Thank god Hugo did not develop a taste for the rubbery remnants. He tends to eat anything he finds on the ground, especially if it once resided in the colon of a cat or fox.

Temple of Jupiter Evora

several dead monks

wall of bones

Yesterday we stumbled upon Escoural cave. It is closed unless you make an appointment and we were lucky enough to time it just as a group arrived. After donning some extremely attractive headgear we entered the cave to view some 5000 - 6000 year old cave art. We sat on the shaman’s seat where he would have sat to carve a set of horses in motion, and saw a skull protruding from the soil along with an urn, both of which were too fragile to remove. Our friendly guide blew us a kiss as we left – a little bit of icing on our daily cake. Finally, after much pfaffing about, we found the chapel of Sao Brissos which has been built around a group of dolmen.

dolmen used as walls to chapel

Dolmen Chapel at Sao Brissos

Pre Hard Hat at Escoural

Next, on to Monsaraz.

Chewing the Treat

It’s never a great idea to get your figs mixed up with your dog treats.

The kindly market stallholder in Alcacer do Sal handed me a few figs to ‘try before I buy’. Placing an item in my mouth I felt that the crumbly texture was not reminiscent of the humble dried fruit. Eewww! Unwittingly I had placed the doggy treat within my mouth by mistake. DO NOT try this at home. I had to cover my oral displeasure as I did not want the chap to think I was reacting to his delicious figs so, with slight of hand, I removed the offending object and quickly replaced it with the delicious fruit. Thrilled with my ecstatic reaction, he offered Mr Fluffy a swig of his ginger liqueur which he had, rather worryingly, secreted in the glove compartment of his van.

The Algarve is lovely with beautiful beaches and fantastic weather but we felt that as soon as we ventured inland the people became friendlier and the atmosphere more chilled out – less touristy. In Melides, where we stopped to pop into a market, a chap knocked on Dickie’s window. He wanted to tell us how much he liked English people and what a great time he had working for Mr Richards in Bristol. ‘Did we know him?’ After happily showing us his goosebumps, which he proudly stated was his physical reaction to seeing an English couple, he strode off with a whimsical expression and I felt that, in a small way, we had made his day.

the boys chewing the fat

The trip had started well and became even more pleasant when we pulled up at our lakeside venue.  Graham’s magician friend JJ (who we had previously found in Silves) was parked in the van next door. Mr F enjoyed helping JJ clean the roof of his van and we spent a couple of days sitting in the sun and testing Hugo off the lead which went pretty well until a car, dog or person came into view. He’s a very naughty dog. Now off to Evora for some very big stones.

Sagres, Stones and Terrible Hair Days

Boca do Rio

Carrapateira

The area around Sagres - the pointy bit at the bottom left hand corner of Portugal - is totally stunning. The wildflowers make a colorful frecklage across the fields, the beaches are soft and sandy, and the warmth is making my pits damp. It's around 27 degrees to day and we've spent the last few days at Carrapateira, Boca do Rio, and Sagres itself. We first visited here in the winter of 2009, came back in the winter of 2010 (when G managed a massive brandy hangover from substantial measures at the Last Chance Saloon), and now we are back again. This time the sun is shining even if the wind is still a little on the 'terrible hair day' scale, and the Last Chance is a slightly pricier Chiringuito.

Is this a wild orchid?

By the beach

sideways terrible hair day

sideways stone

We've even managed a few standing stones, most of which are now 'lying down' stones unfortunately, but we did manage to find one which has maintained its erect stance. We visited the 'Interpretation Centre' in Vila Do Bispo and they were extremely helpful, giving us a map of the megaaaaaaliths, and a personalised tour around their very small displays. Map in hand, we followed the Ruta de Monoliths, and found some stones which had seen better days but it was interesting none the less. It is a place where mandrakes grow but being terrible at flora identification we weren't sure if we recognised any.

No longer standing stone

sideways flowers

Hugo has developed a real love of beaches and is even putting his feet in the water of his on accord - occasionally. He has a great time whizzing around like a mad thing then passes out for hours in Dickie. I'm not sure why some of my pics have ended up sideways - sorry about that folks. Heading off northwards tomorrow for some hot mountain action.

Stones and Sand

The beach beckons. We had our first full submersion of 2015 in the sea at Alvor yesterday and, as it was National Cleavage Day, I was pleased to be able to do my bit by getting the crepey Aussie chest out. Hugo loves the beach and carries on like a nut case whenever his paws touch the sand. Not so the swimming part though and we have to physically dunk him in to try to get him to have a cool off in the sea.

We were excited to find a few more megaliths outside Silves and had a trip out to Alcalar to check out the chambered tombs. They've been reconstructed and are quite impressive.

A vision in white

out of bounds

no you can't go in

Hot Neolithic man action

Eek my wee fee is going nuts so I'll sign off for now.

A Magical Meeting

The wifi finder said JJ's something or other. 'I bet that's my old mate JJ the magician'. They had not seen each other for a few years but it turned out JJ was parked two vans away in a fabulous classic Hymer and the two chaps got together to chew the veritable fat. 

Our sudden decision to drive to Silves turned out to be a fortuitous one as we met JJ and his friends Ann and John from Northern Ireland, had a gorge walk to see our first Portuguese standing stones, and discovered the loveliness of Silves. And Hugo fell in love with JJ.

JJ, Graham, Ann and John

the classic

 

Silves Stones

Our first Portuguese standing stone

neolithic tomb

a bit phalloir

Driving through Amorosa (which means lovely in Portuguese), we passed Casa Troll and knew we must be heading in the right direction. 'Ah yes, a healing centre on the left'. Soon we came to a sign showing we had reached the Alignments of Vilarinha. There are four standing stones along the trail and each is carved with different designs, some of which we could hardly make out due to the centuries of weathering. There were also a couple of intriguing tombs along the way that we weren't expecting.

A little troll-like himself

It was third time lucky as we had been on two other searches for megaliths, both of which had been totally fruitless (apart from the lemon I secretly picked off a tree). Perhaps it was the boat with the Eye of Horus called 'Bom Fortuna (good luck) we saw in Olhao that helped us out.

Bom Fortuna

a road well travelled