Walking in Portugal: walking

Lousã 's aqueduct

9:59 AM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , Lousã , Portugal , trekking , vacations , walking

Foz do Lizandro

8:32 PM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , Ericeira , lisbon , Portugal , walking

"Little goat’s jump", São Miguel, Azores

10:34 PM David Monteiro 1 Comments Category : active vacation , azores , Portugal , vacations , walking

Are you planning to visit Lisbon in one day?

12:43 AM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , eating in Lisbon , gastronomy , history , lisbon , Portugal , travel , walking , wine

Are you planning to visit Lisbon in one day?

You know the answer: that is impossible.

However, what to do when a day is all the time we have to get to know Lisbon? Of course we will have to make the most of the available time.

I will leave here my suggestions on how to divide the time during a one-day visit to the city and the best way to structure my suggestions is to divide the visit in: morning, afternoon and after dinner.

In this post I will not include meals or lodgings because I will write about hotels and restaurants later.

Morning

- One monument visit: Jeronimos Monastery - this monastery is classified as UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built by King Manuel I in 1502 and it took about 100 years to be built. Is the maximum exponent of Manueline architecture, also known as the Portuguese Baroque.

- One tasting: Pastéis de Belém - as a result of the Liberal Revolution of 1820, in 1834 the convents and monasteries were closed. Was in this context that someone went to a sugar refinery close to the Jerónimos Monastery and put a few cookies on sale, these cookies are today known as the "Pastéis de Belém" and they must be the better worldwide known Portuguese sweets.

- The first walk: Baixa and Chiado - are two typical neighborhoods of the city and good representatives of the society of 18th and 19th centuries. Start by the view from the Viewpoint of São Pedro de Alcântara and walk downhill until the Camões Square and after this walk along the Garrett Street and end at Rossio. It is certainly a beautiful journey through Portuguese Romanticism and also a good opportunity to visit Baixa (downtown), the neighborhood that was built after the great earthquake of 1755.

- The second walk: Alfama and São Jorge Castle - Alfama is a medieval district and has been inhabited since the foundation of the city so it is here that we can find the oldest buildings in the city. Walking through the narrow streets of Alfama and observing its inhabitants is to know the typical Lisbon. Start your walk at the São Jorge castle and hence find the Miradouro das Portas do Sol from where we can see the roofs of Alfama, the quarter where we will walk until Terreiro do Paço.

Note: using a city map will help you making sense of all this names I’m mentioning.

Afternoon

Having walked in the morning, for the afternoon I will suggest more cultural moments for the afternoon, so I will propose a Museum and the Oceanarium visits.

- Museum of the City: it was easy to propose a visit to the Museum of Ancient Art (Museu de Arte Antiga), which is the most common suggestion you will find in terms of visits to museums. However, I believe that this Museum, being an excellent Museum, does not offer something unique to those visiting Lisbon, here you will find excellent pieces that could be in any major European Museum but not necessarily Portuguese pieces. So I will propose a visit to the City Museum, a small museum, whose collection is not something extraordinary but has the particularity of being a very nice space and the collection is Portuguese, this is a truly Portuguese space.

- Oceanarium: is the second largest aquarium in the world which is by itself a sign of being something that you can hardly see elsewhere and has an extensive collection of marine creatures. It is located at Parque das Nações, which is an ideal area for a late afternoon beer and to end the active day.

After dinner

The visit to the city will not be complete without a stroll through the area of nightlife where you can have a drink and hear some music.

Of course there are several areas in the city where this may happen but without complicating too much the explanation I would say that is in the Bairro Alto where you can find more diversity of bars.

Personally I love bar “Pavilhão Chinês" (Chinese Pavilion), one of the most beautiful bars I know.

Join the fun in Lisbon.

David Monteiro

Unknown places to walk - Douro Valley and river Bestança

6:58 PM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Douro Valley , Northern Portugal , port wine , Portugal , walking

The Way of Saint James

11:30 PM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Douro Valley , Northern Portugal , Portugal , walking , way of saint james , where to go

Alentejo, an excellent Portuguese region for walking - part 2/2

2:02 PM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Alentejo , Europe , Évora , food , gastronomy , hiking , Portugal , roman impire , romans , travel , trekking , vacations , Vila Nova de Milfontes , walking , where to go , wine

Unknown places to walk - the river Alva dams

11:48 AM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Coimbra , culture , Europe , hiking , Northern Portugal , Portugal , trekking , vacations , walking , where to go

Alentejo, an excellent Portuguese region for walking - part 1/2

10:58 PM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Alentejo , Europe , food , gastronomy , hiking , Portugal , travel , trekking , vacations , Vila Nova de Milfontes , walking , where to go , wine

The Alentejo conveys the serenity of an old place where tranquility lives.

When walking in these plain lands we understand that the landscape is what the view does not reach and is also where life focuses under the shade of a sweltering Sun protector “chaparro” – chaparro is how the local people call the young cork trees.

But who only knows the Alentejo cereal grow plains does not know the diversity of this region that, like its country, excels in diversity.

The Alentejo is also synonymous of water concentrated in large lakes and fluent rivers. But the cereal fields are, without a doubt, what our memory better keeps alive when we crossed these vast plains.

This region hides its treasures.

We often drive many kilometres in which everything that we find is the repeated plain. However, suddenly the whole landscape changes as is the case of the “Minas de São Domingos” (São Domingos Mines) where its business card is a huge pond that the locals call Tapada Grande.

This region only reveals its treasures to whom is dedicated to look beyond what the eyes can see without effort.

The golden plains caressed by breezes forms waves who wander through the cornfields and make us astounding. These waves bring with them a strong sweet odor that is difficult to forget.

Foreigners in these lands hear people talking about the “monte” (hill) and confuse this typical house with an elevation on the ground. The locals laugh about this naivety.

In this quest for knowledge of the local culture borne the love for a land where men with powerful voice sing together the "cante alentejano”, the traditional music sung by male choir.

We hear about mountains, rivers and coastal areas where the Alentejo takes other forms and our gaze jumps to the Costa Vincentina, by the Atlantic Ocean. On this trip we are attracted by river that stands out on the map, is the River Mira that in a more lively extension connects this village with Vila Nova de Milfontes on a fluvial route that I dream in put in place.

Vila Nova de Milfontes is reference of Alentejo with regard to coastal tourism. A town that lived from the fishing activity on the old days but that its natural beauty and the excellent conditions for summer place increasingly attracted bathers.

In this journey through the map our look back to the interior. Yes, it is true that we jump from one side to the other, but is the more human side of the heart the more emotional side leading this trip.

I will stop now because for the next post we will have to open a time portal and jump to roman times.

Join me for a walk in Alentejo.

David Monteiro

Port wine

1:22 PM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , Douro Valley , Europe , Northern Portugal , port wine , Porto , walking , wine

When someone thinks about visiting Portugal and spends some time searching for what to see and do in this country, I think one of the suggestions that will appear quite often is tasting/drinking port wine.

Am I right? Anyone, non-Portuguese, who reads this post please comment.
The problem is that when you get here you will find so many different port wines that will be confused. I do not mean about the many existing brands, I mean the types of port wine.

Tawny, LBV, Ruby, Vintage, ... are some of the names that will see it on the bottles.

There are several types of port wine?

Yes, there are several types of port wine.

Are they so different to the point of a regular person to feel the differences?

Yes, between the various categories there are significant differences. Nothing better than drinking different categories and feel the differences – this is the best part, naturally.

My intention is only to give a general idea about port wine and help those who want to choose a bottle to take home or offer.

However, it is always good to prove them all – eheheheheh - that is the true choice of knowledgeable.

What is the port wine?

In the research I did, the definition of port wine that pleased me most is on Wikipedia and says "Port wine (also known as Vinho do Porto,..., and often simply port) is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal." (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_wine)

Is port wine so different from a regular table wine? If so, why is that?

Good ... very simple, just drink one and drink the other and you will see big differences.
Port wine is sweeter and has higher alcohol content than table wine. A regular red table wine has around 14% alcohol and a red port wine around 20 or 22% alcohol.
As you already know, port wine can only be produced in the region of the Douro Valley and to produce port wine or Douro table wine the same types of grapes are used, what makes the big difference between the two wines is the production method.

The whole process of picking and treading the grapes is equal to port wine and table. The difference starts during the fermentation period.

To produce port wine there will be a shorter fermentation period of 2 or 3 days and to produce table wine a regular fermentation period of 6 or 7 days.

Then, in the case of port wine, to stop the fermentation process a certain quantity of wine spirits is added to fortify the wine.

As a result we will get a sweeter wine because not all the sugar was transformed into alcohol and a wine with higher alcohol content because it was added wine spirits.

This wine spirits is neutral, colorless, with a 77% alcoholic content, it is generally added at the rate of approximately 115 liters of spirits per 435 liters of wine in fermentation, although this ratio can vary.

In relation to the types of port wine, let us start by understanding how do they to relate to each other and then we will see some details of each category.

Red (Tinto):
-Ruby: Ruby, Recently, LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) and Vintage
-Tawny: Tawny, Tawny, Tawny Reserve X years (10, 20, 30 or 40) and harvesting

White (Branco): very sweet called "Lágrima", "Sweet", "Dry" and "Extra dry.

Rosé

There is a lot of information on the internet about this subject and the biggest problem is to choose what to read. I strongly recommend consulting the website https://www.ivdp.pt/ the IVDP is the Port and Douro Wines Institute and here you will find very good information.
To learn more in detail about the various categories of port wine can go directly to: https://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=64&codSeccao=2&idioma=1

Now it's time to stop writing about it and go drink a port wine.

I will drink a Tawny 10 years of Quinta de La Rosa, anyone with me?

"Saúde" (means health in Portuguese)

David

Cape Roca - The westernmost point of Europe's mainland.

10:49 AM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Portugal , travel , trekking , vacations , walking

Walking in the Serra da Freita – must see / must do

10:02 AM David Monteiro 0 Comments Category : active vacation , adventure , Arouca , culture , Europe , food , gastronomy , hiking , Northern Portugal , Portugal , Serra da Freita , vacations , walking , wine

I'm a little nervous about writing this post. “Serra da Freita” (Freita’s hills) is one of the places that inspired me to start this long walk to become a professional on Active Tourism and I do not know if I will have enough talent in the art of writing in order to fairly reward this site.

However, I feel that this blog will never be complete if it does not have some something written about Serra da Freita.

I've done a lot of hiking in the hills area, repeating the same and doing many others that I never had the opportunity to repeat.

“Serra da Freita” is also an area where I did many other activities besides walking such as climbed, canyoning, hydrospeed and rafting not far from here.

However, this being a blog of walking, I will confine myself to this theme.

The translation of “Serra” is hills or small mountains and we often use the

word “Serra” for the name of a short mountain area. Here I will be writing about Serra da Freita as well as about Serra da Arada.

Frecha da Mizarela

This waterfall, with more than 70 m high, is the business card of Serra da Freita.

Is part of a system of cascades that as a whole exceeds 90m high.

This beautiful waterfall landscape and the vision of many other smaller waterfalls is what we can expect when we walk in this area.

Ribeira is a small village that lies at the foot of this system of cascades and the trail that goes along this watercourse could not be more spectacular. Here you will find many small ponds where you can bathe in the crystal-clear waters or simply enjoy showering at the waterfalls.

When we walk from Ribeira to Mizarela we can choose between walking along the watercourse as I mentioned or, from a certain point, choose a little "detour" and climb (very easy climbing) some rocks on the right side of the waterfall Frecha da Mizarela. Is a low-difficulty climbing but that of course always requires some care.

All the people who made this trail with me felled in love for place, is without doubt a fabulous hike.

This trail requires us to cross a small pond so we better have our swimming gear with us and a nice pair of rubber sandals.

It’s so fun to walk this trail that nobody forgets it.

A rock giving birth to another rock

Talking about a rock giving birth to another rock looks like we are talking about the “Lord of The Rings” saga but this time it's really true.

There is a rare geological phenomenon which results in the granite rock releasing some crystals that will form new chunks of rock. Apparently, this phenomenon can only be seen in two places in the world, near Castanheira, a village in Serra da Freita and somewhere in Russia. I do not know if whether there will be other places but as much I investigated there is only these two places.

It is very interesting to see the new stones because they look like flattened black eggs and on the mother rock you will find kind of a nest where the “baby” rocks was formed.

See the translated version of Wikipedia at: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedra_parideira

Tungsten mine - Rio de Frades - Cabreiros - Tabelião

Rio de Frades (River of Friars) is a small village deeply marked by what used to be a tungsten mine.

The tungsten mine’s, today in ruins, began in 1914. This metal hardens the ammunition and makes them more resistant.

These mines belonged to a German company named "Mining Company of North of Portugal", drilled more than 6 km of holes along the river from where they extracted this rare metal to be sold during the first and second world wars.

Nowadays you will only find its ruins and a small highly stratified village, as it was the standard way of living in those contexts of mining communities.

The river with the same name as this village, has fabulous landscapes hidden in its valley. Small turquoise lakes and astonishing cascades are only accessible using the techniques and knowledge to do so.

Walking along the trail from Rio de Frades we will arrive to Cabreiros a charming village with lovely stone houses, a typically village. From here we can go until Tebilhão on bucolic trail, flanked by granite stone walls.

From Póvoa das Leiras to Covêlo de Paivô

After the stone houses of the village (Póvoa das Leiras) there is a trail that leads us to a stone platform path that goes almost until Covêlo de Paivô, downhill always at half-slope.

Despite not having any proof, this route appears to have been a work of Romans, is one of those trails that one must put on the list of must-sees.
After this long walk we will arrive to Covêlo of Paivô, but not before crossing a large natural pool ... a bath is “compulsory”. The crystal clear water with small fishes makes us feel like it should be in paradise.

Arouquesa beef and goats from the hills

The sighting of grazing cattle when we walk is always an interesting moment and here these moments happen often because breeding is a strong source of income to the locals.

Around here we can find mainly cows and goats.

The arouquesa cow breed is highly appreciated and its meat reaches high values on the market is.

Arouquesa cows are docile animals with a candid look and with an impressive pair of horns that easily awakens your deepest sense of respect.

Goats are also very numerous and abundant are also the products that this animal provides us such as the milk to do goat cheese ... nhummy :)

Covas do Monte is another small village with an interesting particularity: is has about 75 inhabitants and we can find here more than 2000 goats coming out every day in the morning to go graze on the hills, a spectacle worthy of seen and living as a shepherd for one day.

Gastronomy

There is no place in Portugal about which there is not a lot to talk about gastronomy and this area is no different.

I would like to point out two typical dishes: Serra da Arada lamb baked in wood-burning oven and the roasted aroquesa veal.

They are both, of course, dishes based on products of the mountains such as the veal aroquesa, the lamb, vegetables and other products, both worked with the traditional techniques and equipment as the wood-burning oven, trays and platters of clay and slowly baking the meat to be tender and without losing their juices and flavors.

Of course the wine we drink around here is the Dão doc but on this spectacular wine I'll write a post one day.

Are you willing to meet the Serra da Freita and Serra da Arada? I hope so:) Here I am to go walking with you in the Serra da Freita and share these wonders.

David Monteiro

Older Posts

Walking in Portugal

Quality Tours

Lousã 's aqueduct

Foz do Lizandro

"Little goat’s jump", São Miguel, Azores

Are you planning to visit Lisbon in one day?

Unknown places to walk - Douro Valley and river Bestança

The Way of Saint James

Alentejo, an excellent Portuguese region for walking - part 2/2

Unknown places to walk - the river Alva dams

Alentejo, an excellent Portuguese region for walking - part 1/2

Port wine

Cape Roca - The westernmost point of Europe's mainland.

Walking in the Serra da Freita – must see / must do

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