Tom`s travels: Trip around eastern Portugal (22-23/11/2014)

My friends and I decided to rent a car from a company called Interrent that is located in Coimbra-B train station to do a trip in the eastern part of Portugal. I had planned for us to leave early on Saturday morning, around 8, so I booked the car for the day before because on Saturday the shop's opening time was at 10 and that would've delayed our departure by 2 hours. However after going to get the car on Friday at 6:30pm, the woman at the desk said that the driver had to be the credit card holder, however that wasn't written on the site and I tried to complain without result. So we came back the morning after, thus losing 2 hours, corrected the "wrong info" and finally got our car at 10:30. The drive took about 2 hours and our first stop was the amazing village of Monsanto, perched on a hilttop reaching 758m, it dominates the surrounding flat landscape. It is dubbed as the most traditional village in Portugal, and the houses are built inside massive granite boulders. After parking the car, we went into a café for a coffee and bathroom break before starting heading up the steep streets of the village. The owner, a woman probably German judging by her accent, told us she had to lock the bathrooms because tourists would just come in to use them without paying or ordering anything. After the break we started our ascent; old houses and churches lined the narrow streets, many abandoned while others turned into bad and breakfasts or restaurants; not many had locals actually living in them, something that reminded me of Venice's situation and how in fact in Portugal a phenomenon of migration towards the coast was happening so most of the villages of the interior were being abandoned. Our first stop was at the clock tower where a miradouro or panoramic point revealed and awesome view of the plains below. Wind was already blowing quite hard and we decided to head up towards the castle which sat on the highest point. After passing a ruined church, the Capela de Sao Miguel do Castelo, we passed under the castle's main gate. We entered the big courtyard and went up some stairs to get on top of the walls, where we started walking around the castle's perimeter. After reaching the highest point of the hill, 758m, we took some photos and gathered in the amazing views from up there; all around plains, fields, cattle etc and to the east not too far, behind a few low mountains was Spain. After a while walking around to keep up with the schedule, we started heading down the hill, but before reaching the car we had a quick stop at a local shop that had really good pasteis de cereja or cherry sweets, Gobbling up hr last mouthfuls we got in the car and headed to our next stop: Idanha-a-Velha. Along the road we saw many cows, sheep, goats and even pigs to which I yelled "Bacon, bacon" followed by everyone's laughter. After reaching the village and parking the car, we started out visit of Idanha-a-Velha; we passed by the main roman gate and headed directly for the village's main site the Visigothic Cathedral. Walking through this empty village felt very strange because we were the only ones there, no sing of locals nor tourists, only some stray cats wandering about. At one point, tow tourists popped out of nowhere and hearing our laughter the man told us to shut up and respect the silence of the place, to which I kinda laughed inside because first we weren't inside a church and second, there was no one around so we were actually making the village a little livelier. We then reached the cathedral which unfortunately we found closed; a very nice example of visigothic architecture this used to be an pre-christian basilica, abd after the visigoth invasion it became and arian church, later to be turned into a mosque by the iberian moors and then again a church during the reconquista. Around the church, were displayed many roman tombs and stones with latin inscriptions. We then entered what seemed to be a tourist office where a guy working there told us he didnt know when the chrch would open; it could be the next day at 5pm but it all depended on the holder of the keys... ahh Portugal! We then saw a really tiny museum on olive oil making and then headed for the tower of what used to be the village's castle. Along the way we met again that tourist couple and again the guy told us to shut up because we were disrespectful and asked if we would've liked for him to come to out cities and talk loud the same way; to which I answered that we weren't disrespectful and laughed with my friends and wondered if he knew that all of us came from big cities full of people and noise. After seeing the tower, which looked quite abandoned, and walking some more along the village (all the other churches were closed) we headed back to our car and started driving towards Idanha-a-Nova, where our hostel was located, However seeing that we had nearly reached the destination and that the sun hadn't set yet, we decided to take a quick stop at the Barragem de Marechal Cardona, a dam formed lake that is used as the settings for a popular summer concert called Boom Festival. Walking along the shore for a while and taking pictures we got back in the car and finally headed for Idanha. We got there when it was already dark but we had no trouble finding the hostel which was right at the center of the old town. We checked in and with Michal's youth card had to pay no extra fees so only 8 euros each with breakfast included! We were put in one room all together and it looked very nice and clean, with a private bathroom included. We then headed downstairs to ask where the closest supermarket was. We then took the car and headed for the Intermarché and bough some food for the dinner (wine included of course). Getting back to the hostel it was still quite early so we left the food in the room and went for a walk around the town: there are two churches, the main one and a smaller one, also a small hill where I suppose a castle or tower once stood where now only a cross stands, however it was completely dark and we couldn't see much so after walking for a while we headed back to eat dinner. After eating and drinking we were quite sleepy so we eventually fell asleep and woke up early the next morning. After a quite unsavory breakfast we headed out at 9:30 to our fist stop of the day: Penamacor. This village like all the others, is perched on a hilltop, and after parking the car in the city center we started the visit. As I had expected all the churches along the way were closed, so we reached the hilltop and passed through the castle gate. Inside were a few houses and eventually we reached the main tower which is all that remained of what was once a castle. We tired walked up the stairs of the tower but when we reached the door it was closed. So we went back down and headed for the clock tower on the walls, However while heading over there two great falcons appeared flying on top of our heads probably looking for food. After climbing the clock tower we saw the last part up had a sign saying passage was prohibited so jokingly we took a photo with the sign and us on the other side. The first stop of the day was complete so we got back in the car and headed for the next one: Sortelha. I think this was my favorite spot, even better than Monsanto. We parked the car and walked towards the castle and medieval village. The castle itself is really nice and with high walls completely encircles the medieval village with a fortified keep sitting on top of a rock at its center. We headed up to the keep and below us we could see the whole village, we took some photos and then started walking along the walls; it was a long walk up and down but well worth it since we saw the whole village from every possible angle. The sun even came out so it was quite pleasant too. Our next stop, Sabugal, had a huge and well fortified castle-keep that stands nearly surrounded by what looked like a small river; however since it was 1pm the castle was closing for lunch time so we had to enjoy it only from the outside. Walking through the village we saw some nice houses made of schist and then a woman stopped us and asked in Portuguese if Marija was her sister. She pointed and Marija and then herself and said she was her sister and wanted to know Marija's name but before we could find out how crazy she was, it started to rain really hard and so we ran to seek shelter. While waiting for the rain to stop we used the time to eat our lunch. By the time we were done it was still pouring so we headed back to the car running. Once in the car we headed for our next stop which was quite far away: Trancoso. Sitting on top of a flattened hill the town is fully surrounded by thick black walls, a stone typical of this area. The main gate has two fortified towers and inside the town is quite large. So as usual we headed for the castle first, stopping along the way to take pictures and visited the only open church we found which wasn't so special. Once inside the castle itself we climbed the keep's tower and walked along the walls that as with other places around Portugal don't have any rails protecting you from falling. The view from the top of the tower was nice, despite the cloudy and slightly rainy weather, once back out into the town we climbed the outer walls and started walking the battlements. However at one point the rain increased in intensity and it was time to go back to the car. Before leaving though, we stopped at a bar and tried the local sweet "sardinha de trancoso'' a sardine shaped sweet coated with sugar and the usual egg filling; not so special though, maybe we got it in the wrong place. Next on was our final stop: Celorico da Beira, on the way to Coimbra. Like all the other sights, it was a village on top of a hill. We walked the narrow streets and got to the walls, we tried walking around the to find the entrance but only found a closed gate. However I didn't give up so I asked a passing local who suggested me to go to the other side because there was another entrance; so we got in through the gate and headed up the castle's keep. Inside was a tiny museum and all the way to the top was a really narrow ladder that enabled to reach a tiny terrace with views of the surrounding landscape. However the way was blocked by two heating system units and Michal and I jumped over them to see the other side too. We also found cameras looking down to the castle courtyard and Michal and I took slefies with them. The sun was setting and the trip was over so we got back in the car and as always said bye bye to the last castle while heading towards Coimbra. About and hour and forty minutes later we were back home happy after this awesome adventure.