We spent a week in May exploring Portugal from the verdant Duoro Valley across to Porto on the Atlantic coast, down to the busy Lisboa area then along the southern coast to the pointy tip of Sagres and the beachy coves of Lagos. We crossed the border from Spain near Chavres and our first stop was in Alijo in the Duoro valley where a quietly spoken gentleman at the Tourismo gave us maps of the wineries, miradouros (lookouts) and towns of the Duoro valley. The Valley is deservedly a UNESCO world heritage site due to its long association with producing port, it’s beautiful vine strewn valleys and and the ancient roman ruins in the old towns. From there we headed towards the coast just above Porto to stay at Matsohinos then we would our way south via Lisboa, the southern beach towns and finally to the Algarve. Heres a summary of the towns we visited in Portugal, in the order in which we visited them.
Alijo, Favaios and the Mirador De Uno. After picking up our brochures and a quick walk around the quaint town of Alijo we drove 10 minutes to the tiny town of Favaios. The turismo advised us that Favois is famous for their wood fired crunchy bread and we thought we’d grab some for a picnic at one of the Miradors. We walked to where all the ‘bakeries’ were marked on the map but sadly didn’t find any bread or bakeries. I later learned that these are not what we know as shop front bakeries but simply kitchens in people’s homes where they make and bake the bread in large rectangle pans in wood fired ovens following a method passed down orally from generation to generation. We did manage to find the walk up to the Capela de Santa Bárbara which provided glorious views over the wine and wheat fields out to the Marão mountain range on the horizon. We drove back in to Alijo and out the other side to the stunning cantilevered Mirador de Uno which reaches out far over the valley where you can see the Douro river snaking away into the distance.
Pinhão: The next town in the Duoro valley we visited was 45 mins from Alijo along high, narrow, twisty roads hugging the walls of the Duoro river valley and down to the riverside town of Pinhão. The town has seen better days with a lot of tumbling down buildings and empty shops, but it has a beautiful series of tiles telling the story of the old town along the wall of the railway station, some nice wine stores and a pretty riverfront with picnic tables and cafes. You can take a walk along the Duoro and Pinhão rivers to an old roman bridge (Ponta Romana) or jump on one of the old historic river boats called rabellos and taste local wines as you float.
Lamego: This friendly, clean town about 1 hour from Alijo packs a real punch with its beautiful cathedral, archaeological sites in the old town and its immense Baroque 700 step staircase up to the Santuario de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios.
The tourismo here, like in Alijo, has super friendly staff that explain where to find the many free sites in the town. We started with a walk up to the Castel at the very top of the old town where you can walk around the old fort walls and get great views. From there we visited the Porta dos Figos where we walked on thick glass over an archaeological site showcasing the Roman occupation from the 1-5th centuries including an ancient tomb complete with skeleton as found in situ, and walls of old houses with ancient pottery. Then we finished off our old town trio with a visit to the old water well, an impressive sunken stone pool that had sophisticated machinery to draw water to feed the town. I asked the guide at the water well why the steps were so high and steep around the town and he said it was to slow down enemy attackers who might try and invade the town!
Back down below the old town, we visited the Lamego Cathedral with its beautiful painted ceilings then tackled the long climb up the monumental staircase to the sanctuary. We stopped at the top for a picnic lunch as we admired the view and the statues of the kings, and the eight fountains. We took a look inside the Santuario de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, which was very ornate with many depictions of Mary, mostly with an infant Jesus, and pretty stained-glass windows.
Matosinhos: We stayed in this beach suburb 15 mins from Porto for the night and loved the big wide sandy beach and long boardwalks here that run along the coastline. It used to be an industrial area that processed sardines from the trawlers that came in from the sea and later had oil processing plants as well. It was gentrified in the 1950’s and now has lovely markets, endless seafood restaurants, and some pretty curious sculptures – like the one of a giant sombrero shaped fishing net called the ‘She changes’ sculpture which is referred to by locals as the Anemone and the swirling snail shell like passenger ship terminal called the The Terminal de Cruzeiros de Leixões on the point. This building is coated with one million three-dimensional ceramic tiles – made in Portugal, of course. There’s also Castelo do Quejo built to protect the Rio Leco river mouth now lies crumbling into the sand, battered by the waves at high tide. And we didn’t see them, but apparently there’s a series of seaside pools called the Piiscina des Máres
Porto is about 15 mins along the river, either by car, tram or bus from Matsohinos. We drove and parked on the outskirts of the old town and walked up the tiny apartment streets with skinny towering apartments and was hit by a big wall of tourists. It was the first packed town we’d been to and I think we hit the tour group timeslot with massive groups being led around town by flag waving guides. We tried to take the less busy streets and stumbled across the cutest teeny tiny cafe called Sandier that served the best soup and sandwiches we’d had in Portugal. We loved the old tram cars, ornate architecture, the tall pretty painted stacks of apartments scattered amongst gothic museums or cathedrals and the murals and Azulejos (mosaics) neighbourhoods and wished we had more time to explore pretty Porto as there was so much to see.
Sintra is set in the foothills of the Sintra Mountains and used to be a resort town for royalty – hence its grand palaces and exotic villas set atop the jagged hills. There’s many Palacio, monasteries and castles to visit in this UNESCO heritage town but as we only had half a day we chose to go to the whimsical, colourful 19th century Palace da Pena. Deemed one of Europe’s finest palaces with its rich coloured exterior and gran interior, this palace is perched on a rocky outcrop atop the second highest point in the Sintra hills. All advice says to take the bus or a tuk-tuk up to the palace as private cars are not allowed but of course we wanted to walk! This was a bad decision as the walking path is very poorly signposted and after walking through the park paths we were spat out onto a very narrow road heaving with the buses and Tuk-tuks we were told to take and then we had to scramble up boulders, stony paths and muddy tracks to reach the entrance to the park and then the palace itself. It took us about 45 mins at a fairly rapid pace and we only just made our ticketed time for the palace. We took a tuk-tuk down and as we only had 5 euro we were lucky enough to find a guy to take us both for this amount! It was all a bit rushed and chaotic for our liking with huge crowds squeezing their way through the palace – still it was magnificent and we were blown away at the colour and grandeur of the palace and the stunning interiors matched the colourful exterior!
Colares – Almoinhas Velhas – We were supposed to stay in Colares the night but our accommodation switched us to their other hostal in Almoinhaus Velhas. Both were only about 15 mins from Sintra but we were looking forward to going to the Miradouro da praia do caneiro for a sunset picnic and instead had to settle for the wild Guinchos surf beach which was still nice but a sea mist rolled in so no sunset to be had there! We were fascinated to see large restaurants perched on the clifftops at Guincho beach as it was a wild remote place. The next day we ventured a little further down the coast and had a big walk and swim on the beaches of the Costa de Capirica (see pic with lifesaving flag)
Almagrave – we hit gold with this little surf beach town – literally with a sunset that rivals the golden staircase to the moon in Broome Australia. The town itself is quite small and unremarkable with a typical array of white washed houses with terracotta roofs arranged in little blocks. It was a 10 min walk along a boardwalk to get to the large beach and there were walking tracks along the cliff tops on both sides to smaller cover beaches with sandstone pillars and bridges. There was an awesome beach bar facing the sunset over the large beach and we were very tempted to abandon our meal I had planned to cook in our hostal for a meal and sparkling!
Sagres: This big sprawling, windy surf town has grown a lot since we were last there thirty years ago! We had a quick visit on our way to Lagos and parked out at the Fort and Cape st Vincent lighthouse , paid our 3 euro each and walked the track around the headland past good flora and fauna info boards, the little maze, and up and around the old cannons on the fort walls.
Lagos is packed with so many gorgeous features we felt we barely scratched the surface on our 4-day stay in late May in this popular beach town on the Algarve. We had a tiny apartment in the heart of the old town in what looked like an old stable, just off the main pedestrian street (paved in very slippery little marble/limestone cobblestones) that winds down to the arched gateway of the old fort de Bandeira and out on to the water. It is a super busy tourist town but scattered with some gems of rooftop bars, boutiques, seafood restaurants and coffee shop/gelaterias.
Our favs were the Padaria Central (see photo) for great croissants and bread, No Patio (see photo) for delicious dinner in a secluded courtyard and the little café opposite our apartment for delicious tacos and pasta. There’s also lots of lively squares – try and avoid the touts that whisper “hashweedcoke” as you walk through these, and a very pretty cathedral.
For the active types there’s boat trips or canoe trips out around to the cove beaches and grottos and through the many limestone arches or you can walk along the boardwalks (see photo) to the Ponta de Piedade headland and out to the lighthouse passing the closest Lagos cove beach – Praia Batata then, Dona Ana beach and Pinhao beach. You can keep going past the lighthouse to the towering limestone cliffs and find the big long surf beach of Praia de Porto de Mós beach on the far side. Or if you like your beaches big and empty, walk 15 minutes over the river and through the marina out on to the 2km long sandy Meia Praia beach. We sat on the section called Praia de Sao Roque on lounges under straw umbrellas – it was bliss.
Curious observations about Portugal:
Once we crossed the border there were a couple of clear signs that we were no longer in Spain – the speed limit signs had gone from evens (60/80/100) to odds (50/70/90km/hr), there was waist high grass everywhere ( I don’t think Portugal believes in lawn mowers), blue and white tiles adorned homes and fences and there were giant white stork nests on top of every light or telephone pole. And curiously, our station wagon was classified as a truck (classe 2) on all the toll roads – so we had to pay double! We also noticed the names of accommodation and restaurants were all based on key SEO search words (such as our place called ‘Chez new best charm e design – your seaside dream’). There seems to be a plethora of furniture stores, with many of them abandoned and lots of ads along the roads for them as well. There’s grape vines everywhere – not a spare bit of land without grapes – even in in garden lots. Also everywhere is sardines in and on every item of food and clothing/accessories. They love painting their homes and apartments in pretty colours – but painting tradespeople could make a fortune here – every building needs a touch up! We noticed a lot more tourists and touts down south where the tourist season starts early and a lot of people offering ‘hashweedcoke’ openly to tourists in the streets. There’s a lot of nao functiona toilets, handbasins and equipment and ATMs – goodness they love their cash!
