6. March 30 March 31 Viseu to Cohvilha

30 March 2019

Drove south out of Viseu in the morning and broke up the two-and-a-half hour drive to Covilha by stopping in the small quaint village of Belmonte.  The bustle factor is winding down as we head further south and that works for me.  Belmonte is a picturesque little town and I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Arrived in Covilha the middle of the afternoon at another Pousada hotel – this one a repurposed sanitarium originally for TB patient’s way back before antibiotics.  Then in the 1970’s it housed, and I love this phrase, “hundreds of returning Portuguese”, and I assume they were returning from some African colony they got their butts kicked out of.   Nice euphemism.  The hotel is by itself on the side of a mountain four miles up a winding road out of town and the view is forever.  We’re high enough and close enough to Spain that I think we see it from our room.  The hotel, Pousada Serra de Estrela,  is a huge place that could have been the setting of “The Shining”, except here Jack Nicholson would have had a lot of company.  There must be a Saturday to Sunday night deal going on for families with kids because last night the place was packed with moms, dads and kids going and coming from the hotel’s swimming pool.   Everybody having a good time and the kids are more than cute enough.   Very nice to see.

Maria gave me the responsibility of finding a place to eat so I booked a moderately priced place down the mountain in Covilha that was TripAdvisor approved.  Jason drove while I Googled-Mapped us to a dead-end down a steep narrow street with no restaurant anywhere.  Mr. Lamanna somehow got the car back out of this brutal cul-de-sac to a slightly passable road, but our Google Maps system had no idea where to go next and directed us as if we were in a bumper car in an amusement park.  One hopeless narrow road after another with Maria in the back repeatedly confirming the obvious with “this town is crazy!”  We stopped while I Googled the restaurant itself and hit the “directions” button on their website which directed us to a different address down some more tortured roads but finally to Alkimya Restaurant.  With the assistance of our tall, stunning African waitress from some Portuguese colony near Equatorial Guinea we had a fantastic meal.  I didn’t get her name but she’s in Portugal studying Economics.  One of her smiles could have powered a neighborhood.  Why would anybody want white skin?

After dinner we walked around the little nearby park situated on the edge of one of the higher points of Covilha so there were great views to be had.  At one edge of the park there was a glass door that didn’t seem to be a door one would want to open unless they were in the mood to fall off a cliff to their death.  Closer inspection revealed it was the entry to an elevator that went way down to a walkway that led to another elevator that dropped to a ~500m walkway to a lower part of town.  You’ll have to check out the pictures of this gizmo.  The town fathers of this steep mountain town, or whoever dreamed this up, definitely had pedestrians in mind. 

31 March 31, 2019

Left the hotel this morning and quickly found trails through the mountains above.  Spent the morning lazily checking out the views, taking in the mountain air and coming across all kinds of wildflowers.  Definitely one of the trip highlights for me.   We needed the mountain walk. 

Drove back down to Covilha since we were all in the mood for that great Portuguese specialty….. Pizza.  After more than a week in Portugal, we needed a break from cod and octopus, even though the food here has been terrific.   We knew where a pizza shop was since we’d passed it when yesterday’s GPS fiasco took us right by it.  Good God, it was great pizza.  After a late lunch we headed right to the elevators we’d found the night before and took a Disney quality ride into lower Covilha. 

Our hotel is Pousada-great, the ride here from Viseu beautiful, the stop in Belmonte one of the highlights, the mountains, the elevator, the pizza and last night’s dinner all great.   Tomorrow we head way south to Evora for two nights before one night in Lisbon and back to Gloucester.

Town center in Belmonte

View from old castle of Belmonte

One more view of Belmonte

1510 original manuscript by area clerk 

now kept in museum of Belmonte's castle

Relatively recent graveyard in Belmonte 

On drive to Covilha we stopped at this stream for a picnic

View during drive to Covilha

Pousada Serra de Estrela

Pousada Serra de Estrela

On the hills above hotel in Covilha

Wildflower show during walk

Maria and Laurie during walk

M

Elevator to lower Covilha

This photo shows the walkway and second elevator

On our way to lower Covilha