Exploring history in London & abroad with my camera
Villafranca del Bierzo, on the Camino de Santiago, is a wonderfully peaceful little town in the hills in the East of Léon in Northern Spain. If you only have two days in the town then do see these sights. The Church of Santiago is where the Camino enters the town on the way to Santiago. And…
Mertola is a small, walled town on a hillside next to the River Guadiana at the edge of the Algarve, and topped with a castle. This was the most northerly trading town on the river, used by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who were followed by the Romans and then the Moors (for 500 years) before this…
Serpa is another of those towns in the east of Portugal's Alentejo which is relatively unknown to tourists - people travel to the Algarve, or Porto, or Lisbon, but the Alentejo remains hidden and undiscovered. Restless Jo wrote a marvellous post on the town recently - do read it! I didn't do Serpa justice and just would…
We were in Beja, which was new to us, staying in the wonderful Pousada Sao Francisco there, and set off to explore the surrounding areas as well. It was an easy and attractive drive to Moura, another of those sites in Portugal which has been inhabited for thousands of years. Most 'recently' this was an…
Visiting an area or town for the first time usually means seeing the 'obvious' sights first, returning if there is time and I particularly enjoyed something, then I move on to the 'secondary' sights, and after that I am free to wander at will! Put like that it sounds a bit obsessional but I like…
I love the wideness and openness of the beautiful Alentejo countryside - rolling hills, olive and cork oak trees, and myriads of flowers in the springtime. In the east there are also numerous castles on top of the hills, protecting the border with Spain for hundreds of years. This was a day outing from Vila Viçosa in…
Before I take you to Beja in 2018 we are going to hop back to 2017 when we were based at Vila Viçosa and spent four wonderful days exploring the area. On this day rain was forecast so we planned a little car tour and activities and walks which offered shelter! We had visited the…
I love exploring Portugal off the beaten track and I had often wondered what lay in the countryside beyond Campo Maior and close to the Spanish border. So, on a clear morning in May 2017 we set off from Vila Viçosa to walk the PR1 CMR. The walk is c.6kms, well waymarked, and is easy and flat…
Last year we enjoyed a visit to Portalegre and afterwards drove back to the Pousada at Flor de Rosa via the scenic route - through the countryside behind Portalegre - the Sao Mamede Park. It was May and the yellow and white brooms were flowering everywhere - it was gorgeously beautiful! In…
There are many different ways in which one could begin a trip to the interior of Portugal and one which I particularly enjoy is a flight from the UK into Lisbon airport, arriving at the end of the day, and then DB&B in the Pousada at Palmela. This year the torrential rain made the drive…
