"You're on the wrong side of my Quinta...stay right there I can see your black car!"With these words we were about to find a jewel in the hills of Alpendorada. Quite by chance Shane booked a room east of Porto near the Douro River just outside the village of Alpendorada. Between our GPS and the very strange directions we got from a fellow at the restaurant where we had lunch we managed to get quite lost. When I phoned the Quinta & told her where we were she...

Sintra - two Castles. a Palace and a park all in one day. And what a day! Sun shining amid the tourist chaos in Sintra. One of a very few 'mountains' in this part of Portugal it is topped by the Moorish Castle which snakes it's way around the rocky apex and the Palace of Pena with it's colourful past and presence.The Moorish castle was built around the 10th Century by Muslim forces who used it as a control tower for the Atlantic coast and the ...

Morning round abouts while leaving Sagres consisted of finding a solution to toll highways in Portugal. Not unlike a driver I hired in India many years ago, it is always best to ask the same question many times and go with the majority answer. Well it seems the toll roads confuse even the locals. With no clear idea & knowing we were driving to Lisbon, we decided to buy the toll card at the CTT Post office. That would work, right? So we paid the Euros, entere...

Packed up in out tiny Fiat we heded north west of Seville on the N433. Absolutely no idea where we will end up, it just looked liie the only scenic road nearby heading towards Portugal. The highway (which we try to avoid) runs straight west through the busy beach towns.With stops in Aracena & Cortegena (Aracena the more interesting of the two) we found ourselves caught in a round abouts in Beja looking for a place to spend the night. Found a great place that h...

Early morning up and at em joining the buisness men and women that catch the 8:45 Express flight to Seville. Carry on baggage meant an easy exit and the direct bus to downtown meant an easy (and cheaper) transit. Again we find ourselves in the historic center. Well actually there is another area called the historic center but this area, Santa Cruz, has a much more interesting history. It is, oddly enough, the old Jewis quarter built in such a way as to allow ...