Europe 2026 - Peacocks, Ostriches and a Lovely Hideaway

Wednesday 1st April

Please don’t anyone moan about the state of British roads, just come to Portugal and you will see much worse.  I have to say that their main roads are good, but towns and villages are almost downright dangerous.  It’s just one hole after the other, usually right where the near side wheels go.  I bought some eggs yesterday, I just hope they don’t get broken!

We left the coast and headed inland to Evora, a three hour drive.  I had promised Richard that I would work out a route that would not take us through Lisbon and other than one wrong turn, it went as planned.  Afterwards, I thought that I should have asked Jem to plan me a route, duh!!

We did enough shopping to last over Easter and went to our park up for the night. It was a huge sandy car park that was practically empty other than half a dozen motorhomes.  You must understand that the car parks we stay in are nothing like car parks in the UK!

We took a walk into the old town of Evora and were stopped by an American couple as they wondered if Rio was a Havanese as they had had one who had died 14 months ago. They showed us a photo of Princess Grace, and she was so like Rio. They had just moved to Lisbon from the US as they felt that America is being very damaged by a certain President. They are not alone as Portugal is very welcoming to Americans with tax and pension benefits. We must have chatted on for about half an hour. We said goodbye to Sam and Jeffrey and walked on into town.

It was getting a bit late to do any sightseeing, so we found a bar, had a beer before returning to Kiwi. We had our beer in a lovely square which is named after Giraldo Sem Pavor (Gerald the Fearless), a folk hero who reconquered Évora from the Moors in 1165.  It appears to have a "dark" past!  In the 16th century, it was the site of the autos-da-fé (public penance and executions) and in 1484, the Duke of Braganza was beheaded here for conspiring against King John II.   In the middle of the square is the Henriquina Fountain (1570) which is a Baroque marble fountain. It has 8 spouts, each representing one of the 8 main streets that lead into the square.  Originally it was the end of the aqueduct where townsfolk would go to collect their water.

I had factored in time for sightseeing on Thursday before heading to our Easter stop over.  


Thursday 2nd April

We walked into Evora and to the Igreja e Mosteiro de São Francisco (Church and Monastery of Saint Francis). It was built between 1480 and 1510 during the reigns of King João II and King Manuel I, replacing an earlier 13th-century Gothic church that had been established by the Franciscan Order shortly after they arrived in Évora.  It is beautiful inside as it once served as a Royal Chapel. The kings spared no expense, resulting in the massive granite structure and the largest single-vaulted nave in Portugal.

Next door is the Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of Bones) which was created in the 17th century by three Franciscan friars and was designed to provoke reflection on the transience of life. At the time, Évora had over 40 cemeteries taking up valuable land, and the monks decided to move the remains here to serve as a spiritual "memento mori."   The walls and eight central pillars are completely lined with the skulls and bones of approximately 5,000 individuals!  Fortunately, I looked up as the vaulted ceilings are painted with beautiful 19th century frescoes depicting religious symbols and allegories of death. 

Next was to see one end of the Aqueduct Agua de Prata.  The other end is 11 miles out of town.  We always seem to think of aqueducts as being Roman, but this one was built in the 16th century to provide the town with water.  In places houses have been built into the arches, or at least their front doors have.

It was quite a walk back to see the Cathedral and the Roman Temple.  Sadly, there was a service going on in the Cathedral so I didn’t get to see it, but as far as I can gather the Igreja e Mosteiro de São Francisco is by far the most attractive building.  The Cathedral is the largest medieval cathedral in Portugal and looks more like a castle than a church. Built between 1186 and 1250, it marks the transition from Romanesque to Gothic styles.

The Roman Temple stands proud at the top of the town and right beside the Cathedral. 

Contrary to the local legend of it being dedicated to the goddess Diana, historical evidence suggests it was built in the 1st century AD to honour Emperor Augustus, who was worshipped as a god.  The structure is famous for its 14 original Corinthian columns, which feature granite shafts and capitals carved from white marble from the nearby Estremoz region.  Its remarkably preserved state is partly due to its varied history; over the centuries, the temple was incorporated into medieval castle walls and even repurposed as a slaughterhouse before being restored in the 19th century.

To street to get to and from the Largo do Conde de Vila Flor, the square where the Temple and Cathedral are situated, is a lovely street full of interesting shops, though many of them are gift shops.  We were drawn into a restaurant which offered breadcrumbs with pork meat, though neither of us had that!

Back to a hot Kiwi and then an hour and forty minute drive to our stop, an olive and wine, farm until Sunday.

I’m not going to tell you about the farm today, I will leave it until tomorrow 😆

Friday 3^rd April

We are now as far south as we were going to go. In fact we are only about 100 miles from the Algarve coast.  I asked Jem how far away the coast was and he said 1,338 miles!  I had forgotten the VPN was on, so that was the distance from home!

The olive and wine farm is called Monte de Louzeiras and is in the middle of nowhere.  Our pitch is in an olive grove, and our neighbours are peacocks and chickens.  There is also a lovely Border Collie called Lunar, who popped round to make sure we were OK from time to time.  Other animals are 2 horses, 2 ponies, a donkey, 20 cats, 7 peacocks, ducks and 4 ostriches!!  There are also wild lynx and boar. There is also a swimming pool which I was looking forward to having a dip in, but it wasn’t ready after the winter.

We spent a very peaceful and restful day.  I caught up with lots of things that needed doing - it was lovely to just chill as the last four weeks have been pretty full on.

The farm owners put on a barbecue in the evening for those who wanted to go, and I think most people did.  Outside, what is called the family room, is a lovely patio with a bar.  All drinks were included in the price of the meal.  They make red and rose wine on the farm, but not white, so I drank the rose which was very palatable.  We had typical Portuguese starters sitting at the bar then went inside for the main course which was Black Iberian pig done in two ways which was absolutely delicious, along with some super salads.  There was so much food, and we were all encouraged to keep going back for more! It was a lovely evening.

When we first arrived for the barbecue, the sun was setting over the pool, it was lovely.  Apparently once the sun has set the peacocks get up on the roof to roost.  The leader makes the most peculiar noise, rather like a “hee haw” to call the others.  Once he was happy that everyone was safe, all went quiet until sunrise!

Mark, the farm owner, showed us his wine cellar and told us how they make the wine. 

He uses amphorae which is one of the oldest traditions in winemaking, dating back over 8,000 years to ancient Georgia. While modern stainless steel and oak barrels dominate today's industry, amphorae are seeing a massive resurgence among natural winemakers.  In September they pick the grapes early in the morning as it too hot after 11am.  It’s then back to the farm for lunch then the ladies, literally, tread the grapes before the crushed grapes are put into the amphora. The liquid is distilled three times before left for a few months.  Mark’s amphoras hold between 1000 and 2000 litres and are about 300 years old.  There is no one making them anymore, so Mark has to rely on people giving up to get “new” ones.

I was trying to take a photo of one of the peacocks with his tail feathers open, but he got photobombed by an ostrich!!

Europe 2026 - Sand, Sea, Blue Skies, Sunshine and a Major Clanger!

Sunday 29th March

The clocks sprung forward overnight, but also overnight we could hear boom boom all the time, Richard says that it was head banging music!!!It went on until 5am BST!  I had read from reviews that on a Saturday there was music until 2am and thought we can cope with that, but I also thought that with it being out of season there probably wouldn’t be any!

We drove to Praia da Areia Branca which is said to have extensive white sand, backed by dunes and cliffs - I’ll go along with that. It was beautiful but not dog friendly, so we didn’t stay long.

Next was Ericeira, however as we were driving along I was worried that, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, it could be very busy.  I knew that the town was know for being Europe’s first and only World Surfing Reserve, I could just imagine it being rammed.  I changed our parking area to out of town, a 15 minute walk, but when we got there it was quite a steep downhill walk and Richard’s knees don’t like steep downhill.  Time to come up with Plan B.  I had booked us into an aire for two nights as we wanted to go into Sintra, the reviews of the place were not good, but we needed somewhere secure and that had electricity.  So, Plan B was to stay in Ericeira on a campsite and either get an Uber into Sintra or take Kiwi in and return to the camp site afterwards.

The campsite, or RV park as they call it, was big with lots of chalets and teepees, though they weren’t up yet.  There were a handful of motorhomes there from varying nationalities.  We weren’t far from the facilities block and there were two free washing machines, but no tumble driers, however there were lots of washing lines.

Monday 30th March

I made a massive cock-up for today 😡

We took an Uber into Sintra and got dropped off at the station.  We were amazed and concerned about the amount of people around, we had been told it would be busy, but this busy??  There were queues for everything and, I think, even queues to join queues!  We caught the tourist bus  which goes up the hill to the Moorish Castle, the Peña Palace and finally the National Palace of Sintra.  The bus was rammed, it had to be overloaded.  I wanted to see the Peña Palace so we got off the bus and were directed to somewhere to pay, a young man took our money for the gardens only (I knew we wouldn’t be able to take Rio into the Palace) and asked us if we would like to use the shuttle bus or walk uphill for 20 minutes - needless to say we took the bus!  The bus driver suggested I sit on a disabled seat with Rio and we drove up to the Palace.  Then it all went horribly wrong.  The bus drivers changed at the top and the new one said no dogs, he wouldn’t let us off which we thought was a bit strange, we couldn’t understand why we had to go back to the bottom and then walk up.  He then told us to go and talk to one of the security men which we did.  It turns out that only service dogs are allowed anywhere in the Peña Palace grounds.  I understand that rules are rules but we had had interactions two officials and a driver and none of them had queried the dog.  At least we got the money back on our tickets. (I've just been putting photos into this post and it is so sad that I don't have any of the beautiful Pena Palace).

We caught the next tourist bus and went back down into Sintra getting off in the historic town.  We were hungry and found a nice restaurant called Tascantiga where we both had steak sandwiches.

We had a quick mooch before catching the tourist bus back to the station.  We debated about taking the other tourist bus and visit Monserrate Palace (which was dog friendly) but, to be honest, we were not enjoying Sintra and not just because of the Peña Palace debacle, it was far too busy for us, especially with Rio. 

I called an Uber and got dropped off at south beach in Ericeira.  The beach was really busy and then we realised it was the Easter school holidays, which is probably why Sintra was so much busier than we expected.  North beach only had about half a dozen people on it so we let Rio off the lead and he just ran and ran - poor little dog.  He had been so good.  In and out of his carrier goodness knows how many times.  In fact Rio has grown up so much since this time last year, when he would try and escape all the time, he knows now that he isn’t to go out of the van though sometimes the lure of the big outside is too much for a little dog!

We got one last Uber to take us back to the campsite, where we all just collapsed!


Tuesday 31st March

We didn’t have far to go today. 

Our first stop was to Cabo da Roca which is the westernmost point of continental Europe, where land literally ends and the vast Atlantic begins.  Historically, this was considered the "edge of the world," a sentiment captured by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões on the stone monument there: “Onde a terra se acaba e o mar começa” (Where the land ends and the sea begins).  I was worried that it would be really busy, but was pleased to see that there was plenty of parking.  Also up there was a lighthouse which was built in 1772.  The red-and-white beacon is one of the oldest in Portugal and still guides ships today. 

Our next port of call and over night stay was Cascais.  The town has an interesting history.  Human presence in the region dates back to the Paleolithic era, with evidence of Roman and Moorish settlements later found throughout the territory. For centuries, Cascais was a small, quiet village of fishermen and farmers until In 1364, King Pedro I granted it administrative independence, elevating it to the status of a town. Because of its position at the mouth of the Tagus estuary, Cascais became vital for the defense of Lisbon.  King John II built a small fortress in 1488, which eventually grew into the massive Cidadela de Cascais (Citadel). The 1755 Earthquake: The Great Lisbon Earthquake and the resulting tsunami devastated Cascais, destroying many of its medieval buildings and its original castle. The town had to be significantly rebuilt in the years that followed.  The most dramatic transformation occurred in 1870, when King Luís I decided to convert the Citadel into his summer residence.  The King’s move drew the Portuguese nobility and wealthy elite, who built extravagant chalets and palaces (like the Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães). This era turned Cascais into one of Europe's most elegant seaside resorts.  During WWII, Portugal’s neutrality made Cascais and neighboring Estoril a sanctuary for exiled European royalty (including the Spanish, Italian, and Bulgarian royal families). 

Cascais is the European Capital of Democracy 2026, not sure what that means but it sounds impressive.

We parked up and started to walk into the town, however the sun was so strong and it was so hot that we only got as far as the lighthouse before turning back.

We deviated slightly off our route to see the Boca do Inferno (Hell’s Mouth) which is a dramatic chasm in the seaside cliffs where the waves crash with immense force.  There is a sea arch and a collapsed cave formation.  There was plenty of spray from the waves and with it being almost high tide it was the best time to see it.

As we walked down the hill into the town the noise from the waves crashing against the cliffs was, at times, like a gun shot.  I’m not sure how high up we were but you can see from the photos the amazing spray.

We went to see the Santa Marta Lighthouse which was originally built in 1867 on the grounds of a 17th-century fort, its striking blue-and-white horizontal stripes make it one of the most photographed structures on the Portuguese coast.  Sadly this was another no dog zone.  I just went in to take a photo of the lighthouse. 

By this stage we were so hot and Rio was panting so we turned round and walked back up the hill to a bar, where all three of use partook of their beverages and a bowl of French fries!

Our overnight stop was where we had parked.  This was a first for us, stopping on the side of a road (parallel parking).  It is a recognised overnight stop for motorhomes and there were six of us in the end.  The view from the van was across a fairly quiet road, a footpath, a cycleway and then the sea.  It really was a lovely location though we couldn’t sit outside.