On the road to Roman Ruins of Milreu in Estoi I-XI centuries AD - Faro beach/foot shot

About 5 miles north of Faro, Portugal is Milreu, the remains of a rural Roman VIlla, including baths and running water network, a Roman temple, kitchens.  The location was settled by the Romans and occupied for a thousand years, then presumably abandoned for another six hundred years.  There’s also a Portuguese farm house from the 16th century, if you like that modern stuff!

This was an amazing cap to our wonderful Portugal trip.  We spent a fine day in Faro before returning to Dublin for a day before heading back home.  In a disruptively stupid juggle with our tumblr queue, I mistakenly already posted the entry from our final day in Dublin!

This is therefore the final post from our Ireland/Paris/Belgium/Amsterdam/Portugal trip of Autumn 2012!!!

We have plans to continue this tumblrblog with pictures of other trips we’ve already taken, though I expect our typical blog-diligence will have us updating it in fits and starts.

Happy Travels!

Jenn & Rob

Portimão, Portugal - Lunch stop on the way to Faro

I TOLD you the Tezenis girl loves me, she followed us all the way to Portimão!

Sagres, Portugal - Pt. 3

The light on my jacket is really the final entry of our Sagres Foggy Day.  Walking home from the restaurant we were legitimately concerned about being run over by a driver thinking we were fog.

Of course the sun god makes an appearance on the day we leave Sagres. 

Sagres, Portugal Pt. 2 - The Foggy Day

Not to be confused with the Rainy Day a couple of posts ago, this was our day led by the gods of fog.  We were still able to discover what peppercorns look like in nature, and what big, scary spiders like to hang out among them!

Lagos’ Grottos & pizza

Sagres, Portugal - The Rainy Day

Sagres is a beach town on the tip of Portugal which was once thought of by seafaring Europeans as the end of the world.  The feral cats are the direct descendants of the kitties owned by Henry The Navigator and are therefore all-but-holy (apocryphal).

We’d hoped to have a couple of beach days here, but the gods rain decided that we were better off with misty vistas and fish soup.  A theatrical fado presentation in a medieval church was a nice addition.  

Be aware that not all megalithic monuments are created equal.  those lithics weren’t quite mega!

Neolithic sites near Evora, Portugal.
And CORK!

What’s that?  Oh, it’s a circle, or a ‘henge’.  Yeah, it’s made of stones, but nobody refers to this one by that name you’re thinking of.  Besides, this one is kind of henge-ish, it’s not a perfect circle.

What’s that?  It’s a beautiful sacrifice on a rock-slab altar!
mmmmmm rock-slab altar!

What’s that?  Oh, just a casual pose within a neolithic site of worship.

What’s that?  No, it’s not called THAT, even though it’s a henge made of stone!

What’s that?  It’s a path through someone’s farm land allowing free public access from the road to these  unsupervised, unregulated, completely free to visit neolithic sites!

What’s that?  Oh, it’s just Jenn lovin’ up on some stone-age plinth.  It’s not the first time!

What’s that?  Oh, it’s just me standing in the entrance of another neolithic passage tomb of the same basic design as those we visited in Ireland.
What’s that?  same tomb from the side: It’s not obvious from these pictures and those of  Newgrange and Knowth that they’re the same design, because the Irish examples are covered with earth, but these stone structures are at their core. 

What’s that?  It’s a grove of trees like dozens we’ve already driven past.  Are the trunks painted red?  For some sort of pest prevention?  What are these trees?  Are they some sort of huge olive tree?

What’s that?  OHHHHHHH!   These are cork groves!  The wood is red (!) where the cork-bark has been harvested.  We both knew that cork came from trees and even that a lot of it is produced in Portugal, but we’re completely excited to suddenly see exactly where it comes from.  We are super dorks!

Evora, Portugal Pt. 2:  Capela dos Ossos
Restaurante Barraca De Pau, (outside of Evora) 

Where are you going in such a hurry traveler?
Stop … do not proceed;
You have no greater concern,
Than this one: that on which you focus your sight.

Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end,
There is good reason to reflect
If only all did the same.

Ponder, you so influenced by fate,
Among all the many concerns of the world,
So little do you reflect on death;

If by chance you glance at this place,
Stop … for the sake of your journey,
The more you pause, the further on your journey you will be.

by Fr. António da Ascenção (translation by Fr. Carlos A. Martins, CC)

The Restaurante Barraca De Pau is a roadside cafe that may have served us our best meal in a trip full of excellent meals.  Between this and the subject of our very first tumblr blog post, we’ve decided that whenever we have car-access in a foreign country, we’ll be taking as many meals as possible at random roadside restaurants!

Evora, Portugal Pt. 1

Sintra, Portugal - Castelo dos Mouros / Moorish Castle 9th Century

You all know we love playing castle, and will never turn down an opportunity to do so, but this medieval Castelo dos Mouros is absolutely one of our favorites.  It’s a long trek to the fortress itself, for which you’re rewarded by legitimately dangerous drops, amazing (and strategic) vistas, and secluded towers in which it’s really easy to imagine a long watch duty in which one inevitably hallucinates the ghost of King Hamlet.