Did I say this was a country house? It seems to be located right next to a fairly main road and it was getting traffic at 5:30am. Cars would fly by.and the road is literally right next to the house. with the bells from the nearby church and the dogs barking nonstop throughout the night werent great. The place is still really nice and the hosts are friendly but not quite country. We still managed to sleep in though so thats a good sign?
Started the day going back to the castle we saw the night before. We walked along the boardwalk stopping in the shade of any trees along the way since it was 40 degrees. At least it wasnt humid like it is in Ottawa. At the end we went down to the stairs to the fluvial pools by the river. It was super charming and cool how they created it for They even had life guards. We rolled up or pants and walked around in the water and watched the locals jump off the diving board and the cliffs, while their families lounged on the side in the shade. The kids were
getting hot so we jumped in the car to take advantage of the air conditioning and went up the hill to the Casal Novo. Its an old medieval village made out of shale houses that were mostly abandoned bit being reclaimed and used as airbnbs. We saw some in different states, some very nice, others needing work, and some with for sale signs. We looked them up afterwards and they were selling for €110,000 and airbnb was charging CAD a night! Crazy considering youre in the middle of nowhere and have to drive a crazy narrow road up the mountain. One of them had a satellite dish but not sure how good the internet/tv speeds would be.
When we were walking around we saw what looked to be an actual resident. He was an old man with a long gray beard, looked like a hermit. Unfortunately we didnt get a picture. Would have been weird to be staying alone up there with the hermit.
The drive down the narrow roads was better than going up and didnt encounter too many cars going the other way. When we got back to society, we stopped at the grocery store and got
some snacks. Camille wanted to get bacon and eggs and make us breakfast tomorrow morning in the garden kitchen. Very sweet. Had an afternoon swim in the pool to cool off and then went back into town to eat at the QB restaurant again. Camerons fettuccini carbonara (Cams new fave dish) was very good. Had more pans cotta, our new go to nut free dessert and it was so good. Finished off the night with a swim with the kids in the pool and packed up a bit.
We leave for Evora tomorrow, and one more day of heat. Its supposed to be a bit cooler down south by the ocean.
