My trip to Portugal. Part 3: On the road!

For the third part of the trip we rented a car and drove a few hundreds kilometers around south Portugal. If you have missed the rest of the story you can check out Part 1: Lisbon and Part 2: Evora

We started from Evora on a rainy Saturday morning heading northeast. We avoided the highway in order to take a good look to the countryside but the rain confided us in the car and my attempt to take pictures through the window was a total disaster :)
Nevertheless I managed to take a couple of shots decent enough to present them here!

The first think I noticed was cows, a lot of them but it was the cork oaks that really fascinated me. Apparently Portugal is producing large quantities of cork, it is kind of a national product but I had never seen the tree from which cork actually comes from! It looks like a regular oak tree but when it is time to harvest it they remove the bark leaving the trunk "naked" and red! They even put a number on the tree so that they'll know when it should be harvested again (I think every 9 years). I don't know about you but I found it very interesting, I even took a couple of seeds to plant them on Crete!

A couple of hours later we arrived at the small town of Marvão which is known for the well-preserved medieval castle and for the amazing view over the whole region, since it is built on the top of a steep hill. Two surprises where expecting us there! The first and unpleasant one was the fog that covered the place and the rain that started shortly after we had arrived (it had stopped earlier). No amazing view for us!

Of course this wasn't enough to stop us from going all the way up to the castle and to wonder around the town. It was during this wondering around when run into the second and much more pleasant surprise! That was no other than the annual Chestnut Festival and Fair of Marvão, a big celebration with a lot of chestnuts and plenty of wine. Lucky us!

Wet from the rain, dizzy from the wine and completely satisfied from an absolutely memorable day, we took our way back. Many thanks to our sober driver who took us safely home, through the dark and rainy roads :)

The next morning the weather was much better and we decided to drive south. About an hour later we arrived to Beja. I hadn't heard of it before but we all felt like stretching our legs and a random googling about it showed that it should be interesting. And interesting it was!

As it was Sunday morning we didn't ran into many people but either way, the walk around the medieval roads was absolutely charming and I got the feeling of a very intimate and pleasant vibe! Maybe it was because of this friendly doggie who come to greet us!

After this short stop we continued our way south-east through the "Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana" on a route almost parallel to the borders with Spain and 3 hours later we reached Faro. It was a wonderful ride through the mountainous scenery but for one more time I found out that taking pictures through the window of a moving car is much more difficult than it seems!

Faro is the southernmost city of Portugal and one of long history! I found the historical center completely fascinating although the city outside the medieval walls was rather disappointing!

The sunset was the chance for the last nice shots of the day! After that it was the quest for food and the return to our base at Evora. One more day that filled us with images and memories came to an end!