tedgale

Overview of our 17 nights in Portugal and Spain:

Picking up a car at Lisbon airport, we traveled to the Alentejo (2 nights), then crossed into western Spain to visit Extremadura (3 nights) and Salamanca (2 nights). Returning to Portugal, we briefly revisited the upper Douro Valley (1 night), then based ourselves in Viseu (3 nights) to visit Coimbra and the Serra de Estrela. Dropping the car at the airport, we spent 3 relaxed days in Lisbon, then flew to frenetic Barcelona (3 nights) before returning home.

Now read on...

We are an older Canadian couple, aged 62 and 71, who love travel and visit Europe twice a year on average. (I actually booked two additional week-long trips this year – February and May – to London, on family business. But that’s another story.)

The genesis of our trip was as follows: Winter-haters, we generally take a Spring trip in western Europe after our winter in Savannah GA, to take advantage of low season fares, the wide-open availability of hotels and vacation rentals – and to avoid the last ugly traces of an Ottawa winter.

After we returned from an autumn trip to Puglia and Provence on November 5, 2014, we were anxious to get south to our winter refuge in Savannah. We left for Georgia by car on November 28. And how glad we were to be away from our home city of Ottawa, Ontario for those months! Like much of the Northeast USA, Eastern Canada experienced its worst winter in recent memory.

We had left Canada with no idea where we’d end up on our Spring jaunt – we normally wait until the New Year to see what seat sales or other travel deals may be announced. We just knew we wanted to avoid winter at all costs!

In January, while we were still down south, Air France announced a surprise five-day sale on business-class flights from Montreal to certain European cities. For members of their Flying Blue plan, return business class fares were reduced by 50%, from 65,000 points to 32,500 points.
Since a return economy-class flight costs 25,000 points, this was a real bargain – at least, for those able to comply with the offer’s rather strict criteria: Immediate booking for a Spring departure from Montreal airport to a limited number of destinations.

Fortunately, the criteria suited us and we had almost the full number of points required for the trip. I did a quick search on Air France’s website to determine which destination offered the best connections and which destination offered the greatest saving over the normal business-class ticket price. It turned out that Lisbon gave the most bang for the buck: a return business-class fare normally costs about $4200 Canadian.

Taxes and purchasing points to top-up our existing Flying Blue balance cost a few hundred dollars per ticket. We were able to book “open jaws” tickets with this offer and elected to fly to Lisbon but to return from Barcelona – a far more convenient set of flights, with an 11 AM departure rather than the Lisbon flight’s 6 AM departure.

tedgale

We’d been to Portugal once before, in April 2014. We’d had great weather and great accommodation. I greatly admired the Manueline architecture; we found the Portuguese friendly and gracious; prices were very reasonable; there was a great deal of variety packed into a small space.

For those interested, here is the link to my 2014 trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-amsterdam.cfm

I’d hoped to return to Portugal sometime for a second look but I certainly had not expected to return so soon. Yet here was Portugal, dropped right into our laps.

When we committed ourselves to the trip, I imagined I’d have plenty of time to plan our itinerary and organize our bookings. But around that time, I was called to London for family matters and had to spend the next weeks organizing a weeklong trip in mid-February to a city I had not seen for two decades.

Planning for Portugal got short shrift. As our departure date approached, I realized how much was left un-researched and un-prepared. The front end of the trip was in pretty fair shape; the second half was skeletal, to put it mildly.

We stayed south until March 24 – first in Savannah and then, when our rental ended, in Delray Beach FL, where cousins lent us their condo for 12 sun-soaked days and balmy nights. That left us with 2 weeks in Ottawa before our flight to Lisbon – just time enough to catch up on mail and repack our bags.

All too soon, it was our departure day – Tuesday, April 7.

Our outbound flights were on Air France via Paris, our return on KLM via Amsterdam. It was interesting to compare the planes and service on these two partner airlines (KLM won, hands down). Our flights were:

AF 0347 7 April Depart YUL 19h20 Arrive CDG 8h20
AF 1024 Depart CDG 9h40 (Apr 8) Arrive LIS 11h10
KL 1666 25 April Depart BCN 11h05 Arrive AMS 13h30
KL 0671 Depart AMS 15h20 Arrive YUL 16h50

tedgale

Here’s a synopsis of where we went and what we did:

Day 1: VILA VICOSA, ALENTEJO
Arrival at Lisbon airport, pick up car from Europcar
A cloudy, blustery wet day – we missed the hot, sunny weather by one week, apparently

Motorway and then the N4 to Evora

As we’d been to Evora last year, this was just a wander around. Last year we visited the main sights, including the nearby Cromlech of Almendres, the university, the Praca do Giraldo and the central Se (cathedral) and its cloister, which we much admired. This time, we focused on the Igreja Sao Joao Evangelista, a small, azulejo-rich chapel – a very civilized spot, well restored.

We had a rendezvous at 5 PM with an Ottawa friend but there was a mix up about where he was staying – we never did meet

Drove to the nearby “marble town” of Vila Vicosa – we had booked a two night stay at Solar dos Mascarenhas

Dinner at nearby Narcissus, a really first-rate “gourmet” evening, with impeccable service

Insider tip: Stay on the motorway from Lisbon airport to Evora. We got off the motorway to take the slower, more scenic N4. It was slow going and the scenery, though intermittently pretty, was nothing compared to the magnificent hill country we saw the next day.

tedgale

BTW: I HAVE SOME DETAILED COMMENTS ON THE FLIGHTS AND OUR CARRIERS but I'll leave those to the end...

Here’s a run-down of where we stayed:

April 8 and 9 – Solar dos Mascarenhas, Vila Vicosa, Alentejo region, Portugal, which I found on the Great Small Hotels website:

http://www.greatsmallhotels.com/vila...s-mascarenhas/

Low rates and positive online reviews drew us to this very modern hotel grafted onto a 17th or 18th C building a few steps from the Ducal Palace in Vila Vicosa. Prices were so low that we opted for a two-room suite, with spacious living room and two balconies. The price, with a generous breakfast, was 90 E per night.

Our immaculate suite had a spare modern décor, as did the public areas. As there were few other visitors, we had the public rooms largely to ourselves.

In the off-season, the hotel has a skeleton staff of young locals; sometimes the front desk was unstaffed or staff was absent. We relish our privacy and don’t need a lot of personal service.

The staff we did deal with was uniformly pleasant and helpful; the young woman at the front desk even insisted – to my considerable chagrin – on whipping our bags up a long, long staircase to our room, while we parked the car.

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Day 2: ALENTEJO CONTINUED

Wet and blustery to start but we graduated through the day to full sun and brilliant views – and then back to cloud.

We’d already visited stately Vila Vicosa last year and taken the not-very-satisfactory Portuguese-language tour of the Paco dos Duques de Braganca. This time we did a loop south to see the ruined castles of the small, fortified border towns: Terena, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Mourao, Moura (we skipped Alandroal, which we’d visited last year).

Mourao is the most obviously tourist-oriented and tourist-friendly town but each castle was magnificent and we had the less-known ones (Moura, Monsaraz) almost entirely to ourselves.

The empty countryside of verdant, rolling hills seemed unnaturally empty: we saw plantations of olives and some livestock but few houses or people outside the towns.

We made our way home via the Barraje de Aquelva – a huge dam that is part of the extensive reservoir-building efforts in this famously dry region.

We finished the day with a wander through the castle precinct of Vila Vicosa – there is no castle within the walls, only a backwater of village streets and picturesque cottages. The walls themselves and the magnificent, azulejo-decorated church are the main attractions.

Dinner was at popular Safari, the nearest restaurant in a downpour – plain, hearty cooking with no pretensions and not much flair. At our elbow was the only irritating (American) family we encountered on the trip.

WISH I’D SEEN: Beja, to the SW, was just too far to combine with the other sites in a day trip.

I wish we could have visited the regional museum in Convento de Nossa Senhora de la Conceicao, for its gilded interiors, Seville Azulejo tiles of 1459, baroque chapel, Spanish and Portuguese architectural traits, its portraits of monarchs and religious paintings. Nearby Castle of Beja has the largest donjon in Portugal – you can climb the tower for views.

I’m also sorry the weather sent us to Safari, whereas we should have driven a half-hour to the celebrated hip/ traditional restaurant A Bolota (Rua Madre Teresa, Santo Antonio do Terrugem; Phone: +35 (1) 268 656 118)

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Day 3: TRUJILLO, EXTREMADURA:

Travel via back roads to Elvas, a magnificent fortified border town with Moorish remains and extensive 17th C fortifications designed by a Dutch mathematician.

Our visit had two main centres: The walled historic centre, with the main square, cathedral, the Moorish remains and tiny, ancient castle and the famed aqueduct, which brought water to the town in the 18th C; and the Forte de Santa Luzia, a defensive fort on a hill opposite the main core (another higher-sited defensive fort was closed for renovation)

Picked up the motorway and drove across the Spanish border (did not even need to stop the car). At Badajoz, we split off onto secondary roads and drove across magnificent, highly varied countryside (verdant tilled fields, broad and empty plains, steep hills) to bustling Caceres, then via the motorway to sleepy Trujillo.

We had two nights booked at Casa de Orellana.

We wandered the labyrinthine and very hilly Old Town, with a visit to the picturesque Plaza Mayor.

Dinner was at La Alberca, an inexpensive, unpretentious restaurant close to, and recommended by, the staff at Casa de Orellana.

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April 10 and 11 – Casa de Orellana, Trujillo, Extremadura, Spain, found through TripAdvisor:

http://www.casadeorellana.com/en

This was our splurge choice, selected after I found some negative reviews of the rural inn I’d already booked. We paid 120 E/ night to stay in this five-room guest house, beautifully restored and superbly decorated, near the top of the old town in hilly Trujillo.

The old town is a warren of small streets easily explored on foot, once you’ve parked your car in one of its tiny byways. (You call the owner when you reach the town and he comes on a motor-bike to guide you to the property. It’s actually easier to navigate the town, on foot or in a car, than it first appears.)

Our large but low-ceilinged room had every amenity we could want, including an abundance of storage and an ample sitting area. The bathroom was large and modern, though rather plain.

The hotel’s two-level garden with pool is an opulent outdoor retreat, to which we had direct access through French doors from our room.

The public rooms, especially the upstairs library (which sat unused during our whole visit), were like something from Architectural Digest.

Both the owner, José, and his German-born assistant speak rather broken English. But we managed fine. Breakfasts, offered from 9 AM, were ample.

There were a few elegant touches to the housekeeping that we appreciated – there was a turn-down service at night and in the morning, you returned from breakfast to find the bed already made and the room straightened. There was a full cleaning later in the day.

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Day 4: EXTREMADURA, CONTINUED:

Via small roads (passing Zorita, Logrosan) through spectacular landscape to tiny Guadalupe, site of the magnificent cathedral and monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

My notes read: “Stunning view of the high iron forged gate (early 16th.c.) and magnificent principal chapel (18th C) with huge much decorated altarpiece in wood from Borneo containing the statue of the Black Virgin of Guadalupe. The sacristy is the most beautiful room of the monastery. There are eight paintings of the famous Sevillan painter Zurbaran.”

A Spanish-only tour with a busload of older Spaniards – we were blissfully free to wander and dawdle, ignored by the guide.

The architecture and its decoration, including the mudejar elements, were superb. The Zurbarans left me cold.

In the afternoon, drove cross-country through more of the region’s extraordinary mountainous scenery to the Monfrague National Park.

A brief visit. Overhead, raptors circled in the brilliant sunshine and dived into the deep river chasm – a bit too close for comfort sometimes.

We returned, mostly via motorway, to Trujillo, where we again wandered the Old Town: to the outlook at the town’s summit, the Castilo, then to the Iglesia de Santa Maria Mayor (climbing the belltower for splendid views over the countryside) and a walk outside the town walls on the W side of town.

Dinner was in the heavily-touristed Plaza Mayor, at near-empty restaurant Bizcocho.

Their 20 Euro menu is exceptional value, with great food and scrupulously attentive service (Plaza Mayor, 6, Trujillo. Menu of 3 courses with wine and water, 20 E. Telephone: 927 322 017)

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Day 5: CACERES, EXTREMADURA:

Sunday morning stroll, to say goodbye to the Old Town of Trujillo.

Drove the 40 minutes to wealthy, sophisticated and beautifully maintained Caceres, then continued NW – through empty plains oddly sprinkled with boulders – to the hillside town of Alcantara, site of a magnificent monastery (not open to visits but still worth seeing from outside) and an early Roman bridge. A dam has created a picturesque lake.

Returning to Caceres in the afternoon, we parked the car in a central parking garage – surprisingly easy, despite my concerns about the warren of streets in the historic centre.

We had a one-night booking at the Hotel Casa Don Fernando, overlooking the Plaza Mayor.

Not a day for museum-going: a sunny, hot Sunday, with thronging crowds. We were content to wander the historic centre from our hotel: the Plaza de San Marco and its church; the Plaza de las Veletas; the Concatedrale de Santa Maria; the Plaza de San Jorge. By the time we made up our minds to visit the Torre de Bujaco, it was already closed.

Excellent light dinner of tapas on a terrace at Cayena, fronting the Plaza Mayor.

tedgale

April 12 – Casa Don Fernando, Caceres, Extremadura, Spain, also found through Trip Advisor:

http://www.casadonfernando.com/en/caceres-hotel.php

We don’t normally do one-night stops without a very good reason – yet on this trip, we did it twice.

In this instance, I wanted to visit Caceres but did not want to make a day trip from Trujillo, a mere 40 minutes away by motorway. I reckoned that once we “struggled” our way to a hard-to-find parking garage in the historic centre of this city (sometimes in trip planning, my Scots fatalism and fearfulness get the upper hand), we wouldn’t want to “struggle” our way back out.

Driving into gorgeous, historic Caceres on a sleepy Sunday in off-season turned out to be effortless, as was our departure next day. But I’m very glad we stayed at this charming, recently re-done hotel.

For 99 E we got a special Sunday-evening package: A superior room with balcony overlooking the central square, plus breakfast and a dinner of tapas with a glass of wine at nearby Cayena restaurant.

As I reported on Trip Advisor:

“The location couldn't be better - the Plaza Mayor was lively in the day, yet quiet after dark. Our room was not huge but was very well equipped and smartly decorated. The bathroom WAS huge and very luxurious. Breakfast is served in a casual but stylish space. The food was abundant and varied. We had a dinner of tapas at nearby Cayena, which has the same owners. The tapas were an absolute culinary high point of our trip to Spain and the cost was absurdly low. Front-desk staff in the hotel were consistently helpful and friendly. We have no hesitation in recommending this hotel for a relaxed stay in elegant surroundings.”

Bedar

Enjoying your trip report, thanks. Try to have it also tagged Spain so others can find it and be more adventurous by going to Extremadura !

Elizabeth_S

Now I have two of your trips to Portugal to emulate.

(great TR as always)

tedgale

Can anyone tell me how to re-open this post to tag it as "Spain" too, not just Portugal????

tedgale

Resuming....

Day 6: SALAMANCA, CASTILLA Y LEON:

Morning stroll through the historic centre of Caceres. This time – after a lengthy serenade by the organist, who was rehearsing in the loft – we climbed the bell tower of the cathedral. The hour of 11 struck while we were at the top – something my ears will not soon forget.

We set out by motorway to the historic university town of Salamanca, surely one of the architectural high points of our trip.

At one point, however, we left the motorway to climb into the rock-strewn hills, then descend into the Jerte valley. We knew the cherry blossoms would be done – it was the dramatic scenery we wanted to see. Dramatic it was, in its early-spring pallor and bareness.

Through a mountain pass at 1500 metres to return to the motorway; we reached Salamanca around 4 PM.

With our landlord as guide, we parked in an underground parking garage near our apartment and went on foot thereafter.

We discovered we had arrived on a popular civic holiday, Lunes de Aguas – historically, the date of the return of the city’s prostitutes after their annual Lenten banishment.

Big party plans were afoot. When I wandered toward the river, I found the public parkland on both sides of the Roman bridge had been taken over by thousands of young people. Much booze, much mess on the ground – even at the early hour of 6 PM, it looked like the final day of Woodstock.

On our get-acquainted walk, we explored the Plaza Mayor and looked into the Casa de las Conchas and the Iglesia San Martin; we walked around the main university buildings. I could not enter San Marcos (a mass was underway) but did visit. Plainly, we would need to ration our time on Day 7.

Dinner was cooked at home, to give us a break from restaurant meals. The noise around the Plaza Mayor died down around 4 AM.

tedgale

April 13 and 14 – Plaza del Corillo apartment, Salamanca, Castile y Leon, Spain, booked through Air BnB:

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/5563610?s=omZV

As Salamanca is a university town, the pedestrianized centre of this historic small city tends to be very lively until the wee hours.

We found a downtown option that was well-insulated from the revelry. In my Air BnB review, I said:

“The apartment, a few steps from lively Plaza Mayor, is brand new and sparkling clean. It's a bright, well designed and attractively furnished flat in a well maintained building (with elevator). Kitchen and baths are compact but luxuriously equipped. Carlos has thought of everything you'd ever need, from a steam iron to a rolling pin. Our one concern was street noise in the evenings - but with quadruple-glazed windows, the main bedroom was as quiet as a country cottage.”

We paid about $125 Canadian per night – about $100 US.

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SOME NOTES ABOUT AIR BnB:

We discovered the delights of Air BnB in February of this year, when we rented two great London flats through the company.

We booked three short stays through them this year: in Salamanca, Lisbon and Barcelona. I heartily recommend them.

For those who don’t know, Air BnB has become quite upscale. Their unique features are:

You pay them, not the flat owner or manager – so you can use your credit card with some assurance you’re not getting scammed.

You also pay in your currency of choice. Their exchange fee is about the same as my bank or CC company charges and you can see the amount up front.

The company emphasizes the personal touch: Most listings have a good number of verified online reviews. You can read a bio of your landlord, just as your landlord can read about you (including any online reviews of you as a previous tenant).

You’re encouraged to communicate in advance with your landlord and some of our landlords were quite intensely interested in us and our trip plans.

They have standardized the presentation of properties and in particular insist on a goodly number of high-quality photos of each property listed. They also identify the street, if not the actual street address, on the map that shows the property’s location.

Their map-based search function is very easy to use, if you already know what neighbourhood(s) you want to stay in.

People who list properties through Air BnB tell me they take a very healthy chunk of the rental amount – the “booking fee” you see is only a fraction of their take. But overall I found the prices we paid quite reasonable – better than hotel prices in some cases and certainly better than those “boutique” rental agencies operating in English and oriented specifically to North American tourists.

The regulation of short-term rentals is a vexed issue in many cities, most notably Paris.

I don’t know whether short-term rentals are legal or illegal in the cities we rented in. But we had no problems at all and there was nothing to suggest we were dealing in a black market or with shady operators. Quite the contrary, in fact.

If I were planning a stay in any very large city (NYC, London, Paris) nowadays, I would check out the regulatory landscape before booking ANY property through ANY agency.

tedgale

Day 7: SALAMANCA, CONTINUED:

Morning visit (Tuesdays are free until noon) to the old and new cathedrals, a very extensive complex worth a couple of hours. The older building has more charm and atmosphere, especially the cloister and its chapels, but the new is indescribably grand.

We climbed the towers to the viewing platforms on the parapets, to see the intricate sandstone carving up close – definitely recommended.

Afternoon visit to the Convento de San Esteban and its cloister.

Next up, a lesser site: the convent of the Annunciation near the Palacio de Monterrey, to which we were admitted by an elderly (possibly senile) nun, whom we found sitting in total darkness.

We realized we were too sated with churches and grandeur to visit the Clerecia complex. Visited instead the Art Nouveau and Art Deco museum near the river, the Casa Lis.

Not an overly engaging institution, I found; I might have liked it better if we’d been able to see their upcoming exhibition on Coco Chanel and her friends, which opened a day or two later.

Dinner at home once more and an early night.

tedgale

Day 8: PESO DA REGUA, DOURO VALLEY:

On the motorway, we crossed back into Portugal and then, before Guarda, exited to visit fortified Almeida. At noontime, we were almost alone in the tiny town – except for large flocks of sheep grazing within sight of the mid-17th C fortifications built to the theories of Vauban.

Foolishly, I suggested we continue on back roads to our destination, Regua, on the Douro River.

We never actually got lost but the network of roads though this poor rural region were very, very small. Sign-posting was minimal and frequently confusing, even deceptive.

The villages looked poor and no one was about. Add to this a torrential rainstorm that produced gushes of filthy runoff and created large, deep pools on the road. During a brief but intense hail storm, I thought the car would be damaged.

The countryside was prettier and the roads better as we approached civilization, near Lamego, but we were too tired to enjoy it.

We stopped in at Ervedosa do Douro to make a lunch reservation for the next day at the new but already-celebrated restaurant Toca da Riposa.

We were grateful to arrive at our one-night booking, the elegant Hotel Douro Delfim.

There had been a huge storm in the Douro too, with much erosion of hillsides.

We didn’t even go out for dinner that night – we ate a few lunch leftovers in our hotel room.

welltraveledbrit

Enjoying your jaunt!

tedgale

April 15 – Delfim Douro hotel, on the Douro river in Viseu region (near Peso da Regua):

http://www.delfimdourohotel.com/en/D...l/Gallery.aspx

I’d spotted this hotel during our visit to the Douro last year. On that visit, we’d stayed at the opulent Quinta da Pacheca, a wine estate with a fine restaurant.

For our lightning-quick return visit, I wanted something a bit plainer but with a great river view.

The Delfim Douro is a very new, medium-sized hotel cunningly set into a steep hillside, in the midst of grapevines. It has a spectacular river view, which we appreciated even in the blustery, wet weather of our visit.

We paid 90 E per night for a standard room – a well-equipped and comfortably furnished space with a small balcony overlooking a bend in the river.

There were few people staying at mid-week when we were there. Despite that, the staff maintains a consistent high tone: candles are lighted at night in the smartly decorated public rooms; the breakfast tables are re-set as soon as a party leaves their table.

Front-desk staff are faultlessly correct and helpful. I’ve read that the restaurant isn’t all that good – as I mentioned above, we didn’t dine there – but breakfast was quite lavish.