Eleven days with friends in central Portugal and western Spain

You can fit a lot into eleven days. We met our friends, Jim and Laurel from Brisbane in the beautiful Spanish city of Salamanca. The old town is a city of ornately carved sandstone and dates back to celtic times. The city university was founded in the 11th century and became a centre for learning in the 15th century. The city library is stunning and was originally a cloister with a well in the middle of the courtyard.

After Salamanca our next highlight (other than seeing otters on a lake near Castelo Branco where we camped) was the Portuguese village of Monsanto. The village is literally nestled in and around the granite boulders. On top of the hill was an 11th century castle ruin built by the Knights Templar. It was foggy with light rain when we visited. We have since seen images of the rock formations and views on a clear day; and it is even more spectacular. 

Since hearing about the huge winter surf at Nazare Portugal we have wanted to visit and were not disappointed. From the clifftop we watched the towline surfers ride waves up to 20m high. All we can say is wow!

In Nazare we had lunch in a little backstreet cafe. We shared two dishes: a seafood cataplan and a seafood rice. Both had rich thick sauces based on stock, tomato, garlic, onion and capsicum. The cataplan had a base of sliced potatoes which had been cooked in the sauce. The rice was fluffy and filling. In each dish there was a sand crab, four mud crab claws, pippis, fish and prawn. Oh my, such food memories!

We drove onto Perniche, about an hour's drive south of Nazare. The town is reknown for its fort, city wall, surf, handmade lace production and fishing industry. We enjoyed shopping in the market for fresh sardines, eating Portuguese tarts, seeing the lace being made, walking the peninsular near sunset, drinking capirinhas and eating tapas; but sobered as we visited the  National Resistance Museum.

From Perniche we visited Coruche, the capital of the cork producing region. The bark is stripped in sheets from the mature cork oak trees from ground to 1.5-1.8m high every 9 years. They are a deep ochre colour when stripped and a white number is painted on the tree indicating the year of harvest. 

We visited the hand stitched carpet producing town of Arraiolos with its beautiful wool designs. Then onto Evora, famed for its bone chapel...A chapel some 12 X 25m with walls and part of the ceiling decorated almost entirely with human skulls and bones. Otherwise Evora is a beautiful walled city with a Roman aqueduct. The San Francisco church and monastery is exceptionally beautiful. You can walk on the roof and admire the sandstone spires, bell towers, tiled conical roof, elaborately carved sandstone cloister with an orange grove and well.  In Evora dinner consisted of suckling pig and suckling goatling cooked over a wood fire. Such decadence!

From Evora we drove onto Estremoz and Vila Vicosa where much of the Portuguese marble originates. In Elvas there is a UNESCO 16th century fort, a Roman arched aqueduct 4 vertical arches high and semi dried plums unlike any we've tasted before. 

A winery tour and tasting in Campo Maior. The winery was the most mechanised that we've seen. Interesting light controlled architecture, which was climate controlled through layers of concrete, earthen floors and additional humidity (75%).

In Badajoz we visited the Moorish Alcabazar and archaeological area, the roman bridge and old town.

Roman ruins in the city of Merida included a theatre, coliseum, Temple of Diana, aqueducts, archways, etc.

In Caceres we spent our final day together. The Caceres old town is a mix of Roman architecture, Moorish citadels and later Spanish palaces. Caceres is a foody city. We lunched on tapas. The quality of which exceeded any, that any of us had had before: egg and truffle; braised pork cheek; beef with anchovy oil; salad with white garlic and mango; creamy cod fish with a cheese gratin; followed by chocolate and wasabi truffles; and a custard of egg yolk, almond meal, sugar and sprinkled almonds for dessert.

After 11 days we said our good byes and are already looking forward to our next catch up.