One of the best parts of staying there was our dinners both nights. We had no idea what was in store for us when we told them we would indeed be dining at the hotel after we arrived around 9:00 pm. Nuno and his wife Maria run the hotel; Nuno grew up in Seia and they decided to build the small hotel in 2005. Maria creates all of the dishes herself, using locally grown ingredients - many of which are grown on the mountainside right next to the hotel. Each dinner started off with sparkling wine and an inventive appetizer, then a soup, some red wine, and then the main course. The second night we were offered red sparkling wine, which I had never had before, and it was wonderful. Only after asking more about the wine did we find out that it is from Nuno's family's vineyards. A nice touch, indeed.
On our last day there we opted to take a hike of the surrounding hills in the national park. We didn't realize it would be the owner himself who took the three of us on the hike. Since he was born there, he knows every trail like the back of his hand. We ended up being gone four and a half hours! We stopped at the largest grotto on the Iberian Peninsula, and even got to venture some into it. It was a bit scary, because as soon as you got through the opening and down inside, it was completely pitch-black. I am not the type to be claustrophobic, but I have to say I was a bit nervous!
Entrance to the grotto
Besides being famous for cheese, the region of Serra da Estrela also holds a lot of history, which is the case just about everywhere in Portugal. We hiked up to areas where the Visigoths had created villages to be able to keep a lookout in every direction. Not to bore you with too much history..... I'm not sure about you but the word "Visigoths" is stored somewhere far back in my brain along with other facts I've forgotten. So what better way for me to relearn some history than where it actually happened, right?
Abby and I are looking quite stylish here
We stopped halfway through for a snack that Nuno had packed for us. On the way back, we followed a stream for quite awhile and were even able to refill our bottles from a small waterfall. It's not very often you can feel confident about drinking the water from a stream. By the time we finally made it back to our hotel we threw on our suits and jumped in the (pretty darn cold) swimming pool. Maria made us sandwiches, and we were thinking how unfortunate it was that we couldn't stay there longer. We had to continue on to another town before we came back to Lisbon. Here are some pictures of our hike:
I'll be back with one more post to finish our trip!
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