Almaa

We stayed in a hostel outside of Sintra, Portugal to celebrate Eleanor's birthday. It is called Almaa (click here) and I had found it by chance before we left St. Augustine. It was a beautiful restoration of an ancient home, Quinta dos Lobos, in a world style that incorporated color, alternative design and furnishings made by Fourth Sector producers. The house, the oldest in the area, and the extensive adjoining gardens were a great place to rest and make new friends. If you are thinking about visiting Europe... this is great place to spend some time.

Almaa Hostel

Furnishings made from recycled materials 

Vegetable and flower garden

The gardener's chickens

Our friends Manuela and Kamala

Grotto with plates from an 18th century royal banquet

Manuela and Eleanor prepare dinner. The kitchen is the oldest part of the house.

Dining table 

Morning after guitar playing by candlelight and inscense

Artwork made from beach trash

Heading on... reluctantly

Dried Fish and the Royals in the Mountains

It is July 4. Pretty quiet here south of Madrid. I haven't checked in in a couple of weeks and in a week we will be leaving the Iberian peninsula for the US. Will catch up when I get home if not before. Curt

June 17
We reached Nazare late in the afternoon as people flooded off the beach. Older women were still selling their fish along the seawall. Behind them on the beach were stretched long drying racks and nets  from the days fishing.

As the daylight faded we walked up and down the tight streets and lit on a small restaurant withits entrance was almost hidden along the wall bordering the stone 'calle'. The futbal game was starting and we enjoyed grilled fish caught that day.

Nazare

Nazare

Our restaurant and the owner

His grandparents

I had booked what appeared to be an interesting hostel for Eleanor's birthday in Sintra just west of Lisbon. Spending the next midday in Obidos, a small walled city, we arrived in the remarkable town of Sintra with its twisting roads. After getting lost a man led us to Almaa. I'll save that for the next post.

Obidos... you can walk the top of the walls around the town. No barriers. And factor in the wind.

Fellow artists Eleanor and Burt

Obidos courtyard

On to Sintra...

Along our walk to town

Mosaic in the Quinta da Regaliera

The architect and builders dug a maze of caves under the Quinta

and a mystical shaft to the surface

On to the gardens of Palacio do Pena

Pena Palace

and the Castelo dos Mouros- Castle of the Moors built in the 8th century