From Val de Carvalho, Casa O Nascer do Sol

Saturday, October 10, 2015
Valença do Douro, Viseu, Portugal
Up early after a great sleep... The bed was a bit squeaky but I slept well. Good shower and no sound from the road....no traffic as the village is so small no one drives after dark. We were up before the Portuguese TV crew so had the table to ourselves to begin with...started with fresh local orange juice, then scrambled eggs and bits of bacon, then fresh brown bread or soft white buns with several kinds of cheeses, ham, salami. 4 kinds of homemade jam- orange- quince, grape jelly, apricot and even tomato which was very yummy.. Then cake and great coffee plus yogurt and granola.....very large and yummy.
Unfortunately the weather has turned rainy and much colder...it's misty so no pretty visit as today...we drove towards Luso, then to Bucaco which is a forest retreat originally developed by the Carmelites to get away from the world and women...later they collected trees from all over the world as the Portuguese came back from their colonies... A battle between the French armies of Napoleon and the English/ Portuguese under Wellington took place in1810...Wellington won and they had a big re-enactment just a few weeks ago that Joke and Wim attended.
....then in 1888 King Carlos built a Palace as a Royal hunting lodge...he didn't stay in it but his son Manual II used it as a romantic destination for a girlfriend and it has been a luxury hotel for some years...bit run down and stuffy now...

Next time should check out the Mosteiro de Lorvao: 6-10 C convent
Unfortunately the weather didn't help our planned exploration of the forest but we did walk down to the Vale of Ferns and the Fonte Fria which is a cold natural spring that cascades down several sets of steps.... Would be beautiful in the sunshine but it was just wet today.... There is a Carmelite convent as well and when we arrived there were 2 little dogs all curled up and sleeping on an outside bench... There must have been a service about to start because several Portuguese families were arriving all dressed up. The flower gardens were Sri
L beautiful but in summer they must be lovely....formal box hedges with roses, asters, marigolds and other annuals...
We left and drove through the hills and slopes toward Viseu which is about half way to the Douto valley....Still heavily forested with Eucalyptus and pine trees but a lot of logging evident....supposedly the wood is used for paper production. We had a coffee at a little cafe in Viseu and fo 3€ 50 I had Calde Verde did soup which is potato, kale with chorizo sausage.....then a cheese and ham toaste and a glass of white wine...pretty good for the price...pretty town with a Central Park and old town...would be nice in the sunshine..
Wethen set out for Lamego passing through the clouds ,past high hills with huge boulders...above tree line at about 980 meters....then Lamego which is a big town with high rise towers and industry but right on the Douro River...we turned off the A4 onto the N222 which runs along the rivers edge and immediately saw many Quintes on the hills....all you can see are the terraced hills full of vines and Olive trees....many do the Quint s have their names on the hills...Sandman is just down the hill from where we are staying tonight.
Casa Cimera near Valenca do Douro
We put the coordinates into the GPS but we went around turn after turn going up and still up until we finally arrived at Casa Cimera...it's an old Quinte house which has been converted to 5 rooms maybe with a big inner courtyard and back garden and swimming pool.....we are hoping the weather improves a bit as we are back in the clouds and cannot see the valley at all from way up here...we were greeted by A young girl...Agnes I Think...she doesn't speak any English but we managed with a few hand signals and a translation App.
We are going to have Cod baked in corn bread...a very traditional Portuguese
W also have met a Polish couple also staying here...Andrew and Anna....they live part in Warsaw and part of the time in Phoenix where their daughter lives...they emigrated to the US in the 80w and lived in up StateNew York for some years.
It's 11:00 and just got back to our large 2 bedroom suite...it's on the main floor of the old house and is huge with a large bathroom with bidet and another smaller bedroom.. Large French doors go out. To a graveled patio overlooking the hills. And through the courtyard is another garden and pool area.. It's up very high on a hill and the surrounding tiny village is definitely not glamorous ...in fact just the opposite...but the family is so nice...even if they don't speak English...at all..Nada...none
We met 3 people from the Us but who are originally from Warsaw and now split their time between Phoenix and Warsaw....Andrew was an electrical engineer at GE until he retired in 2011. We also met a couple with a 2 year old son from Lisbon.. The husband is an archeological engineer and is working on a site we actually noticed while we were in Lisbon... The other 3 guests are Spanish and 2 of them were riding BMW motorbikes through the mountains...not much English either.. The Bacalrau was very good and we had roasted potatoes, cooked carrots and cabbage and cheese nod sausages first and a wonderful layer cake with cusrptard filling ...lots of red wine from the Casa and then their own port and coffee... Very nice evening for sure!
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2025-02-10

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