In which there are secret histories and mountains made of stars (Portugal part III).

The next morning began with clouds, mist, and smoke from vine burnings across the valley, cold but not raining, ie. a good day for driving. After a bit of map and guidebook pondering the night before, we'd picked out our next destination and booked a hotel in the Serra da Estrela, or "Star Mountains", twinkle twinkle. The little town of Belmonte was about a two-hour drive south and brought us back through Pinhão, over the Douro and up, up, up the side of the valley and over and away on the N229, furnished with amazing views of vineyards on all sides, tiny towns in high places with many pink houses, the scenery finally flattening into a plateau before the start of the mountain range.  

The landscape changed significantly going into Antas, becoming wild, prehistoric, with trees overgrown with lichen, evergreens, and giant granite boulders hiding the dinosaurs -- a precursor to the rugged mountain landscape to come.
 

We lunched in continental Portugal's highest city, Guarda, with a medieval-looking old town filled with winding alleys and a castle-like cathedral (closed for viewing at lunchtime).

The snowflakes were our cue to get back in the car and continue toward Belmonte. Josh had booked us a night at a swankily restored convent-turned-pousada (hotel in a historic building), which turned out to be quite, quite, quite perfect once we found it. It was hidden in some hills outside the city and Google tried to take us there on a road that didn't exist, and then finally did get us there by illegally driving through a mountain park road that was not very gentle when it came to vehicle handling. Thanks, thanks for that. 

Many of the many, many windows in the convent looked out over this.

Belmonte itself was a fascinating little place, mostly due to it's Jewish history. Many Jews went into hiding there during the Inquisition over 500 years ago and kept their traditions and culture alive in secret until the 1990s, when acceptance of the Jewish faith had grown there and they were "discovered" by the outside world, becoming the subjects of historical articles (here's one), documentaries and more. A Jewish history museum tells their story and that of their religious persecution in the late 1400s, including a memorial to the men, women and children burned alive at that time, the names of many of which are listed there. How incredible and horrifying is it then, that centuries later and with all the advancements of our day, humans are still destroying each other for the same reasons?

More uplifting, however, was the town's castle, which was brilliantly renovated as a performance space with a polished granite amphitheater.
 

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped in a little café selling local handicrafts, where a very friendly and helpful lady provided us with hot beverages, good cheer, and insider tips for where to go on the rest of our trip, ultimately planning the rest of our vacation for us, thank you very much (!).

It stormed hard that night, and we delighted in a perfect evening camped out by the woodstove in the old, stone courtyard-turned-winter-garden, the middle of which was sealed with a plastic covering to let in only sunshine and the sound of pounding rain. Wine, candles, cozy & toasty toes.

Thursday started bright and fresh with a long walk in the mountain park, and as predicted, walking there intentionally was much more fun than driving there unintentionally. Fantastic boulder sculptures, amazing smells, granite & quartz, sunlight over the distant landscape and snow-capped mountain ridge, yellow and purple poppings in flower-form from each cranny and crevice, the friendly wind so fresh and cleansing, nature endorphins pumping high.

These trees were fuzzy. Surely evolution did that to make them more huggable? 

 

This tree was doing a great job growing out of a boulder.

This tree, though far away, sang an ocean song of waves crashing on the beach when its branches were strummed by the breeze. 

Belmonte basking on its sunny hilltop.

I got back to the hotel high on life and ready to meet Josh for a most excellent afternoon adventure. Stay tuned!