Time to head back to the Southern part of Portugal and we did half of that trip today. We only had two stops but they were AMAZING. About 1.5 hours outside of Porto we came to the Bucaco National Forest and Palace Hotel. The Forest was once home to the Dscalced Carmelite Monks who built a convent with small chapels and encircling walls until the dissolution in 1834. The forest is 105 Hectares and is known globallly was one of the finest collections of wooded plants int the world, it has a small river running through along with foutains and statues through out. Most of the monestary was torn down for the Palace which was commissioned as a retreat by King Charles 1 of Portugal, it is now a beautiful hotel but still has so much of the heritage in tiles, decor and the surrounding forest. Phil flew his drone around the palace and it was fun to see him make it all come to life on video. Next and final site for today was the Convent of Christ Castle in Tomar. The castle was buil King Alfonso Henriques around 1160, and the convent was built within the walls after being given to the Knights of Templar by the King. The order was dissolved by the 14th century and now both the Castle and the Convent are a Unesco Heritage site. The whole place was amazing – you just felt like you had stepped back in history and could not image if the walls could talk what they would say. Once again Phil flew his drone and captured some beautiful air shots. One thing we discovered driving today is that storks nest in electrical towers, it was crazy to see the huge nests and the storks actually in them. We have finished our day in Setabul for a quick over nighter before we head tomorrow along the Southern coast line down to The Algarve. It was an amazing day visiting two hitorical sites.
Amazing pictures! Love to see what you all are up to!