SOME WERE EDIBLE, OTHERS NOT....

Despite the low temperature, Miscaros - the Mushroom Festival at a village tucked away deep in the heart of a mountain valley was  held through the weekend and made me visit it and enjoy both the atmosphere of the festival and the mushroom dishes. 

Obviously, mushrooms were the main dishes in all restaurants and taverns. The former are common eating places everywhere, so,I decided for a tavern which served various mushroom dishes.

Wherever I turned my eyes I saw "mushrooms", even human ones...

The village is not particularly beautiful, however, the locals had tried their best to make ornaments so as to make it colourful and appealing to visitors.

The dogs you see below are of a Portuguese breed named Estrela Mountain. They are faithful partners of the mountain shepherds, protecting their flocks from being attacked by wolves and foxes.

There were people of all ages,  most of them had come from far away. This mushroom-related event is one of the most well-known in the country. The area is the home to 300 varieties of mushrooms

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WANDERING IN A MEDIEVAL TOWN

Wandering in the medieval city of Trancoso is like going back to several centuries when the city was inhabited by an influential Jewish Community, the quarter of which is still vivid, somehow.

Traces of their living in the city can be seen here and there...

Evident Jewish traces

A typical wine shop

A small-sized shop sells home textiles that are hand embroidered by a very old woman, the owner, who asked me not to take a picture of her but of her beloved pet, instead....

Prisca is a must to visit shop that sells a wide range of regional foodstuffs that are also exported to many foreign markets.

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~~ Enjoy the last week of the current month ~~

ON THE PATH OF TRANSHUMANCE...

Yesterday, under a fine weather, I drove to a small village located high in a slope of a mountain  that's crossed by one of the paths of transhumance,

Although Napoleon´s armies brutally laid the village to waste, the narrow picturesque streets of Alpedrinha we still see  examples of popular architecture. that is characterised by wooden balconies and front porch steps.

There is plenty of water in the region

As I walked I heard the chirping of our feather friends...

Have a great week ahead!

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A LABYRINTH OF MEMORIES...

Belmonte, one of the 12 historical villages of Portugal, was under my radar for a long time until I visited it last month.

Homeland of medieval heroes and with a tiny Jewish community, it is an open invitation to my appetite for historical villages. On the other hand, it is also the place where Pedro Álvares Cabral was born – the man who (accidentally) discovered Brazil in 1500!

The small town of Belmonte is a historic town that is part of the only peninsular community that is a legitimate heir of the ancient historical presence of the Sephardic Jews.

Crowned by the medieval castle, the town of Belmonte stands out for the beauty of its landscapes and monuments, for its fabulous strategic position, which has made it dominate, from immemorial times, territories and communication routes. 

But Belmonte also knew how to welcome people of other creeds and cultures. Here was established a Jewish Community that survived centuries and centuries, still existing today.

A way of honouring this Community and its History, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in 2005, the first of the country to address this theme and that became one of the most visited museums in the region, sought by Jews from all over the world.

In town you can also visit the Belmonte Synagogue, inaugurated in 1996, under the name of Bet Eliahu Synagogue.

 Belmonte's old Jewry is dotted with many small granite houses  

I had lunch at a small restaurant

After lunch, I wandered through the myriad of narrow cobbled streets some of which told the stories of many lives...

.... and browsed the shops along but didn't find any particular gem...

Here and there, colourful flowers gave a special touch to the environment as they softened the granite hardness of the house walls...

As I got close to my car I found a cat on the roof of it. Had he been there as if he were a guard cat?

The wrought iron lamp drew my attention and so did the door knockers.

Coming soon .... a visit to another historical village...

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