The Road is so straight!

 Left Marvao this morning, sadly.  The hotel was just so cozy.  Kirks was thinking about his lunch yesterday and said “I have never not gotten ham right!”  He was so convinced the meat with his gazpacho was ham when it was actually duck.  Next words were “this road is so straight!”.  Our journey thru the Douro’s narrow, single lane old roads, down to Guarda and then up to Marvao where we had to park outside the walls of the city, could be quite harrowing and annoyingly close to houses and walls. But today it was a short trip heading south to Campo Major.  The landscape looks exactly like Los Olivos to Paso - it’s very desert like with spots of trees.  We weren’t heading to the winery Adega Major.  They make approximately 1.5 million bottles of wine.  It’s huge but doesn’t feel impersonal there.  

The winery is fairly modern but there is a lot of life and history so it’s not stark or cold.  The founder, who sadly passed in 2023 had so much passion and love for wine, history and the town. This quote from his is so beautiful: If we all wanted it the world would be wonderful. The world would be extraordinary.”  Exactly.  And then our tour guide had a shirt on that said “A friend of wine is a friend of mine.”  We had an informative tour and then a lovely tasting with charcuterie.  They pour and leave you alone. Then the other couple on the tour stopped to talk to us and she was very interesting.  She was a journalist and had traveled a lot and was now living in Portugal with her second husband but was British and didn’t want to be identified as someone who spoke English but Portuguese. We wanted to buy some wine but we have to order it off a QR code.  And can’t buy olive oil b/c the shipper only does wine.  Boo hooo.  They had one they put basil and salt in. YUM.

So we headed out to lunch just down the road.  Honestly I was not hungry but when in Portugal you eat!  And drink. LOL. So Google Maps did us dirty. So many one way tiny streets and Google had no clue.  It hasn’t happened often but I think Kirk might have also been hangry.  We finally got back to the city center and parked and walked.  Food was ok.  Air con set on 80 with no fans and the news on all the time (in every restaurant. Weird) Kirk’s octopus still had the cartilage which we haven’t encountered before. I had the special fish soup with a full filet and actually cilantro broth which was quite good.  And then on to Evora - again on a nice, straight rode. Until we hit the single lane farm road to our BnB.  Our waitress chatted with us for quite a while.  We talked about cost of living for a bit and she said her rent is $450 but she only makes about $1100 a month. She actually worked in Spain, 20 minutes away to make more money to buy a car and save money. She was making $1500.  She can’t understand why we can’t get rid of trump since he is obviously ‘senile’ and bad.  

Stopped for a short visit in Elvas. Cool Aqueduct and small castle.  And then a statue of who looked like Lord Farquad from shrek!  LOL

Quite nice. Rural but just outside the city.  Just a visiting spider on the wall which hasn’t moved much. Hope he stays that way!  We chilled for a bit and then I took a spin around the place and found another couple and chatted with them.  They are from NC Outer Banks and also have a house in Nevis.  They were joking about taking a cooking class and he instructor asked them to rate their own food they made and they agreed it was 5 star, maybe Michelin Starr!  LOL.  Super funny.  Well then we got a text and call from home.  Lulu ran into a tree and has a big gash and is limping so our dog sitter took her to the vet and they are going to stitch her up but will have to sedate her and then she is also limping and they are going to do X-rays on legs as well b/c she is limping.  Our poor girl! 😢.  Kirk is trying not to worry. And I feel bad for Harrison having to worry about her and take her to the vet.  Waiting to see how she does.  Bodie is also so worried. 

So we ended up not going to dinner and driving down to the main house to grab a bottle of wine.  Every place we’ve been it’s been so easy to grab a bottle.  The motto: When in doubt grab the white! still holds true. It’s good and the most expensive one we’ve had at $25.  We weren’t very hungry and weren’t going to dinner but our neighbors down the hall had leftover cheese, meat and bread with some olive oil and gave it to us.  So wonderful!  We ate it all up in the kitchen and just chatted and worried about Lulu.  

We feel we are now part of the 25% of Portuguese who drink every day.  We are on day 19.