Time to pack the car once again, check out of our accommodation and for the first time on this trip, head north. The goal for the day is to head north to Vila Nova de Milfontes, which is about halfway between Sagres and Lisbon. We really don’t have any stress going north so we decided to drive on small roads, which meant that we got to see a little more of Portugal’s nature, which you don’t see directly from the highway, but also much more fun driving, serpentine roads up and down the mountains, narrow, crooked and very beautiful.
It wasn’t just us who thought so, though, the roads were full of middle-aged men in lycra on their racing bikes, some looked like they were training for the Tour de France, others were a little more reserved, but regardless, I wouldn’t want to drive during peak season, people would have gone crazy.
About an hour’s drive in we arrived at Aljezur, a modest little mountain village that was very reminiscent of Silves. The “town” is ancient and has the ruins of a castle, the last one the Arabs managed to hold in Portugal before the Christians completely expelled them, but the area has been inhabited for longer than that, traces dating back to the Bronze Age has been found here.
Today, however, it is the ultra-modern hippies and the recurring lycra-clad middle-aged men who are here. We stopped and had lunch at a completely vegan cafe where you sat on mats directly on the floor, while the food was being prepared we heard the staff talking about going on some self-realization course, that’s probably good but regardless of how much of a hippie they were, the food was really good and the atmosphere in the cafe was fantastically cozy.
