Tasty Bread, Narrow Streets and Castles (Friday)

Portugal has some of the most wonderful tasty bread in the world. All natural breads baked in traditional ovens. The bread has wonderful crust. There are several breads that are traditional to this area and which are also available back in the states. Papo Seco, Pao de Milo e Pao Senteio. We decided in the morning that we should check out Seia and the Museu de Pao. It was quite an experience simply just to access the museum location. The entrance road was extremely narrow. Only one car could pass at a time. The attend at the base had us stop so that the 2 cars he had heard were coming on his walkie talkie could pass. We climbed up the car was barely able to make it up the steep incline. We parked at the top. A teenage boy who had driven up the driveway swerving back and forth and doing a donut at the top to turn around asked us if we wanted a ride down. After seeing his driving we said “Nao obrigado” No thanks. We purchased our tickets and checked out the museum. The museum was nice except for the weak attempt at a Disney style theme room for kids. The best part of the visit to the museum was that we got to buy some very tasty bread at the museum.

Since there was a 1 and half hour wait at the restaurant at Museum de Pao we decided to grab a bit on the way to Linhares. My brothers in-laws had invited us to visit them in their town of Linhares. We took the mountain passage to get there through a vey small village called Folgsinho. There was barely enough room to get the car through the streets of Folgsinho. They of course had their plaza where everyone was hanging out and it looked like they just had or would soon be having their festival. We stopped to get directions at the local tourism shop. The old man that was working their looked like he had lived his entire life there. They had all kinds of Chourica and Queijo Da Serra for sale. He gave us directions and we headed off down the same street my dad used to push his bike up on the way to work from Figueiro Da Serra. It was a long winding road.. When we arrived at Figeiro Da Serra the road was being paved by the church and the new hotel so we took a detour by the old school house. We asked directions again on how to get to Linhares from Figueiro. The old man said go until you reach the cemetery and then take a right. As we drove past the house that my mother recently inherited from her grandfather we could see the Linhares Castle in the distance.


We had arranged to visit with Mr and Mrs Mimossa at 4:00pm. By the time we arrived it looked as though were weren’t going to be able to check out the castle. We took a quick spin with the care up to try to get up to the castle to look but we kept getting lost. There really wasn’t any where to bark. A few times in the streets there was grid lock because the cars were coming in both directions. I told my wife that the side that has the greatest number of cars wins… meaning the other person had to back up to let the cars pass. When we finally arrived at the Mimossa’s they gave us a tour of their beautiful home. It sits just below the view of the Castle of Linhares. Their driveway is made of cobble stones similar to the cobblestones that pave the streets of the village. The house is made of huge stones and has stone and tile throughout the inside. It was beautiful home with great views over the valley. We had a quick drink of water and then Mr Mimossa offered to give us a tour of the village, castle and church.

We headed out up the narrow streets. Many of the homes built of stone have been restored. Some of the homes are actually built around huge large boulders. We stopped at what will soon be a pousada. At the center of town there was an old platform where people use to be judged and then a center monument where they were then sentenced. My son pretended to be one of the judges up on the platform. We continued up the narrow streets until we arrived at the Castle. The castle dates back to the 1100’s. Since the girls working the counter knew Mr Mimossa we entered without charge. We climbed to the top of the first tower on to the stone walls of the of the tower and adjacent to the Red Tiled roof of the castle tower. This is certainly an area that would never be accessible if this was in the United States which is so safety conscious some times that it prevents people from experiencing some of the historic places to their full potential. After the castle we went to visit the Church. Mr Mimossa had the church key to get us access to the inside of the church. This Saturday we will be going to Sintra to visit the Palaceo de Pena.