Last day on the Rio Tejo

Another lovely day (3.0) found us with a very limited agenda, which is how we like it. First, we visited the Quinta do Casal da Coelheira in Tramagal, about 10km west on N118. They make some very good wine there, which we had confirmed on Saturday night at dinner, where we had a bottle of the 2004. So we bought a bottle of that, plus a couple bottles of their well-thought-of 2003 Reserva.

After visiting the winery, we went into Abrantes (a town of about 11,000 people), which is just north of where we are staying across the Rio Tejo. At the information centre a very helpful young woman answered all of our questions, the most important of which was the location of a good pasteleria! The one pictured below was an excellent choice for our morning café and pastel de nata (for Steve). Susan tried one of the local specialties - palha de Abrantes (which also happened to be the name of the pasteleria). Excellent fare all around. We then explored the old town centre for awhile and in the process picked up some supplies for our planned picnic lunch. There was good bread to be had in a local padaria and we found cheese and carrots at the daily market.

Then, we toured around the area on some of the local roads, eventually stopping for a late picnic lunch at a very pretty spot (see photos below) on N3 between Mação and Penhascoso. We enjoyed the rest of the day at the Quinta do Coalhos, resting and doing some planning for tomorrow's journey (we are leaving here after three wonderful days). And, we returned to O Cabaço (in Pego) for dinner again, where we had another great meal (including another bottle of the 2004 Casal da Coelheiras). Steve had carne de porco com ameijoas; Susan's dinner was ameijoas à Bulhão Pato, a delicious dish of clams with garlic and coriander/cilantro. Hosted by Luis Manuel Camões, this is a very nice place to dine.




We had our morning café and pastries here


Our spot for picnic lunch


Our spot for picnic lunch [2]