Quest for queijo

Today was our first full day at Estalagem de Santa Barbara which is near the Serra da Estrela, the highest mountains in Portugal. The hotel is about 35 years old, and was designed by a famous Portuguese architect, Manual Tainha. A quote from the hotel brochure by Arq. José Manuel Rodrigues states: "Interactions of man, landscape and architecture, on the one hand, and the understanding of the need to preserve a cultural architectonic legacy, on the other, are represented here in a unique way." It is a little worn around the edges but fascinating none-the-less. Our room is large, comfortable and has a fantastic view from the balcony. We are the only guests which feels a bit odd.

The area we are visiting is part of the Dão wine region and today we set out to visit some wineries. However, apparently they operate differently here from what we are used to. We picked up a Rota do Vinho map in Nelas and headed out to a place which was listed on it (and which Steve had researched previously) only to discover that we could not do a tasting and there was only one wine we could buy and that one only by the case! We headed back into Nelas to the Cooperativa Agrícola de Nelas which had a small shop where we purchased two bottles that we had also previously researched (one of which we may open for lunch tomorrow). On Thursday we will try to call before visiting any other wineries.

Part of the day was spent foraging for lunch (what else is new?) This led to an interesting adventure in search of the local cheese, queijo da Serra. We saw a little cheese symbol indicating that there was a licensed cheese maker in Santa Combra so off we went. In the village we asked a young man if he knew where we could buy cheese. He didn't, but kindly popped into a nearby café to ask for us. He then drew a very detailed map which led us to a place where cheese was made. The entire family proceeded to take part in the attempted transaction which unfortunately did not lead to the purchase of one of their wonderful cheeses as they were so huge we knew we couldn't possibly eat all of one, and we had nowhere to store it. Eventually we think we managed to communicate (in our virtually non-existent Portuguese) what the situation was and there seemed to be no hard feelings. They did seem to be somewhat amazed that we had found them.

Another part of our day was a visit to Seia which seems to be a lovely old town. There, we managed to buy a smaller version of the local queijo de ovalha curado (the one we picked was quite young and runny inside) to go with wine, olives and bread for lunch, which was eaten in a local park. Dinner tonight was back in Oliveira do Hospital at O Túnel where we had chanfana, which tasted pretty much just like the one Susan has made at home.

A fabulous day, 3.0+ on the Knowmark Weather Scale.



The view from our balcony at Estalagem de Santa Barbara


An interesting building in Seia