A boulder-strewn village, screeching seabirds and sheep: Taking Portugal’s roads less traveled
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
Associated Press
There’s a village built among massive boulders. Screeching seabirds. Lots of Roman ruins, sheep, old castles, beautiful coastlines, delicious cheeses and more. That’s what AP writer Kristen De Groot found when she and her husband decided to travel the back roads of Portugal this fall. They tried to avoid the usual tourist sites in favor of smaller cities and mountain villages. Their digital navigator led them down ancient roads, footpaths, and narrow cobbled city streets as they explored a triangle-shaped portion of Portugal. They visited a region famous for brandy. They looked down on a rainbow from a slick wet mountain road. The route roughly took them from Lisbon to Porto to Monsanto to Evora and back to Lisbon.