Day 11 sightseeing in Sabugal

IT’S incredible what amazing places you come across by chance while bike touring. In urgent need of a day’s R&R after three days of battling unrelenting hills and winds, I decided to book into a hostel (they call them residencials in Portugal) in a historic town called Sabugal.

  And it couldn’t have been a better choice. The area I have now learned has thousands of years of history going back to before the bronze age and Sabugal itself is a beautiful little town very worthy of a visit.

  Like just about all towns of medium size in Portugal the centre of the town boasts a medieval castle, which in this case was not for residential purposes, but only used in the event of an invasion.

  The centre of the castle features a large square where people from the surrounding village would gather in times of peril. Today, from the top of the main tower, and for just the grand sum of 1 Euro, you get magnificent views of the surrounding area and entrance into a museum that charts the history of the area going back 1000’s of years.

  Unfortunately for me it was all in Portuguese and Spanish, but it was an impressive display nonetheless.

  The rest of my morning was spent wandering around the many lanes of the old village and generally taking it easy in preparation for hitting the hills of northern Portugal in coming days.

  I don’t know if it is just me, but while cycling along I sometimes amuse myself by mooing, baaing and generally making the appropriate noises to the various farm animals as I pass.

  While it may sound crazy, I did this on a bike tour along the Great Ocean road a couple of years ago and got some interesting reactions from some of the animals.

  Anyway, I haven’t been getting anything like the same sort of reaction here, maybe they speak Portuguese, I guess.

  But the practice certainly came in help at lunch today. Let me explain. As pork is the national dish, without knowing what was on the menu at the different restaurants I have visited I have invariably ended up with, you guessed it, pork.

  So today I was determined not to have pork for lunch. But what do you do when you don’t speak a word of the local language and no one in the restaurant speaks a word of English? You resort to animals noises, don’t you?

  In an attempt to get an idea from the waitress what the various dishes were, I resorted to making various appropriate animal noises, to the great amusement of everyone else in the restaurant.

  I tried my best oink and shook my head, and she understood. The next one I mooed and she shook her head and came back with a baa and I understood. In the end I cock-a-doodle-dooed and she nodded and I nodded and everybody was happy. It was chook for lunch!!!

  In the end everyone in the place was watching our antics to much amusement, and I may have made a fool of myself, but at least I didn’t end up with pork for lunch!!!

  It was also a trial trying to get served white wine. I asked for white wine, no response. I asked for vino and got a big smile, but red wine came out. In the end I pointed to the white table napkin and smiled and then pointed to the red wine and shook my head, and hey presto, out came white wine.

  But not just a glass, but a whole bottle of what I now know is the local sparkling wine. So what do you do with a whole bottle all to yourself? Enjoy your huge chicken meal with a whole bottle of sparkling wine, stagger upstairs and sleep heartily for a couple of hours.

  Somewhat recovered now, I am relating this experience after a good couple of hours sleep, but anyway who cares? I’m having a day off, after all!!

captions.. Top few pics: various angles of the old Sabugal fortress. Next pic: A couple of the contrasts in town, the new and old. Final pic: A shot of my lodgings for 2 nights from the top of the castle.


By the way everyone, I have absolutely loved all of your comments. Keep them coming, they are the first thing I look at when I hook into the internet at yet another town.