The second of our black and white pictures

Last Monday I shared more about the first of these photos which now hang framed on our bedroom wall, today I’m revisiting another holiday memory and strangely also from 2014.

It was also a place we were revisiting, but somewhere we’d first visited together in the autumn of 2012. We’d booked a walking holiday on one of the new holiday’s offered as the Rota Vincentina in Alentejo had only recently opened. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but a week away in the relative warmth of Portugal’s sun in mid-October sounded like a good plan. And it was, we had a great holiday in 2012 and fell in love with the region as a whole, and actually with Portugal too.

We vowed to come back, and two years later we did just that. This time our visit was in June, rather than October and instead of walking between hotels we hired a car and based ourselves at the mid-point of the route from that original trip, using that as our base to revisit many of the places we’d visited before, and even retracing our steps along some of the coastal path.

We’d seen some storks near to our hotel on our first trip and we were mesmerised and amazed, and a little bit scared of walking too close! On our second trip we weren’t expecting to see such a fantastic sight as we drove back along a quiet road to our hotel. So we pulled over and had our own personal photo shoot with the, what I imagine, are the proud parents.

Again the photo is great in colour, and it’s full of warmth from the sun but somehow in black and white the main subjects stand out even more.

Portugal is such a beautiful place, and we’ve been back to visit other parts of the country - including Lisbon, Porto and the Douro valley - many times since, but the Alentejo region holds a special place in my heart, and I suspect it’s about time we made another visit there.

But in the meantime we have a second great holiday memory right there on the wall as part of our series of four black and white pictures, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

A Portuguese planter

This rustic, but full of bright flowering lilies and other plants, was spotted on our second trip to Portugal some five years ago. It’s the sort of photo that you don’t always remember, but when you see it you’re immediately transported back to where it was taken. So much so that I can tell you it was which village it was taken in, Odeceixe, and why we were there, to see the windmill, and that we also managed to find a great cake shop. Well, when in Portugal.

I thought I’d test my theory, and looked up the Windmills in Odeceixe post which I posted here in 2015. And sure enough, I knew I was right before I spotted it. And then I did, I’d shared this photo back then and forgotten all about it. That isn’t going to stop me sharing it again though. As you can see.

The fruit trees too are set off by the whitewashed walls, and you can feel the heat can’t you?

The trees aren’t technically flowers, but they must flower before they fruit so I’m counting them into this Flowers on Friday post. And who doesn’t need a lemon for their G&T on Friday?

Sun on Saturday: Vila Nova de Milfontes

Not long after depositing our bags in our apartment, we were off out again heading towards Villa Nova de Milfontes, the nearest largest town for supplies and to eat. What is it about travelling that makes you hungry? Well in our case it was probably the crack of dawn EasyJet flight, our decision not to eat the plastic food on the plane and wait until we got there, and the large queue at the car hire pick-up!

After parking our lovely little white Fiat 500 - I'd definitely drive another one of these - we headed down the main street and first things first, food. This was our second time in the town, our first was during our first visit when we had an overnight stay. Then we had little time to explore as we'd walked along the Rota de Vicentina and to be honest extra walking was definitely off the agenda. Neither were we in the market for restaurants as that holiday we spent it eating, and walking, and a bit more eating for good measure!

This time though we wandered down the main street and choose to stop in one of the small local restaurants, and our view out of the restaurant was mostly this tree.  Sheer bliss!

One of the local websites about the town says it's a charming place between Lisbon and the Algarve and it's undiscovered by foreign tourists. While it's true there's not many, I wouldn't say it's totally undiscovered, but it's not well known. It's surrounded by a stunning coastline of rugged cliffs and sandy beaches and it's a bit of a hidden gem.

Our food - we opted for fish, well when in Rome (or even the Alentejo) and all that - was cooked on the grill in the restaurant. At this point we weren't sure what we were ordering and we really didn't care that much. When it arrived I preferred the look and taste of what MOH ordered and as that was put in front of me that's where it stayed!

After lunch we headed off to explore a bit more of the town, heading down towards the front, past many of the traditional buildings. This isn't a town with high rise buildings and for that reason it retains its charm.

We headed down towards the Mira River and the small port area - just look at those blues, and the cobbled road too.

The terrain close up is quite rocky, but it seems this tree was quite happy to grow there.

I was rather taken with this roof, although I think it'd seen better days - but with the purple flower (most likely a weed) it looked much prettier!

At the bottom of the hill we spotted these huts, most likely working huts of the fishermen not beach huts as we'd expect here in the UK. But I think their rustic-ness makes them equally as attractive as the painted ones we're more used to.

After a walk around, a sit down and more photos we decided we should head back up the hill and get those supplies we came for. But as soon as we turned we were immediately wowed with this view. So remember Vila Nova de Milefonts isn't for non-Portuguese tourists, and for that reason alone we love it!