Day 17 Lagos to Palmela

What a lucky day! We left Lagos this morning intending to drive up the west coast of Portugal and spend the night in the town of Setubal. The drive up was fairly pleasant with one stop in a coastal village. It was a one horse town with a tiny beach, a great view, and little else. For some reason, there are very few towns on the west coast that are on the water. I guess it’s just too rugged. Anyhow, when we arrived in Setubal, Sylvia flat out didn’t like it. Undecided what to do, she saw that there was a Pousada in a little nearby town called Palmela. We managed to get out of Setubal and drove towards Palmela and as we got a little closer we saw this tremendous castle up on top of a mountain…it turned out to be the Pousada. What a find. It was a huge 14th century castle and cathedral that is indescribable. We just had to stay there. They did have a room but we would have to wait a half hour. So, we waited in the bar and talked to the bartender who could have not been friendlier. After an hour, the host came in and said our room was ready but he had to give us a suite at no extra charge. We didn’t see a problem with that, so we took it. The rooms, the views, the whole building were absolutely unbelievable. Our suite was on the corner of the castle with five big windows and two of the windows had facing seat benches with 80 mile views. Lisbon was 50 miles away and you could see the mountains behind it. I’ve never spent a night in anyplace that compares to this place. I always thought of castles as cold damp places…hot here, it was very cozy and comfortable. I took so many pictures that the battery on my camera ran down. The whole castle is a museum with excavations, archeologists, and everything. We hung around until dinner and Sylvia had a dish called Edible Crab which was an appetizer of spiced up chopped crab meat served in a Dungeness crab shell. It was excellent. She also had a pork tenderloin with pureed chestnuts and quince. I had fish soup and some Cod fish poached in olive oil and garlic. We then waddled back to our room in the castle. It makes you wonder “Who were all the people that spent time in this room over the last five hundred years?”