Friday we started the day with a yummy breakfast at the hotel as usual. It’s pretty much all stuff you’ve seen over our stay here so I’ll spare you the repeats. Fortunately it’s widely varied and we’re not tired of it one bit! We followed breakfast with a long chat with Nuno at the front desk, and figured we’d combine his suggestions with Vanessa’s from the previous night. He immediately said the same thing she had said- check out this small town north of here named Belmonte! Vanessa is from there but Nuno seemed legitimately impressed as well so we built a connect-the-dots plan for the day starting there. Off to Belmonte! First stop the Discovery Museum!

Oops.. we keep getting caught by this.. most businesses except restaurants are closed ~12-2 for siesta. Most restaurants open for that window and people flow from work to food and back to work nicely. However for us tourist types we keep getting to the right places at the wrong times. The Discovery Museum was set to close in 10 minutes so.. we had 2+ hours to kill and weren’t hungry (I know, shocking!). Couple pictures first..

We went to the next location in our itinerary, the tiny village of Valhelhas. Nuno recommended it for a restaurant there, but since we weren’t hungry (still!, FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER!) we walked all over this adorable little town.

Our circuitous, relaxed walk ate up two hours quickly so we headed back to Belmonte. We parked in the same great parking lot next to the Olive Oil Museum (lots of spots, great view, convenient, and free). Upon arriving we realized that if we wanted to eat before the restaurants closed for their afternoon break between siesta and dinner, it had to be now. So we walked the length of the town looking for food.

We came upon Mercado Nacional, a little taberna and shop on the main street. The food was good- not amazing, but satisfying and fast.

We then climbed the hill to the Castle of Belmonte, one of the prominent landmarks and the highest point in Belmonte. It’s pretty simple but had fantastic views.

We then walked down the hill through the throngs of people to the museum area. Ah yes.. the throngs.. there must have been a regional school trip because dozens of young kids wandering around on their phones trying to ignore their patient chaperones. If you visit, avoid school days and times-of-day!

Right around here.. I (Jesse) started to feel very.. not good. My stomach was gurgling and hurt all of a sudden. It didn’t feel like anything I’d ever felt before. We walked through the Discovery Museum, which is mostly about Pedro Álvares Cabra, who “discovered“ Brazil (much the same as Columbus “discovered” America or we “discovered” the restaurants down the street 😉). Certainly it was an historic occasion for Portugal, Brazil, and really much of the world, and it is worth learning about.

These days the historic info is easier to consume online (especially when the real-world info is mostly in Portuguese). The artifacts and displays were cool though.

We then went to the famous Jewish Museum, unfortunately in my case mostly looking for places to sit, fountains, and bathrooms. We managed to not even take any pictures but the exhibits were very modern and well done. Savitri found it interesting but I think was also distracted by my haggard appearance. We gather it’s a must-see for those of Jewish heritage, and wish I’d been able to really check it out.

I was hurting but determined to get our money’s worth (a ticket to one museum or the castle is 5€, and a ticket to all of them is 10€ so of course we did the latter and visited four). We walked down to the Olive Oil Museum next to our car.

The “tour” consisted of an unenthusiastic lady handing us a folded paper pamphlet and saying “the tour starts downstairs”. We went down and traced olive oil creation through the seven listed steps and.. were done. Five minutes. Actually quite interesting, but not a “tour” per se.

We walked back upstairs and tried the sample bread cubes dipped in olive oil and looked at the oils and other local products for sale but they were expensive and none of it was particularly inviting or unique so we left.

The latest plan had us visiting the Museum of Cheese on the way back to Covilhã, so despite my discomfort we drove that way (sort of on the way). As we progressed however I became less and less ok, having severe chills and body pains. As the driver this was.. suboptimal. We also realized that we would arrive 10 minutes before the Cheese Museum closed, which didn’t seem meaningful, so we ended up driving by and resolving to return. Straight back to the hotel. On the way we couldn’t help but take a couple shots..

When we arrived at the hotel I rushed upstairs, telling Vanessa that Savitri would fill her in. Long story medium.. Throughout the night my perceived temperature went all over the place but never moved much on the thermometer (kudos to Savitri for thinking to bring one btw! Between covid and what-the-fever happened to me it was really helpful!). I took some chill/fever meds we had gotten in Lagos, took a hot shower, brushed my teeth, got in bed and was zonked out at 6.

Since Jesse was not feeling well and need to rest, I (Savitri) headed downstairs for simple meal, to read some local cultural books available in English and spend a good amount time talking to and getting to know the staff. The people are really nice in this region and esp. at this hotel.

After I went up to check on Jesse and while not fully recovered, he was coming around the corner. A real bummer that Jesse had to miss 1/2 a day in this beautiful, quaint city.