Today (Saturday) is our last day in Covilhã and we are already sad to go. This town and this region is our favorite. Primarily due to its proximity to the entire country, the mountains, the unique goods (wool, cheese and wine) and the friendly people. The latter is mostly due to the staff at Pena D’Agua. Not only is the hotel absolutely beautiful and the rooms very comfortable but the staff are helpful and very warm. They have been our guides and faces of central Portugal and we miss them already.

After a light breakfast (Jesse woke up WAY better but.. delicate), our day started with a drive to the top of the tallest mountain in Portugal, Torres (6,539 feet), in the natural park named after it’s mountain range, Serra de Estrella. While we would have liked to hike it, we were not prepared for it esp. after my knee injury. The drive up was a little scary but nothing compared to Miradouro da Pedra Bela. It was actually two cars wide (divided), there were guardrails most of the way, and there were plenty of pull offs for viewpoints and to take a break from driving if needed. There was even a cool tunnel carved out of the rock.

On the way to the top we came across hotels, chalets and restaurants. It was crazy that people build facilities at these elevations. Once at the top there were interesting geodesic structures, plenty of shops, restaurants and snow!

After some pictures, cheese sampling and some souvenir shopping, we loaded back into our car for the short drive to our hike, Lagoa Comprida and Covão dos Conchos. It’s a 5.5 mile, out & back hike with 761 feet elevation gain. You view the lake at various points along the way but the goal was to reach the Covão dos Conchos. We started the hike in the clouds so it was cold, gray and you could even see snow on the rocks. As we continued on the path however, the sun pushed through and we got clear views.

As you turn the corner to see the much much smaller lake we were headed for, you are immediately overcome by loud, alien noises..

Then we reached Covão dos Conchos and the colors of the sky and water were brilliant. Covão dos Conchos is a manmade spillway funnel built in the 1955 that takes the waters collected from Ribeira das Naves and leads them to Lagoa Comprida, far below. The tunnel is 1,519m long.

After the hike, we rushed back to the Cheese Museum of Pêraboa, the main museum we wanted to visit in this area but missed yesterday. We caught the last tour of the day, which was all in Portuguese. The tour guide spoke slowly so that those of us who spoke Spanish could pick up the jist of the narrative. The rest we translated via Google Translate or was implied. Frankly, we are all about the cheese anyway. Of course the palate cleanser was bread. Honestly, all that was missing from my point of view was wine. The lady next to me completely agreed! 😝

After sampling all the cheese and waiting for the tour guide to buy the cheese, she informs us there was no cheese for purchase – they ran out! Don’t worry … it turns out all the best cheese shops are in Covilhã! Our hotel is 450m walking distance away and they were open until 7 PM. We did not even bother putting our hiking gear away, we went straight to the cheese shop. Since they vacuum seal the cheese and they last 6 months, we did a little damage.🙊 Man these people know how to get you – sample this, sample that. I don’t need to know how to speak Portugese to know what they are saying!?!

OK, now to hustle back to our room, shower and get to the tasting at Açafrão (Saffron) in our hotel. Both Jesse and I booked a 4 moments tasting but I added the wine pairing to mine – well worth it! My favorite part of the meal was actually the wines. Not to say the food was not very good but, we had experienced better tastings on this trip. The wines however, were excellent – exceptional, unique and delicious.

Oh thank the blazes we only have to walk upstairs. OK so we took the elevator -don’t shame us! A little time to video chat with Ashok, Jesse gamed with him and both of us blogged. Did I mention, we are sad to go ….. though I suspect we will enjoy the next/last stop.