May, 2019 a choir trip was scheduled for Portugal and Spain. I decided to invite Mary, Kent, Ben, and Tina to go so that we could drive up to Montemuro and Lamego after the choir trip. As we had flown across Portugal coming in I strained to look out of the plane to see if I could tell when we crossed the Montemoro Mountains. I sort of thought I figured all that out, but who really knows. We finally arrived at the Vincea Liberador Hotel in Lisbon.
We toured Lisbon and got to know the others in the group. Then, three days later, we took off to fly to Seville and bus to Cordoba, Spain. We traveled to Granada, Costa del Sol, Ronda and Seville. Then the five of us flew back to Lisbon and rented a car to drive north. I signed Ben, Kent and Mary as the drivers. We took off early the next morning to drive north.
We left the major highway at Castro Daire and continued north on a smaller highway. It all felt good with a lot of broom blooming. I was amazed when we got to the Mezio sign. There was a house on the highway for rent, a new road into the village, lots of trucks, and a place to eat.
We drove into the village and saw the church and graveyard…almost the only thing old. Many new houses, but we didn’t see the pond or the cement water place that Rodney had helped to build. We didn’t spend a long time in Mezio, but took off soon and drove north to Lamego. We found our hotel on a hill…not what I had expected at all.
I took the biggest room on the first floor and let the couples have the two rooms on the second floor. The room where we received breakfast was on the fourth floor…a lot of steps climbing up.
After breakfast we went out that level and walked down a steep rock path and walked to the cathedral. We had fun going through the cathedral and then decided we were still hungry. We popped into a small shop and enjoyed coffee and pastries. We then walked through an open area, up some stairs to the church.
The nest day Ben raised the question about the river that helped form the town of Lamego. So we headed toward the Doura River and headed toward the town of Pinhao. A gorgeous drive as we walked quite a way to the restaurant. After lunch we drove back to Lamego on the old highway…not the new one.
The next day we headed back to Mezio. When we arrived, Ben and I walked down the older road and marveled at the older stone houses. Ben called Tina for the rest of them to come on down to a restaurant and join us for coffee and pastries.
We walked through the village after that and I took a lot of pictures of the stone houses. I decided that the ICA house was not still there. I didn’t see the water basin that Rodney had helped to build either.
We all walked through the village and I had a hard time imagining when I had been there before. Ben picked a sprig of broom for me and then we finally took off to drive to Lisbon.
We left the girls at the Radison Hotel and we drove to turn in the car. We rejoined the girls at the Radison and ate dinner.
The next morning we went to the airport…and flew home to the USA.
