Lisbon, Portugal | The Escapades of Pookie and Allan

First off, there are a few things I forgot to mention in previous posts.

We tried seafood paella at a restaurant in Torremolinos, but actually real authentic paella is made from rabbit and snails. I’m glad we had the seafoods version.

Another interesting tidbit is that the word Spain actually translates to “the land of the rabbits” because some of its early settlers named it “Ispania,” from the Carthaginian word sphan, meaning rabbit, as rabbits apparently were plentiful when the early settlers arrived.

Today we left the hotel early as we had a long drive ahead of us to Portugal. We enjoyed seeing the countryside along the way and of course we stopped a few times at rest stops to have a “technical stop” (potty break) and to get a little snack.

At one rest stop, a bus was next to our bus, and then it went on its way. Sadly, when that bus pulled into the next rest stop, and the passengers and driver got off to use the restrooms, thieves broke into their bus and stole as much as they could grab of the personal possessions of the tourists. Wallets and passports were taken. What a horrible thing to happen. We found out about it because it was the same bus company that we are using and that driver radioed our driver to alert him. We were very lucky it didn’t happen to us! (Although, I always take my bag with me whenever I leave the bus, leaving nothing to chance.)

While traveling, we saw many cork trees along the roadside. Many of the trees had numbers on them, and our guide explained that the numbers tell the year of when the last harvesting of the cork took place. The cork is stripped off for the first time when the tree is 25 years old. Afterwards, it can be harvested every nine years. Many items are made of cork… pocketbooks to shoes to jackets and so much more. We will get the opportunity in Lisbon to go to some stores that specialize in cork merchandise.

We arrived at our first destination – a working horse farm in the region of Alentejo. It had rained hard while we were driving to the farm, so the bus could not navigate the dirt road to the home, for fear we would get stuck in the mud. So, the owner of the farm, Maria, along with a taxi cab, drove us all in shifts up to the home. Fortunately, the rain held off.

We toured Maria’s beautiful home and then we were invited into another building to enjoy a home cooked meal. We had delicious vegetable soup, chicken, rice, and salad, plenty of wine, and a delicious ice cream dessert.

After lunch, we entered yet another building and listened to Maria tell us about her life. The horse farm had been in her family for years, but in the 1970’s, the communists entered that region of Portugal and took over the homes and farms. The soldiers marched in with guns and told Maria, who was 18 years old, and her husband that they had two weeks to take their children and vacate their home. They weren’t allowed to take anything with them and had to leave the horses, the furniture, and most of their belongings.

After about three years, a new regime came about and realized what a hardship the people whose homes were taken over by the communists was, and they were allowed back. Sadly, the inside of their home was burned as well as all of their furniture, and their prized horses had been sold. The house was still standing as it was made of stucco, so they started over trying to rebuild their lives. They scoured the countryside in search of their horses and when they found them, they had to purchase them back.

Her husband passed away in his 40’s, and she, with her 6 boys, rebuilt the farm and continued the breeding of the different breeds of horses.

She is now very wealthy and her boys have their own ranches. The boys help her with her farm, the training of the horses, the finances, and one son is the vet for the horses.

She talked about how the stallions and mares are bred and how they keep careful track of the lineage so that their isn’t inbreeding. They sell the horses… The cheapest can run $10,000 and the best horses can bring in over $50,000. She sells the horses all over the world after the horses have had three years of training on the ranch.

After her talk, we were treated to a horse show. The horses were gorgeous and they went through their paces beautifully.

It was a very interesting day and we enjoyed Maria, the horse farm, and the luncheon very much.

Lisbon was another few hours away, but we finally arrived at our hotel, checked in and had a doner kebab at a local stand and then it was off to bed.