If “contactless” and “distant” now the Supreme maxims of the Holiday, then an old estate in the North of Portugal is perhaps the ideal place for the summer and the autumn, can be in Portugal until well into October warm. The Quinta da Bouça d’arques in Viana do Castelo is isolated, but to reach in one and a half hours from the airport of Porto. Who ends up with the night machine, reached the vineyard in the last light of the day: The door opens, the gravel crunching under the tires, the last of the swallows chase their dinner. The hills are dyed as if they were ripe apricot, the cork lot have oak to tell, about why and in what century the gigantic cracks in the root formed. The guest a walk among the vines therethrough in a nearly 400-year-old rich; the walls were so smart and subtle, as is to be found, unfortunately, rarely, some of the hidden modern buildings added. There, it sinks down behind the large Windows in bright rooms in a large bed, and on all the metallic Sound of cicadas is located.
Barbara Liepert
Responsible for the area of “travel” in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
F. A. Z.
The next Morning, announcing with a warm Wind, the heat of the coming day, you can see high trees and in the distance a sleepy village, which crouches in the hilly landscape. The grounds of the Quinta is so large that you meet sometimes at all to anyone, even if all eight rooms are occupied. The peace and quiet in the hills of the Minho appears to be infinite, there is always a slight Wind, and you just hear Church bells, birds chirping and a dog barking in the distance.
Breakfast with Camellia
The Breakfast you can take with a view to a very expansive, century-old Camellia or Brazilian foil trees are, the in good time before the tree umarmern of the 21st century. Century ready and thorns on the trunk have formed. There are in addition to juices and bread rolls cheese and Goiabada, a kind of cut-resistant guava jam how to eat it in Brazil, like. In the 18th century. Century, there were in the Minho, the northernmost Region of Portugal, several waves of Emigration it will be called, especially to Brazil. This has turned now to the contrary, Portugal is the promised Land of wealthy immigrants fleeing from the cities of Brazil in search of social peace and the safe Sunny side of life to Europe.
The Breakfast is served in a basket at exactly the time on the terrace, which has been agreed with the administrator. Whose mobile phone number is the Hotline for requests of all kinds: bicycles to explore the area, wine tastings, Restaurant and shopping tips. The rooms and Cottages all come with small kitchenettes; almost everything illuminates on the markets of the area, can be taken home, except to also purchase live Chicks, which the children very much regret. But you can send the lemon to pluck; so there is homemade lemonade and distraction directly on the edge of a pool.
The Quinta opens on 1. July again; it is only the “honesty bar” and a community room with a fireplace are like the measures to be taken against Covid-19 victim – the cottage has now been in another vacation on the seven-acre property is transformed. From the Quinta you can explore the North of Portugal and Galicia, in neighboring Spain, Santiago de Compostela, is located two driving hours, also a couple of beaches are within easy reach. Guimarães is not far, here is the birthplace of the first Portuguese king is said to have confessed. In Braga, the oldest Cathedral in Portugal and one of the most beautiful Baroque staircases in the world to visit; the best views in the North of Portugal, the Church of Santa Luzia, located on a hill above the old town of Viana do Castelo is enthroned. The 90 000 inhabitants of a great city is not 20 minutes, it can be reached via the Eiffel bridge, which the French engineer, at the end of the 19th century. Century over the Rio Lima has riveted. The port promenade is a ornamental, the Portuguese Pritzker prize laureate Souto de Moura has designed the local cultural centre.
But strictly speaking, you do not need to leave the Quinta at all, if you are looking for architectural pearls: The architect Paula Sousa Pinheiro, who comes from the area, has landed a small quiet Coup: she manages to leave the old walls of the Quinta in the foreground and in the yard of the Ensemble by an equally modern as it is timeless simple and order to complement to the Old matching installation. Bare concrete suddenly becomes the stone, the old trees of the Quinta to the light, as if they were sculptures: cork oaks, hundreds of years old, gnarled and twisted as the landscape.
