CASA DO VALLE

  Colares Wines are unique for various reasons:     They are some of the oldest wines in Portugal, dating back to year 1255 A large part of the vines grow deep in sand dunes – a detail that protected them from the 1865 phylloxera plague  They get their special taste from the harsh coastal climate (westernmost vineyards of continental Europe) And most recently: the world famous chef Gordon Ramsay just featured the Colares Wines in the National Geographic program Uncharted, calling the wine ‘one of the best kept secrets of Portugal' (Watch the trailer here ) ! Colares wines are some of the oldest wines in Portugal The Colares wine region is the smallest demarcated wine region of Portugal (DOC Colares).  The wine culture goes back to 1255 when king D Afonso lll ordered wine to be planted.  Supposedly the Ramisco vines came from northern France, Boulogne region, where the king had previously lived.  A large part of the Colares vines are grown in the sand ...

Santa Claus and his elves are back in Sintra as we get closer to Christmas: the Sintra City Hall shows solidarity by organizing the Christmas Kingdom in the central Liberty Park in favour of families and animals in need. At the same time, in the middle of the Historic Center an ice-skating rink, a carousel, Christmas market and gospel choirs will be the center of attention. A proper elf-greeting at the gates of Liberty Park The Christmas Kingdom will open on the 1st of December at 3 pm as Santa Claus will arrive escorted by motorcycles! The land of elves and fairies welcomes you to join in the activities, games, concerts and wonderful food until the 23rd of December. Even though most of the activities are meant for children, adults will certainly enjoy the the sites of the wonderful park turned into a winter wonderland! Although the visit is free of charge, non-perishable food items or small money donations to buy food are accepted at the entrance for families and ins...

Summer has finally arrived, with temperatures over 30ºC in the afternoons! The temperature rise coincides with the holiday period of the southern Europeans, which means that crowds will be thicker. We have many suggestions for you to make your visit in Sintra more enjoyable! Here are some of them.  Remember that more will appear, and we will keep you posted through Facebook, and of course the information board at the reception. First of all, Sintra is full of fabulous historically and culturally important monuments and most of them are well visited.  There are also some that are less famous but equally interesting.  Do you really want to see them all? Is Pena Palace really what you want to see is its fairy-tale park what you were imagining? Are you more interested in walking in the nature than seeing art? Choose well where you want to go and let us help you if you are not sure what Sintra has to offer - believe me, it's a wide variety of things.  That is one of...

Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with his song Amar pelos dois . This slow waltz captured the hearts of all of Europe and finally gave Portugal its 1 st win ever in the history of Eurovision.  The singer, Salvador, took part in the idols of Portugal in 2009, at 19 years of age. Though he was among the best 8 contestants, he did not win, and stopped music all together for years.  Only when he was doing his Erasmus studies of Psychology in Maiorca, did he restart performing – and soon changed his studies to jazz, in Barcelona.  The song he sang in this year’s Eurovision was written by his sister Luisa, also a singer and songwriter. Salvador missed the first rehearsals in Kiev due to a heart condition that does not allow him to travel for longer periods. Yet he sang into people’s hearts, with skill but more so with feeling.  And so after having been in the last position 3 times, and the best result ever reached by Portugal...

Millions of years ago (125 million to be a bit more exact), large dinosaurs roamed in Sintra. Plant eating Saurôpodes and Ornitôpodes as well as meat eating Terôpodes, all about 2.5meters tall only until the hip, walked on these lands way before the Sintra Mountain was a mountain. We can now observe their footprints, some of which are a humongous 67cm tall and 60cm wide. Observing the path of the prints, we know that the vegetarian Saurôpodes with its elephant-like large body, long neck and small head walked between 6 to 7 km/hour, and the Terôpodes who walked on two strong legs, of which only three of the four toes touch ground, about 2 kms/hour.  It is fascinating to see the three distinct types of footprints, all different sizes, and all well conserved, on the vertical cliffs of Praia Grande do Rodízio. There are a total of 66 foot prints , 51 of them are in 11 tracks and the rest are isolated. The footprints are clear to see rom the stairs  The dinosaurs ...

At the of May I had the pleasure to visit the vineyeard Casal Sta Maria in our beach region, Colares - the Westernmost Vineyards of Europe.  Between Almoçageme and Casas Novas, Penedo, sits the main house, originally from 1720, and its beautiful gardens. I was very well received by the enologist António Figueiredo who gave us a tour and explained the origins of the vineyards. Now, I quote directly from their bochure for a moment to resite the story of Baron Bruemmer, the 102 year old man who is still in charge of the operations: "To understand me better and why I came to Portugal one must understand a little bit about the reasons. I  was born in 1911 in one of the former Baltic Russian Provinces, Livonia. In 1918 we had to flee to Germany and then to different places all over the World. I went to 15 different schools and, finally I landed in Switzerland, where I developed my professional life. Ever since we lost our home it had been my dream to start a new tradition f...

Quinta da Regaleira main palace Regaleira is on the opposite side of the valley   (Updated in January, 2021) One of the most visited places of Sintra, Quinta da Regaleira is opposite of our pool, on the other side of the valley.  It is our guests'  favourite monument to visit in Sintra, maybe because it is easily reachable on foot,  because it is so mysterious  - or just because it is greatly entertaining to the whole family. SHORT HISTORY Quinta da Regaleira never was a royal anything.  A private house, used as a summer residence,  of Carvalho Monteiro, who bought it in 1892 from the barons of Regaleira.  He transformed it to its glory with the famous architect Luigi Manini, known for his theatrical works.  There is a lot to be said about Quinta da Regaleira, or Palácio dos Milhões, as it is also called.  It is beautifully built in neo-manueline style with strong ties to the discoveries - the 4 hectar grounds are beautifully...

The Castle of the Moors as seen from our garden (Updated in January 2021) Looking up from our pool toward the mountain, next to Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle is erected.  Well, it looks like it's right next to it but in fact it is not.  They are both up the mountain, on different hill tops.  The Moorish Castle winds over two ridges of the mountain. It is gorgeous in the morning when the day breaks and the mist comes through; gorgeous during the day with fantastic views to the other side of Lisbon, to Mafra and to the sea; and gorgeous in the night with the humidity rising and the birds calling. The Castle in sunrise A BRIEF HISTORY The Castle was constructed during the 8th and 9th century, during the period of Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.  After Afonso Henriques' forces conquered Lisbon in 1147, the castle voluntarily surrendered to Christian forces.  A small group of people inhabited the Castle and constructed a chapel of São Pedro de ...

Just a bit above the village, in our view, there is a mansion called Chalet Biester.  Its black roof with turquoise trimming causes a lot of questions and awakes the curiosity of many Sintra visitors.  No, it cannot be visited; yes, it is a private house.  No, I don't know who lives there now; yes, it is where the Roman Polanski  thriller ' The Ninth Gate' was filmed, starring Johnny Depp.  There and a bit of everywhere in Sintra. The Chalet Biester as seen from our pool, circled in red Chalet Biester photographed from the Casa da Vista deck Ernesto Biester, a Portuguese journalist and playwright of German origin, famous in his time,  ordered this mansion to be built in around 1880 from the architect José Luis Monteiro.  Its interior was conceived by the famous Italian that worked on Quinta da Regaleira, also in Sintra, and the sceneries of La Scala Opera in Milano, and theater São Carlos in Lisbon: Luigi Manini...