Vila Viçosa — RachiePie

Thursday we drove to Vila Viçosa, another town in the Alentejo region of Portugal. The village is considered an "open-air museum" as it contains pretty plazas, a marble palace and a castle.

We started the morning at Ducal Palace. The palace was commissioned by the Dukes of Bragança in the 16th century as their summer home and became a permanent residence in 1640. We learned they only offer tours of the palace in Portuguese (you are unable to tour the palace alone) and there were no English tours being offered as it is "off season". Initially we thought it would just be us and one other couple in the group, but two minutes before the tour began, a HUGE group of people came from a tour bus and joined in. It was a bit chaotic as they spoke Spanish so the tour guide would speak in Portuguese and then the bus group leader would translate. We were cracking up because the group kept shushing each other if someone got too loud and would "push" each other (and us!!) out of the way to get a closer look at something. After touring about 5 rooms, the guide realized we did not speak Portuguese (or Spanish!) and was nice enough to give us some information in English. He would continually do this about every 4th or 5th room. Both Alex and I were really appreciative. We were unable to take pictures inside, but I did sneak one at the very end of the kitchen. There were over 700 copper pots lining the walls and it was pretty amazing! The guide said it takes two months to clean them all!

After the palace, we walked over to the Vila Viçosa Castle. Part of the castle has been turned into a musuem, but you are allowed to walk around some of the ruins and climb up one of the towers.

Near the castle is the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição. The church was built in the 15th century and is named after the Patron Saint of Portugal.

We ended the afternoon with a picnic lunch in Praça da República, a public square lined with orange trees.