Monsaraz in Alentejo

The last two days before our return to Germany, Leon and I took the opportunity to pamper ourselves once again. We bid farewell to the Atlantic Ocean for now and drove into the Portuguese hinterland with our rental car. There, in Alentejo, we spent two nights in a beautiful guesthouse with a pool. The pool was much needed because the temperatures climbed to 41°C both days! Therefore, we scheduled our excursions for the evening and lazed around during the day.

One evening, we drove to Monsaraz. It is a small mountain village with roots dating back to the Bronze Age. Overlooking the Alqueva Reservoir, we had dinner there, admired the view of the surrounding hills, and watched the sunset.

Due to the low light pollution in Alentejo, the region is perfect for stargazing. We took advantage of this and booked a tour at the local observatory. We also drove to the field at night to stargaze once. In addition to seeing the Bodé and Cigar galaxies, the Swan and Ring Nebulae, and some special stars (such as Antares, a red supergiant that will explode in a supernova in the next 10,000 years), I also saw plenty of shooting stars. That was really great :-)

Overall, our time in Alentejo was a beautiful end to our months abroad. As I write this article, we are already on the train to Paris, from where we will travel to Heidelberg tonight.

Thank you for following my blog, I look forward to seeing you in person again very soon!