Belmonte and River joy - PT 4

 

As this part, finally, we arrived at Belmonte. Dont forget to check the first 3 parts for the full experience :)

I had already seen so many beautiful little villages during this trip, but Belmonte had a different feeling.

It is one of those places where you can feel that there is a lot of history underneath the quiet streets.

The village goes all the way up towards the old castle, and yes, obviously I had to go up there. 😂

Because apparently, if there is a castle somewhere, I cannot simply say “oh, that's nice” and walk away.

And then I need to wonder how people actually lived there hundreds of years ago. 😄

Belmonte is especially interesting because it has a very strong connection with both Portuguese history and the Sephardic Jewish community. It is also the birthplace of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese navigator who reached Brazil in 1500. The village still has its medieval atmosphere, with the castle, old stone houses and historic streets all sitting together on the hill.

But what really caught my attention was learning about the Jewish history of Belmonte.

For centuries, a Jewish community lived here and preserved its traditions and faith, sometimes secretly, through some very difficult periods of history. Today, Belmonte has a Jewish Museum and the Bet Eliahu Synagogue, which is still connected to an active community.

You can walk through a quiet little street and see nothing particularly unusual at first.

Then you learn the story behind it...

I walked around Belmonte taking photographs, looking at the stone houses, the little details around the doors and the old streets.

And, of course, I was imagining what life must have been like here long before Google Maps existed. 😂

After all that history, I think my body was ready for something completely different.

So we went towards the Côa River, around Sabugal.

And this is where my camera roll suddenly becomes... very empty.

Why? Because I was swimming. 😂 I was too busy getting into the cold river!

There is something completely different about swimming in a river surrounded by nature.

I was actually living the moment. Which, I suppose, is also part of travelling.

Sometimes you need to stop looking for the perfect picture and just jump into the cold water.

Even if you regret it for the first 30 seconds. 😂

The Côa runs through this region, and Portugal has many beautiful river landscapes where people escape the summer heat for freshwater and nature.

I was happy that I have so many memories!  But this time I looked at my phone and thought:

"Where are all my pictures?" Well...

I think that's okay. ❤️

I hope you enjoyed some historical part of Portugal and some cold water stories 😊  1more place left !