Page 142 - 2022 & 2023 Adventures by Land & Sea

Itinerary After lunch in a local restaurant, you have the time to DAY • Carmona • Optional Seville tour

explore Sintra on your own before returning to Lisbon. • Grand Circle Foundation visit: Convent
B,L — Hotel Marquês de Pombal or similar of St. Clare

DAY 1 • Depart U.S. Explore Carmona on your own, or join an Optional

You depart today on your overnight flight from the DAY 5 • Rural Portugal • Overland to Évora • Tour to Seville, the romantic Spanish city renowned
U.S. to Lisbon, Portugal. Home-Hosted Dinner for bullfighting, flamenco, and Don Juan. During the
Today, we’ll learn about azulejos, the ceramic tiles Optional Tour, we’ll discover Seville’s whitewashed

DAY 2 • Arrive in Lisbon, Portugal used to decorate church walls, palaces, and the homes, 2,000-year-old plazas, and cobbled
Arrive at the airport in Lisbon, where an O.A.T. façades of many Portuguese homes. We’ll also try neighborhoods like the Barrio de Santa Cruz. We’ll
representative will greet you. We’ll also meet those our hand at painting some of these tiles. Then, we’ll also explore the massive Seville Cathedral. Later,
who traveled on our optional Northern Portugal: visit a traditional artisanal cheese producer. After, we experience our NEW Grand Circle Foundation
Porto & the Douro Valley or New! Medieval Citadels & journey to Évora, where we’ll join a local family for a visit when we meet the nuns of the Convent of
Chateaux: Carcassonne to Toulouse pre-trip extensions. Home-Hosted Dinner. St. Clare to see the social support they offer to
Hotel Marquês de Pombal or similar B,L,D — Pousada de Évora or similar Carmona’s poor and homeless.

DAY 3 • Explore Lisbon • Controversial DAY 6 • Explore Évora • Discussion Please note: If Day 8 falls on a Sunday, the Optional Tour
Topic: Racism and Portugal’s colonial past with university students • Portuguese will visit El Alcázar instead of the Seville Cathedral.
with Ana Martins cooking lesson B,D — Parador de Carmona or similar
Today, we’ll gather at the hotel for a welcome briefing Today, enjoy a walking tour of Évora, an ancient
about our upcoming discoveries. We’ll then explore hilltop town with Roman roots, which we’ll see at the
Lisbon, including the Tower of Belém and the Avenida ruins of the Temple of Diana. This afternoon, we’ll
da Liberdade. We’ll also discover Baixa, an area in the gather for a Portuguese cooking lesson. Then, enjoy
heart of Lisbon that was destroyed and completely free time to explore independently.
rebuilt after the Great Earthquake of 1755. After, we’ll B,L,D — Pousada de Évora or similar Watch this independent video to learn
explore the Alfama district on foot, one of Lisbon’s more about this adventure

oldest neighborhoods. Here, we’ll stop at a local café DAY • Roman ruins of Mérida • Overland to
and learn about the Controversial Topic of racism Carmona, Spain
in Portugal from a local woman who is married Crossing into Spain today, we enter Extremadura,
to a man of African descent. Tonight, we’ll walk an autonomous Spanish province known as the
to a local restaurant where we’ll enjoy a Welcome homeland of famous conquistadores Pizarro and
Dinner together. Cortés. We’ll stop in Mérida, home to some of Europe’s
B,D — Hotel Marquês de Pombal or similar best-preserved Roman ruins and a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, including a 6,000-seat Roman theater
DAY 4 • Cascais • Sintra National Palace and adjoining amphitheater.

Today, we’ll leave the city’s environs to visit Cascais Then, we continue on to Carmona, arriving in time watch video
and Sintra, where our discoveries include Sintra for dinner.
National Palace, a 15th-century medieval palace
where the Portuguese royal family resided until 1910. B,D — Parador de Carmona or similar

Meet the people who call Portugal
and Spain home

Artisanal Cheese Producer : On Day 5, we’ll head
out to the farmlands south of Lisbon, Portugal,
where we’ll meet a rural cheese producer to learn about the
production process behind a local specialty: Azeitão cheese.
Portuguese Home Cook : On Day 6, we’ll venture outside of Évora and gather in a local
woman’s home to learn some of the secrets of Portuguese cuisine during a cooking class.
We’ll gain more insight about their culture and taste the regional dishes that we’ve crafted
as we sit down together for lunch.
Members of the Spanish Olive Oil Industry : Our Day 12 discoveries take us to Úbeda,
Spain for A Day in the Life of an olive grove and a nearby olive oil mill, where we’ll learn
about the harvesting, bottling, and sale of olive oil. After sampling some for ourselves, we’ll
sit down for lunch with some of the people who make their living producing it.

Explore the eighth-century Mezquita in Córdoba on Day 11.

142 Back Roads of Iberia: Spanish Paradores & Portuguese Pousadas www.oattravel.com/wps2022

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