Margaret and Hajir arrive for one of many festive events, in one of Margaret’s many costume changes, at this epic wedding

So finally we get to the main point of this trip: Margaret & Hajir’s wedding. They chose as the location the Alentejo wine region. It’s worth noting that while the Douro Valley wine region – the second stop on this Portugal Explorer tour of ours – is a reasonably confined discrete area, the Alentejo region spreads across fully a third of the country. And unlike the area around our Six Senses stop in the north, where we were literally surrounded by multiple wineries, down here you can drive miles without seeing a single vine.

That is to say this is a very different wine region compared to up north. Still, because it is a largely rural and dispersed area there was no single large hotel or resort to house the hundred-plus people Margaret and Hajir were expecting for the ceremony. Instead we were spread out for miles in various inns and guesthouses and winery-hotels.

The beautiful countryside around Assumar

Mark & I ended up in an absolutely lovely small guesthouse in the tiny town of Assumar, certainly the smallest town we have stayed at in years. And the country boy that’s still in me loved the stop. We were only there for two nights but both days I went for long walks in the country (joined by Mark for one of them), discovering cork trees, grazing sheep and cattle, a huge solar farm, and plenty of mud. I love living in Manhattan but you don’t get a lot of opportunity for country walks there so I did my best to make up for it in Assumar.

The turn-around point of one walk. I’d wanted to go a little further, and this pleasant pasture was inviting, but Walt had warned me that the cattle here were aggressive beef cattle, not docile milk cows. I saw them spread across the path, saw the big horns on most of them, and decided discretion was the better part of valor. I turned around and thus survived to write this blog.

Besides great walks in the country two memories from Assumar stand out. When we first arrived – delayed some 45 minutes by a terrible accident on the highway down there – our host Walt took us to the tiny restaurant in town where the menu was … ribs. Really good ribs, I should add, in the most typical small-town café filled with old men who probably sit there every day, telling the same stories. There was no menu – you ate what he was cooking that day. There were side dishes, however, three of them to be precise. Potatoes, potatoes, and potatoes, cooked in three different ways. Not the meal I would normally choose but a genuinely unforgettable meal.

And then just the guesthouse itself. Walt & Hilde, the proprietors, had recently restored an old farmhouse; I don’t remember just how old but at least a couple hundred years. They couldn’t have been lovelier, our room was big and bright, and they even had a pool in the backyard. Of course, notwithstanding the early April calendar I went in for a dip. Cold but exhilarating.

Walt and Hilde the absolutely lovely hosts at our Assumar guesthouse

And then of course there was the wedding. We’ve socialized with the couple for dinners and parties at both our house and theirs and one thing we were confident of was that there would be enough alcohol. In fact we were a little concerned because the wedding ceremony (ceremonies) themselves were scheduled to last some 10+ hours, with open bars the whole time. And as if that weren’t enough there were dedicated tequila- and whiskey-bearers wandering around throughout ready to help anyone in need.

We didn’t know many of the people at the wedding but we’d met John at a dinner party at Margaret & Hajir’s just a couple weeks ago and have known Alice almost since we first moved to New York, so it was fun to spend time with both of them

In fact it was all pretty fabulous – a somewhat traditional Persian ceremony to reflect Hajir’s family, a more English country estate ceremony complete with arrivals on white horses, a planned escape by hot air balloon that had to get scrubbed because of the weather, and plenty of food, music, and socializing. All in all we had a pretty fabulous time.

It was scheduled to be a two-and-a-half hour drive from Coimbra down to Assumar. Instead no more than a minute or two before we got to this spot there was a terrible accident; a car hidden behind that van was demolished. It didn’t appear that anyone died but at least one person had to wait for the emergency responders to get removed from the car. A good reminder to drive carefully.

The wonderful and memorable lunch in Assumar

Me with ribs and potatoes. Before the bill came I asked Mark if he thought it would come to under or over €50; we both thought maybe a little under. In fact it was €32. We can’t afford not to come on vacation here!

A grove of 400-year-old cork trees. Walt explained that it takes 10 years after removing the bark to make corks for the tree to recover before it is ready for “harvesting” again. So they paint a big white digit on the tree to show when it was last harvested; this tree, obviously, had its bark removed in 2019 and will be ready again in 2029.

Another shot of our country walk

Margaret and Hajir arrive to one of the ceremonies on horses. This all looked good but a second later the horses decided to be less cooperative….

Some pictures of friends, old and new. Here are Elizabeth and David.

Alice and Najeen, cousin of the groom

Sarah, Laure, and Laura. Notice Mark, reflected in the mirror behind them, taking this picture.

Me with Robert, father of the groom (and official tequila bearer), and Kylie from Indiana

Rebecca, Annie, Kris, & Leah. I’d complimented Kris on his tie when he explained it was his daughter’s hair bow and she didn’t want to wear it any more so he turned it into a festive tie!

You recognize us!

Here we are again with Walt and Hilde who joined the early part of the festivities

The vows, with officiant cousin Hasti. You’ll notice that instead of traditional bridesmaids and groomsmen Hajir & Margaret are joined at the front by the tequila- and whiskey-bearers. I mean, you never know when you might need a little extra nip!

The entire group from our little guesthouse: David, Linda (mother of the bride), Sarah, Laura, Greg, Jake, Mark, me, and Tina, aunt of the bride

And one final view of the serenity of the Assumar countryside

The University of Coimbra under moody lighting from our hotel rooftop

Skinny atmospheric streets

From the Douro Valley we need to get to Portugal’s other major wine region, Alentejo, for Margaret and Hajir’s wedding. But we decided to break that trip up with a two-night stop in the lovely college town of Coimbra.

Coimbra served as the capital of Portugal from 1131 to 1255, soon after the Moors were driven out. Today the University of Coimbra dominates the top of this steep riverside city. It’s Portugal’s most prestigious university — and one of the world’s oldest. It was founded in Lisbon by King Dinis in 1290, moved around several times, and finally established permanently in Coimbra in 1537.

We enjoyed touring the beautiful campus, part of which occupies the royal palace of the earliest kings of Portugal. From our hotel next to the campus, it was a steep climb down to the lower city to find restaurants and other sites, including the Santa Cruz monastery, where Portugal’s first two kings are buried. It made for a most pleasant stopover between wine regions.

A reception room in the royal palace that is now part of the university

This elaborate 2,000 pipe organ was intended for a much larger church, but ended up dominating the university’s Saint Michael’s Chapel

Restoration workers in Saint Michael’s Chapel looked like beauty stylists give the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception a makeover

The Great Hall of Acts was once the throne room of the palace and now serves as the venue for important university events. The upper walls are lined with portraits of the kings of Portugal. They should not be confused with the guy standing on a balcony. That is just Jim.

University founder King Dinis was exhumed and subjected to lots of high tech research to create this incredibly accurate and lifelike representation

Climbing down the steep and narrow paths to the lower city

The main square in the lower city was suddenly packed with gazillions of loud school kids

The square on a calmer evening

The monastery of Santa Cruz is the resting place for the first two kings of Portugal

A lovely lunch in a friendly tapas restaurant with just five tables

Diners in Coimbra are sometimes serenaded by students in black capes. That never happened to us, so I had to pose with the pretend singers.

We walked past an “American” restaurant. I guess that means they have hamburgers.

And I made Jim pose with a pre-hamburger

The evening view of the river from our hotel rooftop

Part way down the hill toward dinner we found this beautiful cocktail bar with sweeping views of the river. But why did they seat us here?

The 19th century manor at the core of our resort was at the top of a lot of stairs

The second stop on this Portugal Explorer was an easy 90-minute drive into the Douro Valley, the country’s most famous wine region. We stayed in the Six Senses resort, located high above the Douro River in a grand 19th century manor. Truth be told there wasn’t really a lot to do so there’s not a lot to say about it.

The food was good, though because of the isolation of the resort there were no off-resort restaurant options and after just a couple days of looking at the same lunch menu it gets a little old. And the weather was spectacular for this time of year – sunny and in the 60s much of the day.

Lunch on the patio at Six Senses Douro Valley surrounded by vineyards and with plenty of sun

Being right in the middle of wine country – literally surrounded by vineyards – we took advantage of the hotel’s offer to do a wine tasting. For €55 you get to taste several wines with a sommelier giving you a history of the wine, the region, all that. Some of it was interesting but there were two downsides. First, none of the wines they chose were particularly representative of the Douro Valley. That was really strange – they all had at least some non-native grapes, and in a couple cases all the grapes were not native to the region. The whole point for us was to learn more about this specific region.

The other problem was annoying: they listed the price as €55 but when the bill came they added a €5 charge for the little food nibbles you get as a palate cleanser. Sorry, you don’t get to advertise one price and then just add a little extra. There’s a happy ending to the story though. After I complained at the front desk and had them take the extra charge off we saw the next day that the advertisement for the wine tasting had been changed to reflect the cost of €60. Victory!

Our sommelier telling us about the Douro Valley wines without actually using typical Douro Valley wines

Otherwise our days were filled with a lot of reading and a fair amount of exercising. There was a really nice gym on site and there were some great walking trails along the river and into the vineyards. A few days walking and reading in the sun with nothing to worry about isn’t the worst way to spend time!

There was a trail from below the hotel that ran just about exactly one kilometer along the river, a pleasant part of every day we spent there

And then you could extend the walk up into the vineyards. Even in just three days I could watch the little green sprouts emerging on the vines – my sense is that in just another week or 10 days at most this will be way more green than it is now.

There was a nice pool but it being the start of April and all the water was too cold for most people. I went in, though, and while I was there we found that it wasn’t too cold for ducks, either, two of whom landed while I was in it. You can see them in the upper right of the pool!

There I am, even closer to the ducks

Another view of the vineyards. Our hotel is off in the distance, almost exactly in the center of the picture.

More wildlife! The hotel had two very calm dogs that hung around with guests. This one, Foxy, wasn’t very strategic: completely ignored you, even if you tried to make friends. But then at lunch time when there was food he was eager to be fed. Sorry, you weren’t friendly when I wanted you!