Highlands – Portuguese style

Sometimes travel doesn’t have much to do with monuments or with a huge checklist of things you have to do in order to “have fun”.

Sometimes travel is just about soaking up the energies from the place you’re visiting and about collecting memories. Personally, I like to daydream a little.

When in Castro Laboreiro (which I mentioned before) I couldn’t helpt but get a “Lord of the Rings” kind of feeling. I was sure that at any minute I would see a legion of soldiers (or orcs!) coming from around the mountain.

Then I remembered my favourite part from the Latin classes I took in college. Despite being fairly technologically advanced Romans were superstitious and, might I add, a little too full of themselves.

Apparently, it took them a long time to enter the area we now call Serra da Estrela because, among other things, they must have thought it was a good idea to bring horses to a mountainous area! Oh, and Viriato played an important role, of course.

Standing there, with the wind rushing past my face in the grey and cold weather, I wondered if the north of what we today call Portugal had other characters, similar to Viriato. Even if it never did I can only imagine that living here, especially centuries ago without the comfort we now have, made everyone a hero in their own way.

Do you daydream when you travel? 😉