April 2017 – Journey to Western Spain and Portugal, Introduction

I went to Spain and Portugal during Golden Week this year. The purpose of my visit to Spain was to visit « The Most Beautiful Villages in Spain » as I did last year, and in Portugal, I mainly visited the places registered as World Heritage Sites, mainly in the northern central part of the country. Of course we tasted the local food and wine.

So, as usual, we’ll be showing you how it goes here. This time, I’m going to give you an introduction to what it will be like. At the moment, I’m thinking of presenting it in the following structure.

Part 1: Transportation

In the beginning, we’ll cover things like renting a car, flying, local road conditions, and other transportation-related issues.

レンタカー
スペインとポルトガルの高速道路の仕組み
googleマップの機能
ガイドブックの電子化、地球の歩き方Kindle版の活用
中国国際航空と北京国際空港

Part 2: Tour of Spain’s most beautiful villages

Next is the theme of the trip, which has continued from last year. But this time, the main part was Portugal, so I visited fewer places than last year. I visited the following 8 places, mainly villages near the Portuguese border.

Candelario（カンデラリオ）
Miranda del Castañar （ミランダ・デル・カスタニヤール）
Mogarraz（モガッラス）
La Alberca（ラ・アルベルカ）
Ciudad Rodrigo（シウダッド・ロドリーゴ）
Puebla de Sanabria（プエブラ・デ・サナブリア）
Trujillo （トルヒーリョ）
Chinchón（チンチョン）

Now I’ve visited 26 places in total. By the way, I wonder how many most beautiful villages in Spain are there in total….

Part 3: World Heritage Sites

This was also one of the main themes of this trip. Portugal also has many world heritage sites. Portugal is not a big country, so we could visit many World Heritage sites even if we stayed only one week. This time, I focused on the World Heritage Sites in the north central part of the country and also visited some of the World Heritage Sites in Spain.

In total, I have visited 17 World Heritage Sites, 6 of which I have already visited once. Therefore, there are 11 new places to visit.

コア渓谷とシエガ・ベルデの先史時代の岩絵遺跡群
ギマランイス歴史地区
ポルト歴史地区
アルト・ドウロ・ワイン生産地域
コインブラ大学-アルタとソフィア
バターリャ修道院
アルコバッサ修道院
リスボンのジェロニモス修道院とベレンの塔（再訪）
シントラの文化的景観（再訪）
エヴォラ歴史地区（再訪）
国境防衛都市エルヴァスとその要塞群
メリダの考古遺産群
カセレス旧市街（再訪）
サラマンカの旧市街（再訪）
サンタ・マリア・デ・グアダルーペ王立修道院
水銀の遺産アルマデンとイドリヤ
アランフエスの文化的景観（再訪）

I have visited more than 200 World Heritage sites in total, but I have long since stopped counting them in detail.

Part 4: Other Places to Visit

We’ve visited beautiful villages and non-World Heritage sites.

ブラガンサ
Bom Jesus do Monte
ブラガ
アマランテ
アヴェイロ
コニンブリガ
オビドス
リスボン、その他、美術館
ロカ岬
アルマダ
マドリードのソリーリョ美術館
マドリードの考古学博物館

I have a feeling that the content will be more intense than the World Heritage Site. I can say that I could fully enjoy it that much.

Part 5: Wine and Dine

And of course, I enjoyed the food and wine of the area on this trip as well. I found myself drinking wine every day lol. I posted it on Instagram every night, but I’m going to share it here again.