Hiking Casal De Sao Simao, Portugal

At noon, after checking out of H2otel / Aquadome in Unhais de Terra, we drove the Nissan Qashqai to Casal de São Simão to hike along the wooden floorboards to the famous "Passadico das Fragas de São Simão."

Upon arrival at 14:00, we were hungry and decided to stop for lunch at Restaurante Varanda do Casal. It was an unexpectedly fancy restaurant at such an unusual location. After being seated, we ordered the following items:

Appetizer: Bread, Olives
Drinks: Espresso, Sparkling Water, Tea
Main: Venison (Deer) Pie with Fresh Salad

Our Venison Pie was quite large and delicious! I also really liked the salad and the espresso. This was an unexpectedly excellent Portuguese restaurant (in the middle of nowhere).

After lunch, we headed out on our hike to Fragas de São Simão. Inna thought it would be relatively flat, but it was a steep climb down and then up.

Once we climbed down, we saw people gathered around pools of water, some swimming. Swimming here would have been nice (except for the icy water).

We climbed over 450 steps to reach the top (Fragas de Sa Simão). At the top, we took many photos and admired the view. We saw a statue of a boy named "Land of Dreams."