Small Group Templars Tour & Wine Tasting

Learn the secrets of the Templars and enjoy a unique wine tasting in this fabulous region rich in history! Highlights Marvel at breath-taking views Get excellent value for money Explore Almourol Convent’s main Cloister Discover Herdade dos Templários Departure & Return Location Free pick-up and drop-off in Lisbon, Sintra, Cascais in a range of 30km Extra charge of €20 if outside Departure Time 9 am Included Driver/Guide Lunch Bottled Water Pick-up and Drop-off Private Tour Wine tasting Excluded Guide inside monuments Any private expenses Itinerary Bright and early out of Lisbon, taking the eastbound highway, following the wide Tagus up-stream river line, with its banks spotted by livestock, pastureland and family farms aged but ageless. A general aspect of grassy, marshy wet soil, evergreen, even in the middle of Winter. Estremadura and Ribatejo at their most. At Vila Franca de Xira we veer North, now with olive groves insterspersed with wild pine, more livestock, vineyards, sunflower farms and cork oaks lining both sides of the freeway, right up to the turn-off onto the national two-lane blacktop leading to Tomar, the renowned Templar town. The first order of business, naturally, will be to visit the iconic, world famous 12th century Templar Castle and the Convent, a historic heavyweight, and its typical escarpment walls and rectangular keep. You’ll be hit by the sheer imponent silence of the Convent’s main Cloister, where the Gothic Middle Ages were turned into the Manueline ornate nationalism and the cosmopolitanism of Renaissance. The Convent’s Chapter House is something to behold, and you may recognize it, together with the main Cloister, from the 2018 release,Terry Gilliam movie “The Man Who Killed D. Quixote”, where pivotal scenes were shot. On to Herdade dos Templários (Templars’ Wine Estate), for a guided stroll through the vineyards and winery and a sampling of five wines combined with local cheeses and bread, all artisanal. A mood setter for lunch, which will be in a restaurant whose patronage is almost totally local. A simple, though not simplistic, homecooked meal, washed down with whatever your palate demands of you for the case. Local wine comes to mind, though. Happily fed, we set forth to Almourol, a 12th Century Templar Castle, erected on a granite outcropping islet in the middle of the Tagus River by the Order’s Master D. Gualdim Pais, almost at arm’s length from the left bank, in the village of Tancos, famous for its military Barracks and Armoury. The access is by small boat, quite exciting and quaint. The return to Lisbon will be leisurely and rife with commentary, questions and answers conjecture and fact flying back and forth, a bit of take home history just acquired. What to Bring We suggest bringing comfortable clothing, sunglasses, a hat and your camera