Cerro Da Vila Vilamoura

We took the bus into Vilamoura, had lunch at a lovely bistro at the Maria, and enjoyed the warm weather. We asked the waitress why people came to Vilamoura. She said, "Golf and warm weather. That is all you can expect in Portugal.". We had seen a fair number of tourists - older couples walking hand in hand. Some were younger. Most seemed to have no clearer destination than we did. We asked the waitress about the museum (archaeological site) up the street. She said there wasn't much there. Of course, I'm not sure any of the locals have ever been there as the staff at the hotel (after some consultation) had indicated its location on the map without even knowing it was already on the map some distance away from their designated location.

Some of the signs were even in English, giving us a chance to practice Portuguese to English translation. Many did not have an English translation (and the woman who took our entrance fee disappeared after we entered) so we had fun trying to decide what things were. Pottery, lamps, cooking utensils, hair pins. In a basket next to the display of cooking utensils was the bones of an ancient Portuguese resident with the explanation that the dead were sent to the other side with containers for cooking.


The entrance to the complex had mosaic flooring.

All bedrooms opened up to a central patio. Below you see a soaking area.

In some way, this area was used to warm the water that was channeled to the bath areas.

This is an artists rendition of the whole area. There are large public bath areas, but they can find no evidence of a large enough population living here to warrant such an edifice.

This is the base of a winepress for crushing olives or grapes for oil/wine. We also saw underground pits for storing salted fish and large containers for storing grains underground.

The area was inhabited by Roman settlers in the first century. The elaborate effort to bring water into the homes reminds me of aqueducts we saw in Rome.





These are waterways to take warmed water into the spas, bath areas, and to warm the bedroom floors. Ingenious!

After our self-tour of the archaeological site, we walked the 3 miles to the hotel. We asked about a tour to Lisbon, but it is 7 hours on a bus for five hours in Lisbon (some of which time is spent shopping), so I think we'll just soak up the rays here for another day.