Thu 15 May-e Quinto da Bacalhoa

Thu 15 May- it was a rainy cool day, unusual for this time of year, but we decided to go to the the town 'Vila Fresca de Azeitao' to visit the garden at 'Palacio e Quinto da Bacalhoa', (http://www.bacalhoa.com), which at 670 years old, was built before Columbus set out for the New World. It is famous for its vineyard and the special grapes it produces, art treasures from Roman times on that were collected by the wealthy owners of the palace, and architecture. We've seen wine with the Bacalhoa name everywhere, and apparently it's been a premium wine since 1979. When we arrived about noon, we were told we needed reservations from the Bacalhoa wine shop. The earliest tour was 4:30, but we decided to go for it. While at the wine shop, we did some tasting of the famous wines, a white, a red and a 'Muscatel de Setubal', a muscat-based fortified wine (like port). The white was very smooth, not much fruit taste; the red was very distinctive with lots of flavor; the muscat was sweet and fruity, much like a plum wine. We liked it so much we bought a bottle.
We visited a tile shop ('Azulejos de Azeitao'), which manufactures tiles and can ship to the US (http://www.azulejosdeazeitao.com ; email azulejosdeazeitao@megamail.pt). We may order a tile decoration for our back yard from them. Luis and Teresa gave us a nice tour and explained the process.
For lunch the 'Restaurante Pe de Vinho' was recommended, so we had octopus with potatos and a salmon souffle/casserole. The octopus was like we had in Sintra years ago - tender and delicious arms; and the souffle had a delicate but rich flavor. We had the olive oil pudding and coffee for dessert The pudding was not oily at all, but a seemed like a bread soaked in honey, much like the Indian dessert of dough balls in sugar syrup.
We went to the Palacio for our tour after shopping for dinner snacks. Since it was rainy, we could not walk in the gardens, but were kindly allowed to photograph them from the upper floor. We were given a tour of the interior of the Palacio, and shown the art treasures: sculptures, paintings, tiles, etc.