Querenca - famous for being beautiful

When we visited Alte in September 2004, I made a point of looking out a route to Querenca (pronounced 'ke-ren-sa') to slot in during our return journey back to our apartment..

It doesn't feature much in any guide books, and I'd even read some that were rather dismissive of poor little Querenca.

Well, I like to give a place every chance to impress me, no matter what others think. Plus, I've always rather liked the name - don't ask me why, probably just a pretty sound.

It didn't look too far from Alte and we would manage to avoid some of the crowded major roads. So, I unwrapped our trusty travel maps and started to devise a route.

We were glad of the little Peugeot's air conditioning, as some of the roads were not the sort you could speed down with the windows open for a cooling breeze.
 

Picturesque Route

Once you get off the 'beaten track' there really are some delights to be enjoyed in the Algarve countryside. When I'm not in a hurry, I like to explore some of the unlikelier routes that show up as roads on a decent map.

And the cross-country roads between Alte and Querenca were worthy of appreciation - especially at the sort of low speeds we maintained.

There were some delightful flowery profusions along the way and we slowed down or even stopped to enjoy them to the full. It's easy to see how a relaxed pace of life became the norm in such places. Why hurry when there's so much for the senses to take in and enjoy?

Shibu

At one stage, we pulled up in a small, out-of-the-way place whose name escaped me and watched a young man herd an unruly straggle of goats along the road.

Most of them disappeared over a hump to graze down by the side of the stream we'd just crossed, but one goat showed a lively interest in us and our little car. It simply would not be called away until it had made our acquaintance!

Such things are to be enjoyed as and when they happen, so we left the car to introduce ourselves, only to find that the herdsman was much more reticent than the goat!

We did learn that our would-be pal with the extremely fine goatee revelled in the name of Shibu, and we gleaned that it was the joker in the pack, so to speak, and much more unruly than the rest of the herd.

Although one was shy and one forward, our new friends did pose for a picture before rejoining the rest of the gang...

Querenca

Once we had resumed driving, we encountered something of an optical illusion, since it appeared that the road we were following simply ran out!

To our relief, we found that it was a trick of perspective and the road passed alongside a large farm building before widening into something more negotiable - thank goodness!

From there, we made pretty good time and arrived at Querenca not long afterward - only to overshoot and have to retrace our steps.

It had been worth the effort, though, as Querenca turned out to be a tiny yet beautiful place to spend some time on a gorgeous hot day.

We admired the square and the wonderfully-proportioned buildings nearby. Then we took a stroll around some of the streets and residential roads. My but there are some drool-worthy properties around! I saw lots and lots that I'd simply love to call my own. Unless I had an urgent need to live in an urban setting, I can't think of anywhere more attractive than this tiny out-of-the-way place.

After we'd soaked up the sights and sounds, it was time for a meal and some drinks in the Quinta do Olival restaurant.

It's obvious that Querenca does receive its fair share of tourist visitors, since neither our pale appearance nor our shaky Portuguese patter caused much of a stir (even though I always expect to stick out like a proverbial sore thumb!)

But then, Algarveans are very laid-back and friendly people, and they know that Brits, however scratchy their attempts to communicate in a foreign tongue, are the life-blood of Algarve's tourist industry.
 

The village’s other claim to fame is that it hosts a yearly sausage auction (in January, I think, and rather ironically on the feast day of S. Luis, who is the animals’ patron saint). While you might find the idea of such an event rather strange, it seems that the sausage has an almost mythical place in Portuguese folklore. It is held to be a healthy and important constituent of the diet (and this despite one type of sausage – the farinheira – consisting of not much more than flour and pork fat!)

But, back to the auction. It would seem that the sausages’ desirability – and therefore auctionability, if I might coin a new word – lies in the fact that they are hand-made, using recipes that are jealously guarded within the various local families that manufacture them.

The gourmets and sausage connoisseurs who gather for the serious stuff of bidding are looking for quality and flavour, of course, though how one ascertains these from a sausage that is being flourished aloft by an auctioneer is beyond my reckoning.

I was intrigued to notice that the auctioneer, kitted out in a white shopcoat with matching ‘hygiene hairnet’, was wearing a latex glove during the bidding. Quite right too, you might think, until you spot that it’s the hand that holds the microphone, while the one that brandishes the sausage is clothed only in the auctioneer’s own skin! So much for health and hygiene, then…

Should you be in central Algarve and have nothing to do on São Luis' Day, then the spectacle of a sausage auction might be just the thing to keep you entertained! And - don't forget to take your camera; it really is a lovely place.
 

If you wish, you can read more about the different types of Portuguese sausage on my Algarve Restaurants page.

And of course, if you have favourite places that you think I should visit. I'm always open to suggestions (use the form on the Your Algarve Best page), and there must still be tons of places I've never been near.

Meantime, you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter, Algarve Beach Life News, by clicking on the link below ("For Lovers of Algarve Beach Life") or on the button at top left ("Subscribe to ABLN") -- I'll keep you updated, every month, about what's new on the site, as it's added.

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