forget

Navigating the high slopes of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela in midwinter requires serious negotiation with the elements, but my guide, João Pedro Sousa, makes it look simple. Angling his lean frame into the wind, he digs his plastic snow-shoes into a steep drift and pauses, scanning the white ridgeline. He’s looking for mariolas – small cairns of rocks, fused by ice, that will indicate our onward trail. “The landscape changes every day so you have to learn how to read it afresh,” he says, setting off again. “At this time of year, nature is a true artist.”

I plod inelegantly in his wake, still clumsy in the frames clipped to my boots to keep me from sinking into the powder. At a quartzite outcrop rippled with rose and amber, we pause and drink in the view. Below us, cupped in the glacial scar of the Zêzere valley, is the terracotta-roofed town of Manteigas – founded in the 12th century and today the modest hub for tourism in the region. Ahead, on the horizon, João Pedro points out mainland Portugal’s highest peak, the 1,993-metre Torre, home to a small ski resort suited to beginners. “This region is full of surprises,” he grins.

As head of activities for Casa das Penhas Douradas, a design-led hotel created in 2006 and inspired by Alpine lodges, João Pedro leads treks through the massif in all seasons. More than 100 miles of trails extend from the property, following old shepherd paths into pine forests, around lagoons and across barren passes stacked with huge granite boulders – the remnants of the last ice age, scattered like a giant’s abandoned toys. This is wild country – recognised in 2020 by Unesco as a global geopark for its remarkable biodiversity and geology – but the human story is equally rich.

The hotel is a renovated 100-year-old sanatorium, its 17 birch-panelled rooms and suites gazing eastwards to the rising sun. All have vast sliding windows and doors to let in the curative mountain air during the milder months. Down the main corridor, leading from one log fire-warmed sitting room to another, a gallery of sepia photographs remembers the pioneering 1881 expedition by the Lisbon Geographic Society to this high plateau, looking for a place to treat the scourge of tuberculosis.

“The refined air, pure water and protein-rich diet here worked wonders for patients. For a period at the start of the 20th century, this was Portugal’s answer to the Swiss health resorts of St Moritz or Davos,” João Pedro tells me when we are back at the lodge, warming up with apple cake and carqueja mountain tea. The chalets peppering the surrounding slopes certainly look as if they have been plucked from northern Europe, with steep roofs, sunrooms and occasional fairytale flourishes, like finials or turrets. “Built from stone, not timber, though,” João Pedro clarifies. “The style is mixed with our Lusitanian mountain architecture.”

For the rest of my stay, the Serra is a violently shaken snow globe, the whiteout preventing safe hiking and forcing a thorough exploration of the hotel instead. I shuffle between the indoor sauna and bath-temperature swimming pool; seek out the resident masseuse for a thoroughly undeserved sports massage; and indulge in a series of three-course meals where I sample the region’s famous Iberian pork – always tender and expertly sauced. Afternoons are seen out with a glass of port and a well-thumbed tome on mountaineering from the library, a lived-in space charmingly decorated with antique skiing paraphernalia. The pièce de résistance of the property? The Nordic-style wooden hot tub, which I book for a late-night soak after the storm subsides, the stars winking down at me through spindrift and steam.

As well as injecting some panache into the local tourism scene, I discover the founders of the hotel have been pivotal in saving a dying mountain craft: burel fabric, a thick, water-resistant weave made from bordaleira sheep’s wool and used for shepherds’ capes since the middle ages. “I fell in love with the local material when creating the upholstery for the hotel – it’s amazingly tough and versatile,” owner Isabel Costa tells me, as we tour her warehouse of whirring antique looms on the outskirts of Manteigas. “Nine textile mills had already gone out of business when this one closed – I knew we had to buy it.”

In 2010, the mill reopened as the Burel Factory, with a fresh directive: vibrant colours, modern designs and new applications as tactile wall art and furniture coverings, as well as fashion. Isabel was able to rehire experienced artisans, who in turn trained a new generation of craftspeople. I meet some of them in the Room of Light, where workers stand before great windows reeling bolts of cloth to check for skipped stitches. “Generations of Manteigas women have worked in this business,” seamstress Marta Neves tells me. “It’s delicate work, and with the quantity of bespoke commissions now coming in, every day is different.”

Owing to the success of her initial projects, Isabel was able to expand further, opening the town’s first five-star hotel in 2018, Casa de São Lourenço, with a third property currently in the works. The fabric of local life has been rewoven in the process: with expanding job opportunities, young people are choosing to stay and build lives. The local school has even reopened. Today, burel shops sit on Lisbon and Porto’s most upmarket thoroughfares, popularising a native art form – and a destination – long overlooked. “It was my husband who first fell in love with Manteigas. The nature, the people – it’s like nowhere else in Portugal,” Isabel says.

I stay on in the small town itself, checking into Casa das Obras, a time-warp mansion that has been in the noble Ribeiro de Portugal family since its construction between 1770 and 1825, serving as a guesthouse for the past two decades. Here, history is palpable. Stern-looking ancestors of the current owner, Maria Amélia, look down from oil paintings lining the monumental stone staircase. Lower chambers include a tapestried billiards room and bar, while the upstairs breakfast room – a living museum of antiques, trinkets and heavy drapes – boasts original ceiling art. The bedrooms are underwhelming in comparison, but there’s a pretty garden blooming with camellias, and the location is unbeatably central.

Not that there’s too much of Manteigas to explore. One twisting lane of commerce offers up a souvenir shop stacked with knitted socks and wool slippers; a bakery famous for creating the town’s signature sweet treat, the syrupy pastel de feijoca; and a couple of delis selling wheels of creamy Serra de Estrela sheep’s cheese. The great treasure of the town is its looks, its cobbled streets and snow-dusted churches framed in all directions by dramatic valleys and forested peaks, all seemingly ripped from a storybook.

Come summer, the community will be humming with hikers and adrenaline junkies – biking, paragliding, climbing and ATV buggy rides can all be organised here, with information at the little tourist office. But for now, during its coldest months, Manteigas insists on visitors slowing down – filling their lungs with crisp air, lining their stomachs with hearty cuisine and exploring scenic mountain trails when Mother Nature allows.

The trip was supported by Casa das Penhas Douradas, where rooms start at €189 B&B, including guided hikes and a tour of the Burel Factory. Rooms at Casa das Obras start at €55 B&B. Manteigas can be reached via taxi (30min) or twice-daily bus from the town of Belmonte, which is connected to Lisbon by direct train (3h 50min).

GORDON Ramsay has hailed David and Victoria Beckham as fantastic parents — and said time will help Brooklyn heal their heartbreaking family feud.

The Michelin-starred restauranteur, 59, said he loves the aspiring chef, 26, and has been in contact offering support.

He also spoke for the first time about that dance at Brooklyn’s 2022 wedding to Nicola Peltz – which he attended alongside wife Tana.

Loyal Gordon, a long-time family friend, said: “It’s a very difficult situation.

“Victoria is upset, and I know 24/7, seven days a week, just how much David loves Brooklyn.

“Brooklyn and I have messaged a little bit, our relationship is solid. I love him – his heart is incredible.

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“But it’s hard, isn’t it, when you’re infatuated? Love is blind. It’s easy to get up on that rollercoaster, and get carried away. But it will come back.

I know just how many times they have got Brooklyn out of the s***

Gordon on David and Victoria’s parenting

“I’ve seen first-hand just how good parents they are. David as a dad is just incredible.

“They’ve both put so much energy into their kids, and I know just how many times they’ve got Brooklyn out of the s***.

“I think it’s going to be a matter of time before Brooklyn takes a good look at himself and understands just what his parents mean to him.

“He’s desperate to forge his own way, and I respect that from him. It’s such a good thing to do.

“But remember where you came from. And honestly, one day you’re not going to have your mum and dad, and you need to understand that.

“That penny will drop.

“I just want Brooklyn to take a moment to himself. And remember: you’re half mum, half dad. And you’re an amazing young man.

“But, boy, they’ve done more for you than anyone did in your entire life.

‘Time the best healer’

”Time’s going to be the best healer, and David will absolutely get that relationship back on track.”

While Brooklyn has blocked many of his relatives on Instagram, he and Gordon still follow one another.

The chef, who has almost 20million followers, has backed Brooklyn’s cooking endeavours where others were quick to mock.

Meanwhile, Posh and Becks and Gordon and Tana have been pals for nearly 2½ decades.

Of course, Gordon knows about family feuds in the wake of his recent troubles with new son-in-law Adam Peaty’s clan.

He and Tana also went through hell when her dad, Chris Hutcheson, was jailed for six months in 2017 for hacking company computers.

Gordon says: “Tana and I sat them down, and we buried the hatchet with her parents. It’s family, it’s what you do.”

In his damning statement last month, Brooklyn accused his mum of “dancing inappropriately” on him at his wedding.

His friends allege that she “grinded” on the groom. She has since become victim to hundreds of mocking memes.

However unnamed “friends” of the Beckhams hit back at the allegations. Over to Gordon, then, to set the record straight.

He says: “There was nothing salacious. There was nothing inappropriate. Everyone was having fun, having a dance.”

But, Gordon, DID SHE GRIND?

He says: “No! Nothing of the sort. It was fun. I haven’t seen any of the memes, I heard about them of course, but Victoria’s got a great sense of humour.

“She’s great. She’s right to be upset (about the wedding) but she can bat that other s*** away in a heartbeat.

“Victoria and Tana have spoken a lot, they are probably closer than ever – they’re like two peas in a pod, those two.”

When Gordon isn’t playing ace therapist/mediator, he’s been pretty busy on his own terms.

On Wednesday his new six-part Netflix documentary Being Gordon Ramsay airs, detailing his efforts to launch his latest ambitious project.

Britain’s highest eaterie, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High is on the 60th floor of skyscraper 22 Bishopsgate in the City of London.

I never ever watch myself on telly because it’s just incredibly nerve-wracking.

Gordon Ramsay

The intimate 12-seater chef’s table experience has already earned him another Michelin star. 

I’ve seen the show, and it’s brilliant, giving a fly-on-the-wall look into Gordon’s frenetic and fabulous home life – he and Tana have six kids – as well as the hell of getting a new business off the ground.

He smiles: “I won’t watch it. I never ever watch myself on telly because it’s just incredibly nerve-wracking.

“When you’ve done it and lived it, the last thing you want to do is sit there with lots of popcorn. There’s a level of embarrassment.”

‘Getting softer with age’

Even without Gordon’s viewership, it is sure to be another Netflix smash. Contrary to his bravado, away from the kitchen, and whisper it, but Gordon is a bit of a pussycat, and definitely “getting softer with age”.

He regularly cries, he admits.

He turns 60 in November but in the doc we see super-fit Gordon running outdoors with his young son, Oscar, in the gym and pumping weights. He is ripped.

Wife Tana also recently smashed a Half Ironman in Greece, breezily qualifying for the World Championships in the process. They are a truly impressive power duo, and very clearly still massively in love.

Having trained under Marco Pierre White at the age of 35 Gordon set up his first restaurant, winning three Michelin stars shortly after. He now has eateries across the globe, and is arguably the planet’s most famous chef.

His work ethic is relentless – possibly a result of his humble upbringing. In one episode, Gordon gets emotional recalling his own childhood struggles, growing up on a council estate near Glasgow, and relying on school vouchers to eat.

Today, he has teamed up with a fantastic charity, Feeding Britain, to provide 800,000 kids in poverty with affordable food. Gordon has quietly donated “very heavily” to it.

He recalls: “I was hungry all the time, there was no food in the house.

“I was sometimes too embarrassed to use my vouchers to get my free shepherd’s pie in case, you know, aged 15 or 16, a girl I fancied saw me. I was a skinny f***ng bean.

I remember eating toothpaste thinking that was delicious because there were multiple nights where we never ate. It is appalling that we’re in this situation now.”

Meanwhile, Gordon has been a rock for 26-year-old daughter Holly’s new husband, Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty.

Last weekend Gordon said he’d treated the Peaty family “like royalty”, prompting a furious robust from Adam’s estranged mum, Caroline, who was not invited to his and Holly’s December wedding.

She labelled the Ramsays “bullies”. ”I am certainly not a bully, and it is so appalling to even suggest there was any bullying,” he sighs.

“That’s absolute nonsense. It was sad to see that barrage of negativity that was self-propelled by them.

“But Adam is an incredible young lad and he and Holly are a wonderful, happy, young couple.”

So, would Gordon fancy being a grandad?

He says: “Jesus Christ. They’re still on their f***ing honeymoon!

“But I do laugh sometimes when I’m in the park with [two-year-old son] Jesse.

“I was taking him to a football match last Saturday, and then this lady said, ‘Oh, it must be so nice to have the grandkids at the weekend!’

“And I’m like, ‘Are you f***ing serious woman? Grandkids?! That’s my son!’”

• Being Gordon Ramsay is available on Netflix from Wednesday.

60th WILL BE ADELE OF A PARTY

THE very sweary superstar — I counted 27 f***s in the new documentary’s first episode – hopes superstar singer Adele will bring birthday cheer on his 60th in November.

Obviously, for a man not feted for his thriftiness, there will be a huge party, also celebrating his 30th anniversary with Tana.

“We are hoping Adele will sing,” he grins. “Tana loves Adele and I saw her in Vegas when she was playing the Colosseum, and she was a customer of ours in Chelsea.

“She is an incredibly gracious, talented woman, and a real foodie. She loves that kind of fine dining style.”

They witnessed something inexplicable…

As a child, I relocated to a secluded hamlet near Wimborne in Dorset. This hamlet was situated less than a mile from the now-deserted and dilapidated Knowlton Church, a medieval building that’s reputedly haunted. When I was younger, I seldom visited Knowlton Church, but my fascination with its history and purported ghostly inhabitants grew after we moved away.

The church itself is reputed to be among Dorset’s most haunted locations – and with good reason. This Norman place of worship, erected in the 12th century, stands at the heart of a Neolithic ritual henge, a site of pagan worship.

According to the English Heritage website, the church symbolises the region’s shift from pagan to Christian worship.

It’s thought that parts of the church were built using some of the ancient standing stones found on the site, reports the Express.

However, it’s not just the church that gives Knowlton its distinctive character. The parish church also stands in the centre of earthworks.

According to the English Heritage website, the Neolithic earthwork “is one of the great Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial complexes in southern England”.

The main earthwork, known as ‘Church Henge’, encircles the church and has been protected from plough damage, while the others are only discernible in aerial photographs.

The church and village’s history fascinates me, but during my teenage years, one aspect drew me back to Knowlton: the ghosts.

One evening, my mates and I decided to venture back to the church in hopes of catching a glimpse of the alleged ghosts.

The church is reportedly haunted by several spirits, including a phantom horse and rider who are seen galloping across the grounds at night, even passing through the church itself; a ghostly face that materialises in the top window of the tower; and, some claim, a sobbing woman kneeling outside the building.

I’ve always been a believer in ghosts and the supernatural, but I’d never had a personal encounter with the paranormal.

We parked the car near the church, its headlights illuminating the building, and waited for something eerie to occur. At first, nothing happened.

We nervously chatted and giggled, our eyes glued to the medieval structure.

Then, out of nowhere, the church vanished from sight, as if shrouded by a dark veil. We all screamed and jumped in our seats as the building disappeared, only to reappear moments later as if nothing had transpired.

My initial reaction was one of fear; what on earth had I just witnessed? Was this some sort of prank? Was someone watching us, trying to frighten us off?

My gut told me to bolt. Some of my friends felt the same way and wanted to leave, but one was keen to investigate further. We quickly agreed it was safer to head home.

While my encounter was certainly out of the ordinary, I’m not alone in experiencing supernatural phenomena at Knowlton Church. Cheryl, a local from Salisbury, told Bournemouth Echo in 2022 that she’s convinced she spotted a ghost there.

Upon reviewing her photographs of the church, she noticed something peculiar: a shadowy figure lurking in an archway.

Other adventurers and self-proclaimed ghost hunters also claim they’ve had similar eerie experiences.

Today, Knowlton is a quaint hamlet nestled in a secluded location, but centuries ago, it was a thriving village teeming with life. It’s thought that the bubonic plague, infamously known as the ‘Black Death’, decimated the population in the late 15th century.

The survivors abandoned their homes and relocated, leaving the dwellings to decay. Over time, the structures were ploughed into the ground, though their foundations are still visible in certain areas today.

Despite the village being deserted, it’s believed the church continued to serve its purpose until the 18th century, when the roof caved in. However, local lore suggests the church fell into disrepair after its bell was stolen and tossed into the river.

Depending on who you ask, the bell was either taken by the Devil himself or a band of thieves attempted to snatch it but were thwarted by a witch.

As for what I witnessed that night, I can’t say for certain. It could have been mere mist or a play of light, but the feeling it evoked will forever be etched in my memory.

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After spending last summer interrailing around Europe, one journalist and ‘travel addict’ has named his favourite place – and it’s so close to the UK.

If you’re planning a holiday for this year, the choice of destinations can sometimes feel overwhelming. There are so many amazing places to choose from, many of which are just a few short hours’ flight away in Europe.

But one journalist and ‘travel addict’ who has visited 27 countries in total recently went interrailing around Europe and discovered his new favourite place.

It had ‘endless experiences’ to offer, from a rich history to amazing landscapes and underrated food too. Brian Dillon from The Express said: “Jumping from hostel to hostel between seven cities in these five countries, Germany blew me away. I had been to Germany in the past, and every time I go there, I have a completely different experience.”

He had previously visited Berlin but spent time in Munich and Stuttgart in the summer – and they all offered a unique experience.

But the highlight of his visit had to be Munich, as he explained: “This city simply blew me away. First arriving in the Bavarian city on a train from Vienna, I was impressed by the architecture. It seemed like at every turn, there was another stunning building to gawk at.

“The historic Old Town was superbly charming, and you really feel like you have been transported back in time to a centuries-old Germany. However, one aspect of Munich that I fell in love with was its local parks.

“Every major city has some nice parks to explore. But Munich does it differently. Not only are the green spaces here stunning, but they all have lovely beer gardens where you truly feel like you are living like a local when you sit there, sipping a local beer and taking in the unique surroundings. “

Stuttgart was quieter, but Brian was happy to spend the day exploring before moving on to his next destination.

And Berlin is a ‘thrilling city’ too – partly due to tourist attractions like the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall but also thanks to the unique bars, markets and ‘otherworldly’ nightclubs.

But it’s not just the cities that impressed Brian. The natural landscapes are beautiful too, as Brian wrote: “When I travelled on a sleeper train between Brussels and Prague, much of my journey was spent speeding through the stunning German countryside. The sweeping green fields, the old-timy villages and the staggering mountains were a sight to behold. Waking up in a train cabin and seeing all of this first thing in the morning is an experience I will never forget.”

So if you’re in need of some inspiration on where to book your next holiday, Germany is a fantastic option. Brian added: “If you were to tell me that for my next holiday, I had to go back to a country I had been to before, I would book a flight to Germany. Although I have been to three different cities and through stunning countryside, I suspect that this country has a lot more for me to experience.

“The port city of Hamburg, the historic Cologne, the Christmas markets in Dresden, and the classic architecture of Nuremberg are definitely on my bucket list.”