Evora, with its Roman/Moorish feel

Leaving Mosaraz, we headed to Evora.  Monsaraz and the next town along, Reguengos de Mosaraz are well known for their fine local wines (which we can vouch, for having tried a few during our stay at Monsaraz!) and there are vineyards as far as the eye can see, as we travel the road towards Evora.

Just on the edge of Evora is a large Intermarché supermarket.  It makes life so much easier when you can turn up at one place and do all your services.  They provide free water, chemical and grey waste disposal.  So, in one hour we had done all the services required for the motorhome; a 10kg wash and dry; topped up with fuel, as it was fairly cheap for Portugal - €1.25 per litre; and a big food shop done. As we had one full gas bottle and a quarter in the other we decided to wait a little longer before topping up with LPG.

A couple of kms later we were parked up on the Aire (N38.57681 W7.91461), next to the aquaduct, and heading into Evora. 

Sonny, the motorhome nestled in next to the aquaduct

It’s a relatively small city but it had been a while since we had visited one and had forgotten how busy life can be with all of the tourists and cars.  It’s quite an impressive city though, shaped by its former Roman and Moorish inhabitants, and its lovely cobbled streets contained within its medieval fortress walls.  A city that has been all spruced up by UNESCO restoration money.

Roman Temple Ruins, dating from the second century AD.  All that remain are fourteen granite columns

Cathedral

Interesting church (Nossa Senhora da Graça), at its corners are Atlas-giants, supporting their globes.

Typical streets, with their lovely balconies and fountains

Giraldo Square, where we sat and had a drink and people watched.

Having done our 'tourist tour' of the city, we then followed the course of the medieval Aquaduto do Agua Prata (Silver Water Aqueduct) back to the motorhome, where in parts houses have been incorporated into their arches.

The next day I was still suffering from a sore throat, so we headed for the pharmacy.  Unlike the UK, you can’t get medicines from the supermarket.  For one pack of Strepfen it was €8.50 (only costs about £3 in the UK). It’s an expensive affair when you get ill here! 

Leaving Evora poor old Sonny, the motorhome had a bit of a rough journey from here on in.  We left Evora and headed to see the Cromeleque dos Almendres (stone circle).  From the little village of Guadalupe, you head 5 kms up a narrow dirt road, with potholes every 10 metres or so.  We met another motorhome coming down at the start of the road, which was a tricky manoeuvre to get passed and figured the road couldn’t be too bad – how wrong we were!  Anyway after a very slow drive, avoiding as many of the road holes as we could, we reached the small parking area on the edge of the stones - with everything in Sonny all shook up!  There are about 92 stones perched on a hillside, looking like they are standing to attention.  They are thought to of been placed here 6/7 thousand years ago as some kind of astronomical observatory and a site of fertility rituals.  A few of them have carvings on them but have been worn away over the years and are hard to see.  I guess the history surrounding these stones is interesting but in Mel’s words ‘it was a long, bumpy and dusty journey just to see a few old stones’!

Cromeleque dos Almendres

From here we headed to an Aire at Pego do Altar (N38.4205 W8.39203).  Having put the coordinates in the SatNav we set off, a distance of 57kms it said.  However, about 20 kms down the road we came to a town that we couldn’t access to get through it, as it was cobbled and very narrow.  So, to get around it we had to do a detour of about 30kms to get back on another road – don’t you just love SatNavs!  The thing is, the one we have is a Snooper and you put in all the dimensions of your motorhome, so it should know not to take you down a road you can’t access.  Ours clearly needs to go back to school!

Parked up on the Aire near to us were 2 motorhomes and 2 camper vans parked in a semi-circle.  A friendly bunch - Paul (a Brit), Rob (an Irishman), a German girl from Bavaria (forgot her name!) and Marco and Lia (a German couple from Bremen), that we sat talking with for a while and it was great listening to some of their stories.  They were all fairly young and had been travelling together since January, having met up in Spain.  We admired them for taking 'the plunge' and buying a motorhome/camper van at a young age and enjoying travelling, it would appear it is no longer an older persons dream!  They said at one time there were 13 motorhomes/campers of all nationalities travelling together but split up a few weeks back.  That is some convoy!

We spent a couple of days here, chilling by the reservoir.  

At the top of the village there are facilities for motorhomers.  There are very clean male and female toilets, with hot showers and somewhere to dispose of your chemical waste. There is also a fairly large bar/restaurant where you can get a large glass of red wine for 70 cents and a large bottled beer for €1 - wow that's cheap!  We didn't try the food and the menu isn't vast but from what we saw it looked cheap and cheerful!

View across to the Aire from around the reservoir

One of the locals taking their lamb for a walk - not a sight you see every day!

It was so peaceful and relaxing here, and during the couple of days here we saw a lot of motorhomers of all nationalities come and go.  It is another one of those spots you don't want to leave; however, it's time to move on but hopefully we will be returning one day!

Sally x