We stay one more night in Vila Praia de Ancora (A) on our own, having said farewell to our friends yesterday. Early morning we head out to take the train to Lisbon airport (C) to pick up our rental car for our last 3 weeks of holiday.
Thankfully, they give us a slightly larger car as we had booked a small Fiat 500 and then we worried whether the car would be large enough for us and our large suitcases. Thankfully, we ended up with a VW Polo so plenty of room for the bags and us – Whew!
By the time we get away with our rental car it’s getting close to 6pm so we decide to stay about an hour east of Lisbon in the small Portuguese village of Lavre (D). We stay in a small studio apartment run by a local called Matias. Matias seemed to know everyone in the village and we found ourselves sipping coffee down the road at the cafe owned by his uncle. After all our trouble trying to make ourselves understood in Spanish, we found out that Matias spoke some French so we all had a good laugh about that!
We have a day off in Lavre, just catching our breath and meandering around this small village and basically recharging the batteries.We notice that the houses here do not have the Portuguese tiles that we’ve seen in the bigger cities, but the whitewashed houses are generally painted yellow or blue…and good luck navigating the one way streets!
Our plan is to cross Spain heading toward the French Pays Basque area where we will visit with our friend Francoise, an old mate of mine from my swiss nursing days. Then we will travel back along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, arriving back in time to catch our flight home. Let’s hope it’s third time lucky as we’ve already had 2 flights cancel so far.
The scenery is changing, becoming more arid and we start to see the huge number of olive groves popping up everywhere. I read that there are more olive groves in Spain than there are Americans in America… go figure!?!
The next morning we head towards Trujillo, Spain, our stop for the night however there are some interesting sights to see along the way.
After about 40 minutes, we reach Evora (E), a gem of a town in the Alenteja region of Portugal. Its walled city is compact, with all the main sights clustered within a 5 minute walk of the main square. The initial drawcard was the best preserved Roman temple found in these parts of the world as Evora was a Roman town from the 2nd century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. The 14 Corinthian columns dating back to the 2nd century A.D. mark the Roman temple that once stood here, and is believed to have been dedicated to Diana, Goddess of the Hunt and we also admire the 12th century Gothic cathedral which stands on the site of an an ancient mosque.
Our next stop is the town of Badajoz (F), just over the border into Spain. We admire the Arab Alcazaba, the ancient Moorish citadel built by the Almohads in the 12th century. We stop for a coffee at the Plaza Alta. its one of the most colourful plazas in Spain. The two different areas are seen by their different colors, the side along the citadel with the brown and white decoration is the oldest part with buildings dating back to the 16th century, the other more colourful red and white decoration is home to mainly private properties. Wandering the streets there are some colourful overhead square flags which make for an interesting display.
We continue our journey north east further into Spain and head to our stop for the night Trujillo, Spain (G). We scored a great 2 bedroom apartment in the middle of the historic town plus car park – sweet! First thing next morning, we head off to explore this gem. It would be easy to be fooled into thinking that this town was like any other, until you reach the main square the Plaza Major with Pizarro’s statue found there. Interestingly, the bronze statue of the famous conquistador Francisco Pizarro was originally sculpted to resemble Hernan Cortes and was to be given to Mexico however given the history of Cortes (he was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec empire and brought portions of what Is now mainland Mexico under Spanish rule) so understandably Mexico wasn’t keen, so the statue was repurposed to resemble Pizarro.
The square is surrounded by baroque and renaissance buildings, backed by a skyline of towers and turrets.
We found the castle at the top of the hill, it dates from the 13th century and is built on top of an Arab fortress that dated back to the 800’s. No surprise that it was used in the season 7 of the series Game of Thrones.
Just meandering the old streets and alleyways is worthwhile as at every turn, there is another church or building to admire.
So tomorrow we continue our journey with the plan of stopping the night at Salamanca on our way to the Pays Basque area.
Great stuff guys keep it coming. I must say though Kath, are you camera shy or is the bloky fella like stealing all the limelight 🙂 Me finks he liking the photographic attention.