Friday 7 March 2014

Vilar Formosa & Belmonte


Soon be there...


Not for us mate as tonight's stop is just around the corner


Like Spain most of the service points for the van are free and I'm soon about the business whilst Nina breaks out the mini Dyson
We manage to trip the on-site electricity twice in quick succession and overlook the fact that on the rare occasions its available its only really good for battery charging and the like


This is Christiane and Berndt from Berlin with whom we spent a very pleasant few hours that evening. Almost all of the chatter was in German which they slowed down nicely for me to understand with Christiane filling in with her love of English


German hospitality at its finest….Prost!

We spend the next few couple of days trundling around the hills in the Estrella region, previously uncharted by us and really nice


A carpet of daisies looking more like a snow scene


Obligatory Portuguese donkey at work


Another donkey doing menial work, classic hero to zero stuff!


Nina and her oranges….


Benquerenca, a sleepy village with the one shop 'for local people'


Nina has a thing about piglets, no comments please….


Idyllic night stop next to the weir…..not quite as in the night its really loud



I must I must……..


Public exercise machines, not situated outside McDonalds


A bizarre roundabout at Belmonte with well behaved sheep and a very disciplined shepherd


Firefighter in expectant mode...







Belmonte Castle was closed for lunch when we staggered up there so went for coffee to await its reopening. Nice move as the 2 x coffees came to a princely £1.10 and its really good coffee too







As with all castles here, or whats usually left of them, you have to do a lot creative thinking or learn Portuguese quickly to reveal their history from the info boards



More arty manhole covers


Quite rude not to go visit the 'Museu do Azeite' so we did


Used until quite recently by the local growers now a tourist museum showing the simple process of olive oil production











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