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

Salamanca

The continuing route down through SW France and in to Northern Spain and its superb motorways was quite pleasant with a couple of stopovers before we reached Salamanca

This was to be a real surprise for us as our Spanish experiences to date have been less than good

Last year we kind of rushed across the country to Portugal after seeing the worst of the east coast of Spain. Salamanca is a stunning city with architecture probably the best I've come across 

After leaving Nina squarely in charge of prepping this excellent shepherds pie I had a hunter-gatherer moment and took a walk through the light drizzle up in to what I expected to be a less than ordinary functional city

I was so impressed I eventually made my way back to the van to inform wifey that we were going out strollin' later

Outer streets lead you to the Old City and its UNESCO world heritage inner area

Most of the town was lit up to emphasise its grand architecture with the inner streets alive with boutique shops, tapas bars and cosy restaurants

The photo does it no justice as the Cathedral was quite awesome towering over you as you strain your neck and eyes to take it all in

We just love these tapas bars...

Vinho Tinto and tasty beer at stupidly cheap prices

Plaza Mayor and the heart of the city, Baroque extravagance 

Even the manhole covers have nobility

It really doesn't get any better than this..

There was so much light beaming out in to the drizzly skies it was easy peasy work for the camera