Tour - Days 19, 20 and 21

 Marvao is probably as deeply rural as you can get in Portugal. The land is very dry and brown at the moment due to the extreme heat - I have seen 37c on the van thermometer.

It is only a few miles from the Spanish border, so the big hill/ mountain behind the site has a huge castle on top, and a complete still used village inside. More about this later.

The site is owned by Dutch guy called Ronald and his extremely flamboyant Brazilian (male, mostly) partner, Vitor. Vitor treats  every encounter as an excuse for a prolonged hug. Most of us joined in the fun, but a couple of our group had... reservations.

The whole site was exclusively for our group, and was excellent, with a great pool. 


Most of our visiting was done by bike, around real stone age environments. There were plenty of menhirs and monoliths - in fact they were all over the place.

Three of us decided to shun the offered taxi up to the castle, and cycle instead. Even on an electric bike it was Tour de France stuff, but we all made it.

The castle itself is remarkably well preserved, probably the best I have ever seen ( I can only assume it was never overcome), and the views from it are epic. The narrowness of the staircases and the drop from them was a bit vertigo inducing. Many visitors were climbing down them on their arses.







In the nearby town of Beira is a now unused railway, complete with an atmospheric station. An enterprising Kiwi has got hold of a section of the line and built 8 two seater rail bikes. They are great fun.




We are now in Evora, an ancient city with some impressive Roman architecture. 

See you on the next one.

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