Beja View

 Well, we've turned northwards, driving for a couple of hours on (mostly) the N122, which brings us to the municipal site at Beja. 

More on Beja later because, after a light lunch outside the 'van, we head out on a little road trip to see two smallish tourist-free towns in the Portuguese countryside.

Heading east out of Beja takes us to Moira, the town of the Moorish maiden who is said to have opened the town gates to the Christians in 1223 - That must have gone down well. The remains of the Islamic/ Christian castle are free to view and worth it.

Looping Southwest from Moira leads us through olive groves, many newly planted, to the hilltop town of Serpa. It looks as if the olive oil industry provides much of the employment in these towns.

Serpa is renowned for its traditional singers who are said to be descendants of medieval troubadours.The poster in the town square reveals that the singers celebrated the 50 year anniversary of democracy.

The town still has its ramparts in place with an impressive gate, the Porta de Serpa (of course).

Back to Beja and the 'van for a curry cooked outdoors on our Cadac. The temperature reached 29⁰C today but rain is forecast for tomorrow morning.

Pity about the rain because it meant that our walk onto Beja was delayed until the afternoon.... and, as we have learned, afternoon isn't the greatest to visit a town like Beja. Still, we paid the outrageous sum of one Euro each to explore the castle with (possibly) the tallest tower on the Iberian peninsula. A significant part of the town's wall still stands and, looking at its construction, it's not surprising. 

The tower of the castle is beautifully preserved and has some of the best, concise, video presentations that we've seen on our many travels.

Parts of the old town, including the square in front of the Cathedral are desperately in need of a bit of TLC though.

.............

So, tomorrow we're off to Évora which, with a couple of side trips, is likely to consume two days of our shrinking amount of time. We hope to spend a couple of days in Guarda, too,  before we pick up speed heading for Calais. Let's see.