Renovation project - Driving across Spain with no tolls

Renovation project - Driving across Spain with no tolls

Time to move on and today we are heading to Evora in Portugal; this is our last stop before we spend a week in Lisbon for the big festival.

This is another place that has been recommended to us and the drive is the one that John is looking forward to the most as he has never been to Portugal.

The best part of this type of holiday is the driving as you will get to see so many places that you never knew existed, as well as saving money this is another reason why we have chosen not to go on the toll roads. The toll roads are quicker but you would drive along big motorways and miss so much, one example is whilst driving we saw a castle in the distance so decided to stop off for some lunch, this place is amazing, it is called Santa Olalla del calla.

We follow the signs for the castle and park the car, as we walk up we see some donkeys and horses at the foot of the castle walk and these appear to be balancing on the wall of the church. Some are tethered but some are just wandering around.

There are also herons nesting on the church spire, these are magnificent birds and the nests are enormous, you feel a little bit wary walking underneath, as I still find it hard to believe that they are secure and will not just fall off!

These are the sites that you miss when you fly or take the main routes; this is one of the prettiest towns we have seen.

The walk up to the castle is so hot and this time we have actually taken a bottle of water with us! Which is lucky as it is shut!

The views are amazing and the town is made up of small whitewashed houses with orange roofs, this is real Spain at its best. We stop for a drink at one of the small bars and a plate of tapas comes with the drinks, these are some of the best olives we have had. The bar overlooks the town fountain and we spend a pleasant hour before starting our drive again.

We continue and start to see signs for Portugal, this time I manage to get a good photo of the border sign, but yet again the border control is nonexistent. We didn’t notice the graffiti on the sign until we saw the photo going on here, but this is something we will get to see a lot of in Portugal, it really must be the graffiti capital of Europe!