Last days are often funny days. There’s no rationale for it, just human nature playing mind games. Sadness is futile, as Spock didn’t say, we’ve had three fantastic weeks and collected many memories and photos to add to our lifetime portfolio.
Even dafter, we still have a whole day to go, so we head off first to the Almendres, both a Menhir and Cromlech, down a five kilometres pot-holed, jaw-jarring dirt track. The oldest part dates back to sometime around 6000BC, with further additions in the following two millennia. Forgotten completely until relatively recently, the were “rediscovered” by archeologists only in 1966. The explanations are sketchy, and a bit like Stonehenge there’s arguments for both astrological and religious purposes. Whichever, it’s thought-provoking to stand amongst them and contemplate life, almost on our own before the hoards. The Menhir is a single 2.5 metre pillar, the Cromlech are 95 smaller stones, probably arranged in two concentric circles, before time and maybe humans, have rearranged them a bit.
Next on our tour is Arraiolos, a sweet little town famous for needlecraft, in particular hand woven carpets since C13, but we’re more interested in the castle above the town, and wander around the ruin for a while, before purchasing supplies for our lunch later. The we’re off towards our next destination but with an eye for a suitable spot take lunch, which we find off a side-road. It’s not like France, where many many pique-nique sites are available roadside, so we make do and mend.
Our Bug is basically a jelly-mould - there’s not a single flat bit anywhere on it - it’s a balancing act to get the wine glasses (in the roof mechanism) and plates (between the wipers and the bonnet) as level as possible, but with lots of practice we’re coping rather well! Lambrusco is the buvant du jour, alongside chorizo and Philadelphia on Ritz crackers. Yummy.
Then it Estremoz, a walled town with a penchant for marble. It’s everywhere, pretty much every step, door frame, tile, even the cobbles, are mostly white marble. At the high point is a beautiful keep - a tower gleaming in white dating back to 1258, and now part of a Parador hotel, but it’s allowed to go in a climb the 118 (white marble) steps to the top for excellent views. Of course as the Gregorian calendar is hundreds of years away from being invented, I don’t know if that date is in new or old money, but give or take roughly 50 years to switch to Julian, it’s pretty old. We wander down into the newer town before setting a course back to our posh Butlins for a final pool-day.
I’m still land-locked, my leg looks a bugger and it wouldn’t be fair to go into the pool, thankfully, as hubby tells me it’s bloody freezing. He’s tough so it’s no problem for him! I make do with writing, reading, photos and mojitos instead. I can’t bring myself to work, even though my mind is bubbling with stuff that needs doing.
Once again we’re the minority. For nearly the whole holiday we’ve stood out as a minority couple, mostly just us, occasionally one other couple. Last night at dinner there was a couple of Scots, today at poolside there isn’t a single other British voice to be heard.
We’re hitting the Chardonnay now, it’s not been easy to find, but this hotel has an extensive list so there’s not much missing. Our choice, by the pool, with the remaining Pringles from lunch is just perfect!
After showering and dressing for dinner, were seated at the same table as last night, which suits us as it’s in a corner. There are a lot of children at dinner, but nowhere near as many as were by the pool earlier. Remind me why we booked this hotel? Oh yes, it’s a quirky eco jobbie, but it has a scary clientele!
Dinner is once again very good, even better than last night since they took onboard our issues about cooking food, and today we’re pleasantly surprised, no murdered veal fillet. Indeed each course is excellent, cumulating with hubby’s chocolate fondant with a white chocolate middle (must try that!) and my pumpkin dessert with olive oil ice cream which was splendid. For wine we just repeated last nights bottle, but it was soooo good! All in an excellent evening.
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