Beja and Mertola

Travelled : 155km
Visited:Beja and Mertola
Stay: Mertola - free parking, no service point, free water on the river N37.638890 W7.661120

We took the scenic route to Beja via Viana do Alentejo and then Vidigueira. It felt as if we were travelling on an Australian country road due to the gum trees everywhere. But as we drove through these villages it was definitely Portugal. 

Lovely field of Poppy's 

Storks everywhere

Statue of a man corking a tree

A cork tree that has had the bark removed. Can only be done every 10 years!

On our way we passed many vineyards, olive groves and cork fields. This area has the largest production in both olives and cork.
We stopped in Beja and stretched our legs walking into the historical centre. It is the capital of lower Alentejo province. We saw the tower built by King Dinis and appreciated some tiled exteriors of some buildings, along with some other Moorish influenced churches. But all in all on a Sunday morning it was pretty uneventful. 

From here we decided to head for an aire located on the river at the base of the interesting looking village of Mertola. There were lots of road works on the way and we must have missed the turn off. We took the next detour but we eventually realised that we were heading down a dead end country track. Doubling back we found the right road and felt lucky to get a spot in Mertola especially as it's a long weekend.  We enjoyed a cooked lunch of schnitzel and ratatouille before relaxing and having a siesta.  We then had an explore of the once inland port and the ruins around the castle.

They made an effort to get the bench level on a steep road!

The fauna of this area

View of the town from the bridge