April 25 Elvas - NO not Presley!

 Yesterday we drove from Pechao to Evora which is much more inland - we are not in the Algarve any more.  Michael wants to go to Elvas which is almost on the Spanish border - but if we stayed there our drive to Mafra would be quite long.  So we found a hotel on the outskirts of Evora to stay for two nights.  I got a couple of good sunset images the first night we were there.

Our Friday visit to Elvas really met with Michaels expectations.  This was something he really enjoyed.  It was all about war, strategy and a very unusual shaped fort.  Forte Graca is in the shape of a star.  If you are interested in war strategy go to http://de-intimidator.blogspot.com/.  He can explain it for you.

I'll start somewhere in the middle and show you the miniature version of the fort- it looked like it was made of toothpicks.  First a close up.

And then back to the tourist entrance to the fort.

And then going inside and starting to go around the star tips.  We found various pictures.  A lot of them said 1959.  I think that is when they redid the fort.  I have no idea what the words say about the pictures.

I walked from room to room - lost Michael and eventually came to a dead end.

Then I headed out into the courtyard and onto the next level of the complex.

the central building had some plaques and hallways.

Each of the star points had similar style buildings as above.

A view of the aqueduct from the fort.

I am sure the home on top of the fort did not look like this originally.  After we reached the top we headed down and back into Elvas to find some lunch. We started with pate and bread.  I ate the pate, but didn't think it was that great.  Michael later told me it was sardine - no wonder - I hate sardines!  My main dish was a forest salad.  I expected lots of vegetables with a small amount of fruit.  It turned out to be a fruit salad with lettuce underneath.  I don't know what the dressing was (something with honey and basil), but the fruit was amazing.  All the fruit was at perfect ripeness.  It was mostly strawberries, bananas, and apples, with peanuts and pine nuts.  The proportions of fruit to nut to lettuce to dressing - and I forgot the raisons was perfect.  We will try to duplicate it when we get home.

Then - on to the castle. Michael  wanted to leave our car and walk to the castle - all up hill.  We finally agreed that if there was no parking at the castle we would just go back to the hotel.  We drove all the way up to the castle.  There were only a few people there and no fee to get in.  Only the walls of the castle were left.  Not much to see but the views were great.  

A few from the castle back to Forte Garca.

Really not a whole lot to see - and we were parked in the handicap parking - so we left quickly.

As we headed back to the hotel we passed right by the parking lot for the aqueduct - and so we decided to stop for a few photos before heading home.