Day 19 Almoural Castle and Tomar

Another glorious day and another glorious plan. We went to a picture perfect castle, Almoural Castle, set in the middle of the Tagus River and only reachable by boat. So much history is immediately at hand in Portugal, and the castle was only a 40 minute drive away.

The little boat that took us across the water was on time and we were soon scrambling up the steps to the castle gate. Medieval people were known to be a lot shorter than us, but curiously the steps into the castle were huge.  From seven months to over 70 years, we all made it, without pitching into the drink or falling down the stairs.

We climbed the 8 flights of stairs right up the keep and had fantastic views across the surrounding land.

 

Lunch was organized by Britt down in Tomar in a medieval themed restaurant in the main square. I had the wild boar pie and there were other such foods for all. Of course there was an accompaniment of heavy ale served in large pot tankards.

Charlie was pretty good but we thought it best to give him a taste of the stocks, as a warning about what might happen.

Our golden girl got a bit restless so she and I went for a crawl around the town square,  She charmed the passing tourists with her smiles and waves whilst I wrestled with the intricacies of the bloody folding pram to the amusement of passers by..

Britt and Co turned for home via a nursery and by the time we got home they were already planting out the pots in Spring colours. Our car's return was via the post office as Peg had several boxes of souvenirs to send around the world to family. What a bloody ordeal! It took a mere hour and a half and even then, when we got to the adega, there was a call for Peg to return to the post office to pay an additional charge!.

Dinner was alfresco at 21 and Ginny had cooked some wonderful pies for our last night at the adega. Britt made a huge tray of tasty roast potatoes. Perfect!

We had our last evening meal of the trip, with everyone around the table in lovely sun.

As is traditional, we took drinks to the back deck and watched the sun set and the stars appear in a lovely, soft and cloudless sky. Afar above us, aircraft tore little strips in the sky with their jet trails as they criss-crossed the globe.