On to Spain

Communication note: I am using a European data-only phone setup while we're here.  I have good access to my usual email but not to my home cell number (541 951 7781).  Not sure what happens if you call it.  I am receiving texts sent to that number but can't reply to them.  I think calls or texts to my Google Voice number (541 482 1829) work.  But probably email is best.

 A couple more pics from Arraiolos.

And inside our little hotel:

Today we continued east toward Spain.  We stopped in the historic town of Elvas (still in Portugal) to spend a few hours exploring.  It's a beautiful and fascinating old city; we could have spent more than a full day walking around.  The city has been home to Romans, then Moorish, Jewish and Catholic communities over the years.  The old castle was first captured from the Moors in 1166, then retaken by them, then retaken yet again by the Portuguese in 1226 during the reconquest.

On the walls of the old castle

There's a small but interesting museum on the site of an old synagogue.  There had been many thriving Jewish communities all over Portugal before they were expelled (or in some cases allowed to convert) in 1496 at the start of the Portuguese Inquisition.  To add a little intentional insult to injury, the site of the synagogue was turned into a meat market.

A few street scenes, and an old Moorish arch (note the keyhole design).

On the way out from Elvas we stopped and explored around the nearby old fortification at Graça.  It's an amazingly well defended site, with multiple layers of walls, moats and battlements.  Although mostly a defensive fort, it was subsequently used as a prison as recently as the 1980s.

Mid-afternoon we continued on across the border to the city of Mérida in Spain.  So far we've only walked around a bit, but this is another place jammed with history.  It seems that every other block there's a site with excavated Roman ruins.  More to come...