Today marks our last full day in Portugal and we have quite a bit of driving, What a beautiful view to wake up to.

We are travelling from the Douro Valley to Elvas (via Favaios and Tomar) before we head over the border to Seville, Spain.

After a lovely breakfast at the Vintage House we headed to Favaios with the hope of being able to visit and buy bread from an UNESCO listed baker, sadly we are too early to make a purchase (the bread was going to be ready at 11.00 and we were were early birds at 10.00). This bakery was actually in someone’s kitchen we were able to take a look at the traditional wood fire ovens that are still used today. I can only imagine how yummy the bread would have been – maybe next time. I should say that the bakery is really tricky to get to, Favaios has many windy and skinny roads and so Dave did a tremendous job getting us close enough to walk there. As well as bakeries (there are a few) there are lots of wonderful things to see in fact just walking along these windy cobblestoned streets is fantastic, a beautiful church and a theatre just to name a couple of things which would be well worth a good look. I would have loved to explore more but alas Tomar is calling.

Why Tomar, I’d love to be able to say that my fascination with the Templar Knights wasn’t directly related to the Da Vinci Code but I can’t in all honestly. Ever since I read the book and then watched Tom Hanks grapple with the Knights Templar I have been drawn into the mystery. So you can imagine my excitement when Dave mentioned last week that Guialdim Pais, Master of the Knights Templar was the main overseer of the building of Castle in Tomar in Portugal. We’ve had to do some manoeuvring to get here, but we’ve had success and this place doesn’t disappoint.

The building of this castle started in 1 March 1160 – this day is now known as the Day of Tomar. Although time has weathered this magnificent building when you are standing in its shadows you can’t help but imagine what it must have been like filled with a ton of people, or in the midst of a ferocious battle.

It is truly a masterpiece that stands up to time, we were able to walk through the grounds looking at the incredible technology of the time including an aqueduct and defensive strategies. We took more than an hour to walk around the grounds, and could have spent more time here.

Attached to the castle is the Convento de Cristo. In the 12th century it was a Templar stronghold and was built over five centuries and again has that wonderful mixture of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture – I love it. The photos certainly don’t do it justice and I would recommend that you stay overnight in Tomar so that you can soak up the history and spend a full day at the top of this hill. We had to race through it as we still have a couple of hours worth of driving ahead of us today.

There is a significant project underway at the Convento and I would truly love to come back here and visit again when the work has been finished.

Tonight we are staying at a “rural hotel” the Hotel Monte da Provence just outside Elvas. The rooms are really lovely, the food (we had dinner and breakfast) delicious and the ground’s beautiful including a wonderful pool.

Another awesome day 💗