Day 26: Trujillo to Évora: crossing into Portugal (eventually)

Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all? 

It's normally a relatively short trip from Trujillo in Spain, to Évora in Portugal. However we also gained an hour in crossing a local time zone, and travelling the relatively short way would have meant that we got here and had to wait on our accommodation being ready.

So, of course, we didn't do that. We decided to make it a longer trip, going via two places we'd previously visited and enjoyed.  How typical!

We drove from Trujillo through Cáceres first of all. This larger town is 'just up the road', and has an typical extended modern area of anonymous apartments and tower blocks, but also a historic centre that appears to have more money available to it than Trujillo has. It centres around the extensive Plaza Mayor, where we remember seeing some live shows in a WOMAD in Cáceres, again some time in the 1990s:

Museo Vostell

Onwards then and westwards, to a small town called Malpartida de Cáceres. We'd initially been told about a museum here (on that same WOMAD trip), but then found that this - the local history museum - was closed ... however that led us to discover the Museo Vostell on the southern edge of town.  This is set in an old wool-scouring works, on the edge of an artificial lake, in an area of rocky natural beauty:

As we dove into the reconstructed buildings:

we found again an art museum dedicated to the works of Wolf and Mercedes Vostell, who were collaborators with Dali, and members of the fluxus movement. Their display includes some large, dramatic, interactive and quirky pieces (e.g. 'car wash'):

and continues an obsession with cars, with a piece we hadn't seen previously:

but there are also many other works of art that equally played with reality (and hence are most appropriate to our blogged travels):

There are several spaces within the museum.

Outside,  the sculptures continue - this one plays with the idea of cars and motors (embedded in concrete) as bulls, though the grid round it was new to us and we're still puzzled by its meaning (which may be the intent):

There is a restaurant (for morning nibbles) overlooking another signature sculpture (what is this obsession with cars?):

to which the storks have taken with gusto (and sticks):

Elsewhere in the natural reserve around this area, there are poles for storks to nest on:

amidst the rocky landscape:

where we find more of the obsessive sculptures:

Into Portugal: Castelo de Vide

From Malpartida, it was westwards to eventually cross the border in Portugal, and put our clocks back an hour.  The day just got longer.

We passed Marvão, and wished we had still more time to drive up there again (it's worth it), but decided not to. Instead, we pushed on the short distance to the town of Castelo de Vide, where we'd once toyed with the idea of buying a house - but this was not to be.

The road wound round the back of the town (a way I don't think we'd come before), ascending into the old area on the ridge, sitting in a saddle between the castle and the rest of the town:

There's a large church and the shopping area in the main square in that saddle:

We knew we were in Portugal because of the typical designs of tiles on the front of houses:

and also the steep cobbled streets here ... this is the area where we'd looked to buy:

perhaps somewhere near this fountain:

It was just a quick look today, because we needed to get to Évora, via a drive past Portalegre and Estremoz (one of the marble towns).

And so to Évora

Larger roads now, so we moved faster and eventually arrived, parking in a large area just outside the city walls (Rossio):

and walking our cases into the lovely apartment we had booked, opposite the Graça church:

We were greeted warmly and shown round - the lounge with windows onto the street:

a sitting area with an historic arch:

the kitchen:

one bedroom:

etc.

We settled in and eventually (after laying in some provisions) headed out to a little homely restaurant  nearby (another Casa Patricia) for some typical Portuguese food: sardines grilled over bay leaves:

and, of course, a rich Portuguese chocolate mousse:

We'll sleep well here in Évora, exploring the city and its surrounds over the next couple of days.