Saturday 7 Dec 2024 - Morning in Elvas Part 2
Our next stop was the
Forte de Nossa Senhora da Graça. This was a spectacular classic pentagonal star shape fortress built between 1763-1792. It's perched on a hilltop with commanding views of the surrounds. It is one of the most amazing castles I have been to, in my opinion up there with Azlun in Jordan and Matsumoto and Himeji in Japan. It cost a modest EUR5 ea to tour the extensive grounds and look into the various parts of castle buildings. Unfortunately we were a bit pressed for time because we have to be in Lisbon for a walking tour by 1600 today, and as I mentioned in earlier posts, I had no idea how marvellous Elvas would be and we just simply did not allow enough time for this slightly hidden gem.
The fortress looked spectacular against the clear blue sky.
Sentry box overhanging the (now dry) moat
Check out the view from the fortress wall, approaching the sentry box
Anyway, we hit the road to Lisbon - always leave wanting more - and took the A8. The drive was about 2 hrs to the city outskirts including a stop for a very nice coffee at a roadside stop (which in hindsight we did not really have time for), and then another hour for the last little bit. The motorway was not as crowded as yesterday, but the tolls were steep, with one of EUR 5.20, another of EUR2.50 and then the mother of all tolls and a harbinger of costs of tolls in Portugal at EUR 18.20!
One of many toll points in Portugal
We had registered for e-tolls online, but were not really sure that it had worked as many people using international credit cards had reported getting fines despite having registered. In the end, we chickened out and just paid cash as we went.
We made it to our hotel, Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade, without navigation issues thanks to the combo of Google maps and our own TomTom GPS that Mr Seat 0A had brought from home. We have given up on the vehicle SatNav. We checked in and opted not to use the valet parking, rather to self-park
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BAD IDEA. Quite a newbie mistake. Firstly, it took 10 minutes battling serious traffic to make it to the parking garage which was literally just behind the hotel. The we could not get the ticket machine to give us a ticket to raise the entry gate and I had to walk back to the front desk and ask for the gate to be raised - apparently the valets have a key card, and no-one but no-one chooses to self park, except crazy Australians! Then we slowly inched our way down an extremely steep and narrow ramp, until we found an extremely small car park. Despite both being confident drivers, we were a bit traumatised by the whole experience, and vowed to accept all offers of parking assistance in the future.
All in all, we had lost quite a chunk of time and were now under a fair bit of time pressure to make our walking tour with Ricardo. So e grabbed our supplies from the Elvas market, and hot footed it to the meeting point in Plaça de Camões. We made it in about 15 minutes, including walking up a very steep hill (known locally as Gloria) that most people ascend by funicular. I puffed a bit but was pretty happy with my fitness as it was quite a long, steep hike. Sat on the steps of the main sqaure in the late afternoon sun and ate our picnic lunch at 1545, listening to a bunch of uni students performing traditional Portuguese songs with tambourines to make the Salvos proud, and traditional flag swirling.
Caught our breath ready for what was promised as a 3 hour, 10,000 step, sunset walking tour of the highlights of Lisbon.
).
