Monsaraz

113 miles, 23.7mpg

Originally when we'd set out on the trip we'd expected to be away longer, however with only 2-months some things were going have to be dropped from the original plan and one of those was the decision to miss out the Algarve as we'd been there before. Instead we decided to head more directly for Gibraltar, which had always been one of the key places we'd wanted to visit on the trip. So we headed off on a very hot day (the motorhome outside temperature gauge was showing 36.2C, which isn't bad for October).

Both the Aires book we have that covers Portugal and the app we used to find Aires etc. mentioned an Aire at Monsaraz, which is very close to the border between Portugal and Spain, so we decided to give that a look as a possible overnight option as it was only a bit over 100 miles from Lisbon.

Monsaraz and the Aire there turned out to be one of the high points of the trip for me - it's a beautiful little hilltop medieval town which overlooks what is supposed to be the largest man-made lake in Europe. It's also in a wine growing area that I'm looking forward to exploring more when we have more time.

The road leading up to the Aire needs a little care in a larger motorhome and we did mildly deck the back of ours on one of the slopes - but not seriously enough to do any damage. The views are amazing though - the picture above was taken from the Aire.

The little village itself is also lovely, with whitewashed buildings, little cobbled streets and a small castle that now hosts bullfights.

There were some nice little shops and we bought a few bits and pieces to take home. There also appeared to be some decent bars and restaurants but they mostly seemed to be closed so we ended up eating in the motorhome. Not a hardship though, due to the amazing view.

We were also treated to an amazing sunrise as we got ready to depart the next morning.