Rail trail to Arraiolos

I had read about an old rail trail from Évora (the railway dating back to 1907); and after some small amount of going backwards and forwards / ducking and weaving the peak-hour traffic, we eventually found the start of a bike path. This is the Ecopista do Ramal de Mora: sealed to start then packed hard gravel - although some nasty patches of sand too which necessitated walking in sections!

It is predicted to be hot again but there is a very cool breeze to start; we get away by 8 am which is good.

Stopped at Graça - an old railway station where thoughtfully there are two stools (with cushion tops!) under several orange trees. We sit awhile eating an orange that has fallen on the ground and just have a nice relax. We have done 15 kms to here - 13 kms to go.

Despite the sand, it is lovely riding through rural landscape, past quintas (farms), olive trees, dairy cows with bells, the odd barking dog. A bit of excitement when the trail was blocked by an enormous cow - complete with a nice set of sharp horns; fortunately by backing off into a sidetrack gave the animal a chance to come down the track towards us and then take the side track on the other side.

It is only a 1% grade all the way but a horrible climb into Arraiolos at the end.

We are in by midday - thankfully. It is 27 deg C. Baking hot - way too hot to do anything apart from coffee, cake and coke. MF already asleep.

The lady at our casa lets us in early. Absolutely gorgeous place - with a pool (although MF claims this is too cold) - and views to ABC - but this is a Celtic round-shaped castle (something a bit different).

We have a rest and then head out to get water, etc. from the supermercado - but it is closed! We realise lots of things are closed here in the middle of the day and don’t re-open until mid-afternoon (it is nearly that now!) - no doubt because it is so hot (and it’s not even summer yet!!).

Instead of hanging around waiting, we walk up to the Church of San Sebastian - closed except for the cemetery; great views across to the castle! 

Then to the Igreja do Salvador on the other side of town. We go via the pretty main street (with the unfortunate name of Misericórdia) that has the carpet shops where are sold the carpets made since the 16th century for which this town is famous, like this one in our casa:

We continue to the church of Salvador which actually is in the middle of the castle. There is a completely intact wall surrounding this complex. Amazing views.

We have a lovely amble back along a maze of cobblestoned streets - the houses are painted white and yellow as is typical in the Alentejo region, although there are some nice dashes of blue and green here too.

It is soooo quiet here!

Early dinner close by: typical regional fare including fried cheese, jam sauce and walnuts for starters (yum!) finishing with (for me) sericaia a kind of egg pudding flavoured with orange zest and cinnamon; and doce da casa (basically ‘house sweet’) for MF.

People still smoke in outdoor areas of restaurants - gosh we are fortunate in Australia we have dealt with this. We are sitting outside - it is starting to cool down a little (still 24 deg C at 7 pm). Very pleasant. We had a walk around town to walk off dinner, then headed in. 

Watched the sun go down behind the castle from our balcony (well, I did; MF already asleep …).