This morning was sunny but with fog swirling around us at lower elevations.

_02A1218 _02A1233 Following breakfast, we decided to visit the castle, whose origins date from the 13th century, though most of what we see dates from the 17th century. The castle is quite extensive, as we discovered once we entered.

_02A1249 Since we were only ten kilometers from the Spanish border, we thought we should go into Spain for a drive.

We drove to the closest town, Valencia de Alcantara. Having read that this region had the most extensive ancient monuments, we went to the information centre to get directions, as many of these are located in the surrounding countryside.

_02A1261 We had to get off the main roads to find these monuments. It got rougher than this road.

_02A1314 The area was very rocky, but with small parcels of agriculture, as in this cork tree grove.

_02A1291 _02A1269 This farmer had tilled the earth in his olive grove.

_02A1277 We finally found one of these ancient ruins, the Los Mellizo dolmen. Fifty-five of these ancient burial sites have been unearthed in the region, and many still probably to be discovered.

We explored two other dolmens that were close by. This one is Cajiron II.

_02A1308 Cajiron I nearby was not nearly as well preserved.

_B0A0306 This was our view of Marvao as we returned from our venture into Spain. Then it was the drive up again.

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This is a doorway from the 16th or 17th century.

_02A1358 This is evening light on the castle. I was hoping for a nice sunset, but clouds covered the western horizon.

So we settled for a dinner of a couple traditional Alentejo meals, with the requisite vinho tinto.