Elvas has left a building - Wed

Wed. 6th Aug

Left Camping Rosario after saying goodbye to the wonderful hosts Ernst & Endrika. Would you believe they asked if we would like to come next July/Aug for 6 weeks to help on the site! How nice is that and we will think about it and let them know. We then drove to Vila Vicosa parked up and walked to the castle which also housed a Museum of archeology  and hunting & game. The building itself was very interesting - shame about all the stuffed animals. Then we walked to the Royal Palace couldn't believe there wasn't a sole in site. All the streets and roads there are made of marble(we saw many quarries on the drive in) it was a very clean tidy and neat town with lovely gardens too. Then onto the world heritage listed garrison boarder town of Elvas and it's fortifications. We are now only 6km from the boarder of Spain! The first site we had coming into town was the amazing 8km long 31m high 4 storey Aqueduct. It was begun in 1537 and the first water flowed in 1622. Parked near the tourist info and they said we could park here for the night then walked up into the walled old town. Lots of historical sites - too many to mention. It was good as all the information was in English. Even though it was in the low 40°'s today it didn't stop us getting around. Back to Priscilla and made a meal out if leftovers - delicious. Another motorhome saw where we were parked and decided to join us. As the sun set we walked up to the castle walls where earlier we had talked to the director/producer of a short movie that was being made. It is called Belonging and is based on the true story of Austrian children evacuated after world war 2 to Elvas and Evora. It should be finished and released on the 1st Nov. the guy told us even though they will be filming from. 9pm to 4am in the morning it may only cover 1 minute of the film ! He pleaded with us to be in the movie as we think he had heard of our previous experiences in Australia!!! But I am afraid we had to let him down.! The aqueduct looked amazing all lit up but wasn't long before we were in bed. Hopefully we will sleep ok here???!!!! 

Rosario campsite-Tues

Tues 5th Aug 2014

Very peaceful morning spent reading then silence was broken when a large family of French arrived and set up 2 tents near to us! Great fun to watch and people normally argue when doing this! David went up to the farmhouse table (wifi) and caught up on news/shares etc. had gorgeous fresh bread rolls for lunch that we had pre ordered yesterday. Didn't do much else apart from swim as it was very hot (too hot to even blow dry my hair so used my Hair by Jo technique). Had dinner around the farmhouse table with 14 Dutch people and were very please when they all talked to us in English all night. Great 3 course meal and great company. We have now got an even bigger list of places to go!!! Bed at midnight. 

David's 54! Mon

Mon 4th Aug 2014

Started the day with a great Skype with David's Mum Dad and sister. They sang happy birthday to David who is 54 today! Sat around the farmhouse table outside the reception of this very pretty campsite and read all the birthday messages from friends and family. Thank you everyone they were much appreciated. Then got ready to go on a nice walk and.........our worst nightmare happened! David had lost his wallet! So the next hour was spent looking/panicking/recalling our memories and all things were going through our minds trying to work out when we had last seen it and wasn't saw if we even had it with is when we arrived here!!! Frantically searched everywhere we had been on the campsite and also asked everyone if they had seen it. Then as we were talking to the owners as to who we should call David suddenly remembered that he had hidden it yesterday in Priscilla instead of taking it around the pool (would never normally do this but it feels very safe here). So the next half an hour was spent with David trying to recall where he had hidden it (or was he going mad???!!!) never realised there were so many places to hide something in Priscilla. Then it clicked!!!! He had put it under the mattress! OMG! What a relief! A great birthday present. After I had nearly had a nervous breakdown as it wasn't the money that was in there it was everything else and the inconvenience it would have caused being in a foreign country. David said he will never moan at me again when I ask "have u got your wallet and is it safe?" So an hour and a half after we put our walking boots on we set off on a 10km loop walk that took us via the lake, through farms and to the village of Rosario - a very small quiet village and we didn't see a sole. We did find a bullring to look in. Got back after a very hot walk and did some white washing as I had managed to find some Napisan! (What a difference it made). Read our books then had a lovely swim. A very natural rural campsite we even had a chicken running around the pool! Cooked David a lovely birthday meal of steak and veggies on the BBQ while watching the sun go down over the kills and lake. A birthday never to forget (unless David's Alzheimer's  gets any worse!!!!!!!) We always get Jess's chair out and say "where's  our Jess?" J.P.