Friday September 26, 2014

Although we only had our rest days in Porto (5 days ago), we needed to regroup and get ourselves organized for Spain.  Plus Alcantara is a lovely little Town well worth exploring.

We had a long lie–in this morning and after breakfast, we headed into the old town of Alcantara.

Often when we explore towns we take the road less travelled and find all sorts of interesting things.  For instance this town still has a bull ring.  Although I do not agree with bull-fights, it is part of their heritage and culture, especially in small rural towns.

We carried on through the Town down little lanes and streets finding the main sites.  We were in one section of the town that on the map it was described as the Barrio Judio – surely not another Jewish quarter.  Yes, we came across another Jewish quarter, which still has the old synagogue (recently renovated).

Although the Spanish and the Portuguese tried to convert the jews to Christianity in the 15^th Century, and prohibit virtually everything connected to Judaism, there still is an acknowledgement of their heritage in some places.

We came to the main site in Alcantara the Convent of San Bonito.  It is an incredible building which was originally built as a regimental building, changing hands to the church in the 15^th century.  After a few wars it was left in the hands of a noble family.  In 1961 it was bought by a foundation which has been restoring the building to its former glory.

We were looking at the opening hours, when a priest came by and told us that we could see inside at 1:15.  It was 12:45, we wandered around the outside and took some photos, then went back to the entrance.

Another couple of guys joined us and old fella passed by and told us we had to ring the bell.  We rang the bell a lady came and gave the four of us a guided tour and history of the inside, in English and Spanish.  It was a free guided tour and we thought we should donate but no money exchanged hands.

After a lovely wander around, we had lunch in the square and then came back to the hotel.

These two photos are taken from the same position in the Town.  On the up side of the river is a massive dam, on the downside is the Roman Bridge.

We planned our route south and emailed some warmshowers.  We also noticed that we are back following the Spanish Camino route south, we might be able to stay at some Albergues on the way south.

We have moved the clocks forward again, it gets dark at around 9:00, but doesn’t get light until 8:00.  We still need to get on the road early, as it gets quite hot by noon, an early night for us.