July 16, 2014 
BELVER to BEJA, 175 km
Hotel Bejense €39.60 ($52.62) double, including a great breakfast

Rolling Hills and Not Much Else
 
Previously unbeknownst to us, Belver is in a peaceful setting above the lazy flowing Tejo river. 

Casa Covao da Abitureia is on the banks of the river would have been a great place to while away the morning. But our rental car is due back tomorrow at noon and we wanted to get most of the distance out of the way today. So after a quick bite of cereal and yogurt, we loaded up the car and headed south through rolling hills and forests of cork trees.

We picked up lunch at a grocery store and found a scenic spot overlooking the Sor River. 
 

First Stop - Alvito
 
We avoided retracing our footsteps until we got to the Arraiolos/Evora area. As we were passing Arraiolos, we saw a castle. Yeah, we've seen so many castles, we could skip this one. But is was so close and so accessible, Dave couldn't resist. As we came around to the front of the castle, we realized it was the one we had seen just a week earlier, only from the other direction. And it wasn't impressive this time either:)

We were not tempted to stop in Evora again and continued onto a rural route to the small historic town of Avlito to check out the Baron's residence, the typico "Manuelino" doorways, and sleepy Portuguese life.

The village was like a ghost-town in the late afternoon heat with temps well above 40C. In the sun, it was hot hot hot.

Alvito has the most helpful tourist info office of anywhere in Portugal. We got a nice town map and a run down on the few things to see in town. Tourist info even made phone calls for us to Rural Tourismo places to stay. The one that sounded interesting to us was full. 

 
Tiled Church Interior
 
Two churches in town are historic and notable. The one with not-to-miss frescoes was locked when we went by. We were able to go into Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Assunção de Vila Nova da Baronia (Church) from the 1600's. The 17th and 18th century tile work was impressive and uniquely Portuguese. After an hour in town, the only thing left to see were the outlying wineries. But hey, we're driving, so we continued to Beja, a small city with a historical core too.
 
 
Booked Lovely Hotel Bejense in Beja
 
But it was a nightmare trying to find Hotel Bejense through the maze of one-way streets. Google maps showed some one-way streets opposite the actual direction. And then it wanted to lead us down a pedestrian mall too. Our navigation system really let us down in this case. In the end, we parked and went by foot to find the hotel. Indeed, the hotel was on the pedestrian mall and we could not have driven the car to it legally, no matter what Google said.
 
The lady running the hotel spoke no English but was charming, as was our room. We wished we had more time in Beja. But for now, it was just a place to find a bed.