An eventful day

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The bad news today was that the van had an argument with a supermarket car park sunshade and lost. The good news is that the damage, although severe, will not curtail our trip and with our insurers blessing we are going to continue as planned even though we need to seal with a towel the opening between the top of the sliding door and surrounding bodywork.

After the mishap and necessary calls to England we continued east towards the Spanish border to Monsaraz, a remarkable hilltop fortified village with impressive views over the surrounding plains and reservoir created by the recently completed Alqueva dam which provides irrigation and hydroelectricity at the cost of flooding many valleys.

The night was spent at Serpa, another walled town which we thought was the most pleasant we have been to in this area of Portugal. We parked next to another English couple, Geoff and Sue who over a cool beer helped us put our troubles with the van into perspective.

An eventful day was completed with a stroll into town and an excellent meal in one of its restaurants.

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