Patio Girlz

Heading north we entered Portugal’s largest region, the Alentejo. Despite the rain, we enjoyed the landscape of rolling hills, olive tree plantations, fields of grape vines, interrupted by whitewashed villages and medieval cities that dotted our route. One such city is Beja.

Although not as touristy and well known as Evora, it was a delightful stop. The cobblestone streets, tiny laneways linked some interesting historic features and gardens. Sadly, the Museu Regional de Baja is closed on Mondays so we were not able to fully explore this 15th Century Franciscan convent with the scandalous love story between a nun and a soldier.

Notice the very dark sky in the photo above? During the down pour we took refuge at the museum’s outer display area along with several others until the rain eased up.

Our final stop in Beja was the castle situated on a hill overlooking the city. We explored long enough to get a flavour of the castle. Outside the entrance is the shell marker, the trail marker for the Portuguese Camino de Santiago.