Elvas

Elvas is the last castle before Spain. Just over there on the horizon is Badajoz. The Portuguese government likes taking advantage of its proximity to shut hospitals and services in Elvas since in these EU times Portuguese citizens can use the Spanish infrastructure. The people in Elvas don't like that so much since Spain is Spain and Portugal is Portugal, EU or no EU.

The Aqueduto da Amoreira stretches across the landscape to the east of the city

In return the Spanish like coming to Elvas (and Portugal) to pick up the bargains and spring is prime shopping season all the way to Lisbon. But since Spain is the more prosperous country (and there's a few lingering issues there) if there is a way to make visitors pay more then it will be exploited. For the privilege of climbing the ramparts of Elvas Castle to construct this clever photo I had to pay 2 euros."Lingering issues" - yes there's a little of a history between Spain and Portugal. Portugal is the product of a teenage spat by a Spanish prince, who wanted his own kingdom NOW not when his mum was ready to give it to him. Unlike Charles he decided to secede with a province and fight his mum to keep it his own. That independence has made several Spanish provinces jealous even to this day (since Spain is not a country but a collection of kingdoms) but also irked the Spanish kings through the ages. However they could never quite satisfy their frustrations by conquering it - even with though the Portuguese occasionally were better at attacking themselves instead of the enemy.

Is he reading his lines? Learning his arias? Or just inspecting the "prato do dia" before dinner??!!

In vino veritas

For some reason my thoughts strayed the other weekend to reminiscing about quaffing wine on a sunny day on the Cape, standing with Joerg and Bry assessing the virtues of what was put in front of us and bemoaning the fact that we couldn't take more "home" with us (although Joerg did try his best taking 9 bottles with him!). As I said in my first post about South Africa most of my photos were of vines and mountains. And so my last post will be full of them.

This is the first photo I took in South Africa of the view from the carpark at Rustenberg. I had just successfully completed my first drive on a South African freeway and was there to meet Bry's aunt, uncle and cousins while still recovering from jetlag (or the Christmas party in Portugal - take your pick!). So of course we went wine-tasting! But we were back in Stellenbosch less than a week later fully prepared for a more thorough tour. It's hard to do more here than name-check wineries but rest assured as always I'm only telling you the best. Like Lanzerac where we had a superb lunch.
The cellar at Cabriere - where we had a superb lunch (deja vu? No just spoilt!. If you time your tasting here well the owner opens the bottles of champagne with a sabre (apparently it's easier). After lunch we posed for some photos in the hills above Franschhoek. The area around Franschhoek was settled by the French Huguenots in the 1690's whereas the rest of the Stellenbosch area which was settled by the Dutch.

The first vines planted by the East India Company in 1685 at Groot Constantia on the south-eastern side of Table Mountain (and their Merlot certainly shows the benefit of the years). In fact Napoleon and others in Europe prized the Constantia dessert wine highly. But with the advent of wine tourism wineries like Tokara and Waterford have started in the last 20 years. Waterford offers the wine and chocolate tasting experience, which if nothing else is completely decadent. It also makes girls happy and Germans a little crazy (or is that just a different kind of happy??!!)
Away from the main Stellenbosch region we also tasted in Hermanus in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley where the cooler sea air makes for fuller whites and production of excellent Pinot Noirs at Bouchard Finlayson and Hamilton Russell. On the way back we passed through the much smaller, and less fashionable, Elgin region yet Paul Cluver had some of the best wines I tasted on the trip. Would that the internet allowed me to share it with you! But I can share this idea for every complete outdoor area: a granite ice bar for your champagne