Thursday 06.05.2022: Loulé -  Évora (alt 258 m): 236 km - beautiful and warm weather, 27ºC

Take off at 15h40 and drive to Évora. Parked at the Municipal RV aire (free of charge). Walk into town (around 15 minutes) and up to the Roman Temple where we had a drink before continuing walking and looking for the restaurant we went last time (O Sobreiro), but that was unfortunately closed. We then chose to have dinner at the Tasca Fina (25€, nice lagartos de porco preto, good service by chef with Timor wife) N38º27ºC33'47" W7º55'0"

Friday 07.05.2022:  -  Évora - Unhais da Serra ST (Alt 624 m): 261 km -  again a beautiful day, 26ºC

After watching gipgy lady wash herself completely on the dumping area of the RV aire, we headed to the Serra da Estrela with a stop in Estremoz to do some grocery shopping at Continente and Lidl (there are (many supermarkets there, right off the main road). While I took some time shopping Volker found a nice RV aire to be in Unhais da Serra, and it definitely is (free of charge) Parque de caravanas José dos Santos Cabral. We booked a restaurant called "Lenda do Viriato" and took the opportunity to stroll through the authentic town, up to the H2otel where there is a medical spa, only really available for hotel guests. The Lnda do Viriato Restaurant was excellent, we had the cabrito assado and veado no forno. For the first time I enjoyed venison, especially the sauce. We were surprised that 8 tables were busy at 20:30! We also had a good wine Quinta dos Termos Reserva 2017 (all for 50€) N40º15'21" W7º37'23"

Saturday 08.05.2022: Unhais da Serra ST -  Panorama Hike around Unhais da Serra: warm 26ºC and sunny - first clouds coming upon the mountains east of us

We were prepared this morning to do a short hike that became a long but beautiful one, starting from the church Igreja Parroquial de Santo Aleixo: 10 km, 420m ascent, pretty adventurous paths and river crossings. Back home we had a nice grill lunch.

Sunday 09.05.2022: Unhais da Serra - Camping Pião above Covilhã  (Alt 1040 m): 25 km - weather a bit better than expected, but very windy and rainy

Mothers' Day! Expecting not to see anything because of the weather forecast today, we headed towards Covilhã. We wanted to drive the other route that goes northeast, but we didn't expect that the road would become dirt road with deep ditches and sometimes even narrow, but we made it, coming out on a tarmac road, driving over the ridge and down to our camping Pião (13,40€ with electricity, but neither phone nor internet reception on our site, only at the bar. N40º17'12" W7º31'42"

Monday 10.05.2022: Covilhã - Belmonte (Alt 570 m): 38 km - lots of rain showers, cold 11ºC

Drive to Covilhã at 11am. Sightseeing of Covilhã and delicious lunch at the Taberna da Laranjinha (53€, delicious food, perfect service). After some grocery shopping at Continente we drove to Belmonte where it struck us that there are so many things about a Jewish Community. Excerpt from the Belmonte site: The community of Belmonte is home to an important fact of the Sephardic Jewish history, related to the resistance of the Jews to religious intolerance in Iberian Peninsula. In the 16th century, during the expulsion of the moors of the Iberian Peninsula, and the reconquest of the Spanish and Portuguese lands by the Catholic Kings and by D. Manuel, a law was instituted that forced the Portuguese Jews to convert or leave the country. Many of them ended up abandoning Portugal, for fear of reprisals from the Inquisition. Others converted to Christianity in official terms, maintaining their cult and cultural traditions in the family context. A third group of Jews, however, took a more extreme measure. Several have decided to isolate themselves from the outside world, cutting contact with the rest of the country and following their traditions to the letter. Such people were called “Marranos”, in an allusion to the ritual prohibition of eating pork. For centuries the “Marranos” of Belmonte have kept their Jewish traditions almost intact, becoming an exceptional case of cryptojewish community. Only in the 70´s the community established contact with the Jews of Israel and officiated Judaism as its religion. In 2005, the Jewish Museum of Belmonte was inaugurated in the city, the first of its kind in Portugal, which shows the traditions and the day-to-day of this community. We walked through the old town with some heavy rain, a bit of sun then rain again. Parked and overnight on the nice parking next to the music school. N40º21'19" W7º21'15"