Rain and a Romantic Ruin

Couldn't sleep, so was awake in the middle of the night when it began tipping down - so exciting, I opened the door and went to stand in the rain in the dark on my own... and the day dawned so fresh and cool - a relief after months with no rain and so much heat.

Ended the day, taking our visitors to Montemor-o-Novo, for a very unromantic supermarket shop, but followed by a traipse round the very romantic Moorish castle on top of the hill. As my guide book (by Alex Robinson) says, "a dramatic ruined castle right out of a gothic novel... If it were anywhere else than the Alentejo, where ruined castles are two-a-penny, it would no doubt receive plenty of visitors", but as usual, we were the only ones there, apart from an owl, hooting eerily in the dusk.