Day 40: Mertola to Serpa

April 10, 2023

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We knew from reading the Andersons that there would be a climb to get out of Mertola. One advantage of this were the nice views back to the town. You can really see how it is built on a hill above the river, with the castle and church at the top.

The Guadiana is just barely navigable at Mertola, but comes many km from the north as a smaller stream. Here is a bit of the roadside info about it:

The climb away from the river was as expected. What I did not like was the slightly too many cars that were barreling down the narrow roadway. I consoled myself, thinking that they were no doubt coming to open up the grocery stores that were all closed when we left.

Very quickly on reaching the top we were surveying the landscape and again comparing it with other places we know. It was certainly dry here, rolling, grazing land with a bit of grain, and soon, huge numbers of olive trees. Buildings of any sort were rare, and those that are here tend to be one storey, white, with orange tile roofs, and often arranged as row housing.

Here is what the road and land looked like.

A church at Moreanes illustrates the general building style.

Thinking of building styles, this is the first stork that built its nest in a natural tree. See the two little birds also in the photo?

The muted greens and browns and the spacing of the trees made for a very restful cycling environment, as you see in the next three shots.

At Mina de S. Domingos there is a lake or reservoir, which was quite a change from the overall dry aspect of the land. Up a bit of a hill, there was the town itself, such as it was. There was a quite large church or monastery and not one but two small groceries. With no breakfast supplied at last night's place and having found all groceries in Mertola closed, we were very interested in the ones in Mina de S. Domingos.

We parked outside one grocery, where I observed a lady whitewashing her orange tree, while I waited for Dodie to emerge with a cornucopia of goodies. Alas it was not to be. The grocery was very basic and had mostly canned goods. Dodie did score two presumably microwaveable pork cheeseburgers, which by now were looking pretty good for lunch. Otherwise, she had two boxes of super weak cookies, two not so great pears, and two small yogurts. We proceeded from the weak grocery over to the competition, and sent Dodie in for another spin of the dice. She came back out with nothing, reporting that everything in grocery #2 was the same as in #1. I thought sadly of the people of the town eating nothing but microwave pork burgers every day. Well, at least theirs would have the benefit of an actual microwave. I stuffed two weak cookies in my mouth and pedaled on.

Whitewashing the tree. But why do people let so many oranges drop to the ground?

Typical row housing in this part of Portugal.

The road carried on, still with the model we have come to expect in Alentejo - narrow, no shoulder, Eucalyptus lined, reasonably little traffic.

This was the only example we saw of having made hay. Otherwise we think the grass is short due to dry climate and a certain amount of grazing.

We spied a flock of birds swarming about in a field, and used the camera to try to identify them. They certainly were having fun out there, and occasionally lighting on a fence. They look like sparrows to us.

Goats seemed to be very prevalent in the fields, although there were sheep and cattle too.

As in every environment, the plants are a joy to look at. The field below has a subtle mixture of flower colours. We also found the Spanish Lavender everywhere, sometimes in large banks or long rows. We stopped to smell them again, and agree that they have something in common with Eucalyptus here. However, as you see from the photo, their colour is true lavender.

The soil, meanwhile, was becoming increasingly red, and the overall aspect of the land increasingly dry.

As we drew near to Serpa, a big change took place with the land. Now we had acres, literally kms, of orderly olive groves, all supplied with drip irrigation. It was the largest plantation of olives, almost the largest planation of any tree, we have seen,

This structure was obviously for loading olives onto trucks. The same photo exactly also occurs in the Classens' blog!

More olives, on the other side of the road.

What looks like maybe green lawn is a carpet of olive trees!

We arrived at Serpa, at the four star hotel where the Classens had stayed. It's low white building looked quite plain for a fancy hotel, but we would soon see that the place is in keeping with the essential nature of Serpa low and white).

We stashed the bikes and our stuff and set out for a look at the town. What we found was remarkable in several ways. Aside from the formidable town wall, the buildings are low and white. But they are also tangled in true medieval fashion, and in places except for some clues like street lamps, what see could easily be from 500 years ago.

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A small chapel near the hotel, on the outskirts of town.

The cobbles under our feet were strewn with purple tree flower petals. How nice.

The street lamp tells you this is not 1500.

This tower by a church is labelled a clock tower on our map, but it sure looks like a bell tower.

Looking over some roofs toward some churches.

The church we saw from outside the wall.

Next we had one of those strokes of Grampies luck. A lady came up to me and said that she was on her way home to hang a banner from her window, as part of a procession about the Virgin of Guadalupe. She said the procession would start right now, from a nearby church that she pointed out. The Virgin of Guadalupe, I think, is a different one from the Mexican, but maybe not. "The miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe took place in 1320, in Caceres, Spain, when a shepherd discovered an image of the Virgin. Immediately, this image was attributed to the workmanship of St. Luke.

The first known invocation of Our Lady of Guadalupe was by King Afonso XI of Castile (1312 - 1350) before the Battle of Salado against the Moors2, on 29 October, 1340. King Afonso IV (1325 - 1357) of Portugal was also there, with his forces in support, and as a result this cult was brought into Portugal."

We quickly encountered the procession, underway. People were carrying a succession of small "floats" while a priest said or sang prayers as they walked. The public also said or sang prayers, so it was a bit lie a mobile mass. There was a brass and drums band as well. Depending how you look at it, the thing was more sincere and much more low key than the huge Spanish processions we had seen earlier. On the other hand, in comparison the Spanish were leaps and bounds ahead in theatrics and drama. Here are our images from the thing:

It looks like most of the town came out for the procession.

People are hanging banners from their balconies, but unlike in Spain these are not commercial stuff but seemingly bedspreads that were lying around.

The processions were still going on, and from the looks of where people had set up chairs by the street, the marchers still had a great distance to cover. But we trudged back to the hotel to start the blog. Because of the lack of breakfast and any real grocery we were very hungry, and looking forward to dinner at the hotel. This only started at 7:30, so we had to hang in there.

We knew from the menu that bread and anything else brought to the table would be extra. We find this practice really devious, and it is compounded by the prices. For example, we could see from the menu that if we used the little packaged pat of butter that came with the extra charge bread, it would be 90 cents. 90 cents!

This is six euros of unordered stuff brought to our table. And if you want water, watch out!

We enjoyed the new modern hotel here on the edge of medieval Serpa, but we are especially looking forward to tomorrow, when we will stay at a genuine medieval castle in the medieval town of Alvito. Alvito has inhabited since Neolithic times, but was later occupied by Romans, Visigoths, and Moors. It was conquered by the Portuguese in 1234.

Alvito, we read, is at a high point in the Alentejo, so we can expect some extra climbing. We are looking forward to tomorrow's breakfast to build up our power for the ride. Dodie has already scoped out her preferred table for that breakfast!

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,719 km (1,067 miles)

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