17 May

We culled through our stuff and came up with about 5 lbs of not-needed items (we hope) that we shipped home. Communicating with the Portuguese postal clerk was a bit of a challenge, but we think we accomplished our mission. After another language struggle, we were able to donate some clothes we didn't want to pay to ship home to a local church. They don't seem to have Salvation Army or St Vincent's in this part of the world. Whatever, we are no longer carrying several pounds of excess baggage.

We left our packs at the hotel and explored the rest of the town. The highlight of the day – and possibly the trip so far – was a Knights Templar castle and convent. Construction started on it in the 1100s, we think. There were very few tourists around, and we could roam all over, through a maze of passages, and up and down stone spiral staircases. Even Janene admitted that it was pretty cool, and she's about burned out on castles.

After lunch in the National Forest, we boarded the train back to Lisbon, where we had reservations for the 1030 sleeper train to Madrid. The downtown Lisbon station is pretty bleak, and the ticket agent said there was a first-class lounge in the next station down the line, so we hopped the next train out of Lisbon, thinking we'd wait in comfort and catch the sleeper when it came by. But the first-class lounge was a joke, so we rode BACK to Lisbon in order to get settled in our compartment earlier. It all worked out eventually. We even had the same stewardess from the trip to Lisbon a few days ago.

Pottery and Tile Workshop

national forest garden

Knights Templar Castle & Convent of Christ

map of castle (larger map)

map of convent (larger map)

1:26 pm	main entrance	1:33 pm	ancient palace
1:37 pm	Portocarreiros Chapel	Manueline nave	2:00 pm
main cloister's fountain	2:07 pm	2:10 pm	2:11 pm
Janene on spiral stair	cell hallway	refectory