Portugal: Almourol

After checking out Tomar (see previous post), we navigated our way down a number of winding roads and tiny villages to get to Almourol Castle. The castle is situation on the top of Almourol island which is in the middle of the Tagus river. As you can imagine, this was another stronghold for the Knights Templar during their reconquest of Portugal from the Moors.

The castle was already there before the Templars arrived.. I think it was originally built by the Romans as some sort of fortress.. then the Moors came and turned it into a Castle.. When the Templars arrived, they did some extensive reconstruction and designed it similar to the castle in Tomar.

After the reconquest was over the castle was abandoned and forgotten for the most part. It is now a national monument and the property of the Portuguese Army. It is said though that on moonlit nights it is haunted by a Moorish prince or princess (i can't remember) who is longing for her/his lover.



The only way to get to the castle is on this boat. Entrace to the castle is free, but you have to pay 1 euro for the boat ride.. we shared the boat with a French family that kept feeding the ducks their meter long baguette.



some nearby fisherman who didn't really know how to fish (according to cat)



forgive me if I post too many pictures of the castle, but I just want to show you all the angles :)





once you disembark you have to walk down a little path to get to the castle. The island is pretty small, but there are cacti everywhere which is a pretty good natural defense.







the castle really has a comanding view over the river











on the way back..









I had a popsicle to top off the day.