Tomar

      After yesterday's debacle it was easy make the choice to stay in Tomar for the day. The Bastion of the Knights Templar, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.     
     A charming, amazing little town and is well worth staying several days if not longer. The Municipal Campismo is right in town and surrounded by sights, restaurants, cafes..all a touring cyclist could desire.
     We met a fellow bicycle tourer from Holland, Henri, who has been touring around the world. He had been staying in the Municipal Campismo for a month and while loathe to leave had not found the apartment of his budget to live in for the winter so was heading farther south.
     Tomar is all that is described and more. The Convento de Cristo built into the Templar Castle and it's attached buildings are nothing less than magnificent. Built in various styles but particularly famous for it's Manueline architecture. The chapel itself built so the Knights could ride in on their horses to attend Mass.

Tomar with theTemplar Castle on the hill.

Knights Templar Castle

     Arched bridges over waterways, cobbled streets and flowers. Statues and bronzes abound as do garden areas. We met our gardener friend who had refused us the ride but was nonetheless happy to see that we had arrived safely.

Our new friends Maria and Adelaide

      Lazy sots that we are we decided to take the Tourist Trem, a motorized train that goes around town on 2 different tours. We picked the crappy tour, rose instead of green. We did make two wonderful new friends in the process, Maria and Adelaide from Leiria. The older women had come for a short visit and also wanted the train.
     You had to meet a certain number of people for the train to go and so Lowell and I stood out on a mission to obtain the allocated number. In short we had success so off we went! Touring the...new part of town, the hospital, the armory , multiple multi-story housing complexes and our favorite, the 40,000 matchbox Museu de Fosforos. (Matchbook museum). As opposed to the multi-castle, 6 mile long Roman double arch aqueduct tour.
     With everyone staring as we went by the four of us turned it into a personal parade with much waving and laughing. At the end we parted with an invitation to visit and we were off for another pastry, this time an egg creme filled sugar sprinkled monstrosity.

The evening view from the St. Iris cafe.

     We are finishing out the day with a beer and free wifi at an outdoor cafe bar, St. Iris, a mere one block from the municipal campground, watching the sun set over the castle while the Dumbo elephant children's ride sits next to us playing Hi Ho from Sleeping Beauty.