We woke up in our castle hotel and I enjoyed walking about, looking at
the union of old castle with new and very modern architecture.
The largest dolmen in Portugal are nearby, so after some searching online and on maps, we found it in a pasture full of cows. It is amazing to think of structures withstanding over 4000 years!
We drove on to Coudelaria de Alter do Chao, the royal stud farm founded by King Joao V in 1748,
to raise and train Lusitanian horses. We took a tour. About 400 horses are trained at the facility with a staff of 16. Their revenue comes from a horse auction held each April.
Our next destination was Ponte de Sor, the location of the 20th International Balloon Festival, with teams from 35 countries participating. Along the way, we stopped to see a Roman Bridge. Once in Ponte, we enjoyed lunch at a small cafe, and then we waited a couple of hours, along with hundreds of locals, for the balloons to launch. We thought it was rather scary, as they took off from fields in the city, with power lines, trees, and hills as obstacles. Some were more successful than others. We saw several balloons landing quickly. We had a great time!
