…or, more specifically, Castro Verde’s monthly Market is the place for you! The first thing we saw on arriving in Castro Verde was a market – a very big market- still in full swing by lunchtime! Naturally, we had to have a mooch around. First stalls we saw were selling birds – not just chickens, but a whole assortment of our feather friends – canaries, love birds, brightly coloured parrots – you name it, they were there, in their hundreds! Not just small birds either – peacocks and turkeys featured heavily too! All very healthy looking, as were the assorted rabbit breeds sitting there in their cages. I’m really hoping the latter were all destined to be cuddly pets as opposed to a wholesome feed but who knows? Photos are a bit lacking on account of we didn’t take the camera to market (next time we will!) but here’s a couple Roy managed to sneak using his phone…

After the bird and bunny stalls, the market went a bit downhill to be honest. All leather handbags, ladies woollens and a handful of fruit, veg and nut stalls i.e. nothing out of the ordinary. The smell from the chicken barbecue was somewhat enticing but, at €7 for chicken and chips, we decided to pass and headed on to Intermarche to do a supermarket shop instead. Prices in there weren’t much better – we grabbed the bare essentials and went on to find the campsite. Have to say, Portugal is NOT cheap – not compared to Spain and France. Considering the average minimum wage here is around 50% less than in the UK, supermarket prices are pretty high for some items – especially toiletries! €8.99 for Tresemme shampoo that I never pay more than £4 for back home (and that’s only if I’m desperate – normally pick it up in Asda when it’s on offer at £2.50!).

Anyhow, the campsite proved to be decent enough – good facilities, cheap washing machine and dryer, hot showers etc for €11/24 hours. WiFi proved to be a tad inconsistent but, since they weren’t charging extra for it, we probably shouldn’t complain!

The afternoon was spent washing, drying and scrubbing Sebo’s interior, along with Roy rubbing the scratches out of Sebo’s windows with T-Cut! The things you do, huh? So intent on having a clean Sebo were we that we didn’t venture out of the site to actually see Castro Verde until the following lunchtime, by which time, the Tourist Info office was closed. We mooched around the town, finding the restored windmill, huge Basilica Real and a rather quirky looking early 20th century manor house, built on a street lined by shops, by a local farmer(!). It was a pleasant enough wee town but nothing to keep us there for any longer than we needed to get our washing dried and our fridge cold again – yes, folks, that darned fridge is acting the maggot once again! Grrrrrr

Discussions are in full swing as to where our next port of call will be –Évora is on the horizon for the weekend. Lots to see and oodles of free overnight parking appeals to us greatly!