Elvas

the little footprints were precious

it's safer up here with that undertow 

playing in the waves

one picture doesn't do justice to this aqueduct

We came back to the apartment for Oscar to take a nap and to get

riding off into the sunset on daddy's shoulders doesn't bore him

packed up because this the first place that we have truly spread out because it feels like a home and we did laundry which had to be hung all over the place.  We hand the keys over to Madalena and head out of town across the beautiful bridge and back into Spain.  We decide to eat at a service station (like one of the service areas on the tollways that have lots of different things at them) and we seem to be the only people on the highway or at this cafeteria.  Oscar is able to play with going in and out of the door repeatedly, we have a light lunch and continue on.  We have booked a room in Badajoz for the night and we know that we’re not that far from the border, see the Unesco world heritage symbol on a town called Elvas and decided to stop.  We come off from the interstate and head toward town to find a huge aqueduct (not Roman unfortunately, but still very impressive) and “the finest existent example of Dutch fortress making” in these hilltop fortresses that Portugal built on the border after they declared independence from Spain.  We got to get out and walk around one, because it’s Monday and nothing is open, but it was more fun to walk around all the ramparts and Oscar kept stopping to pick up rocks and then find another one and have a good time going in a huge circle on these tracks.  He got tired before the full circuit could be completed and John put him up on his shoulders for maybe the third time in his life and he finally understood that this was a cool place to be.  He kept petting John and putting his head down on John’s to hug him kind of.  You could tell he was excited and happy to be that high, but still feel safe with his daddy holding him.  This was one of those whimsical stops that make you feel like you are really traveling because you could just randomly run into something this big and historically significant.