Have T@b will travel: Another castle conquered!

We woke up the other day and decided it was now or never! We were going to climb the hill to Marvao! Yes, we are crazy, and thanks for asking! We visited this town briefly when we first arrived in Portugal, but now it was time to go explore it further. Times a tickin'! We head back to Canada in just 6 days to continue the T@b journey! Can you believe it!? Ok, back to the walk, so let's just say it wasn't the most pleasant experience! As you can see from the picture below it's a fair distance, approximately 8 km each way, with the town perched 862 meters high, that's just over 2800 feet! Good lord, what were we thinking!? I don't mean to sound like your grandparents, I walked 50 miles in the snow with no shoes to go to school! But it was a long arduous walk in the 35 degree heat, and to our dismay we took a few wrong turns having to back track a couple of times. Painful! But, one hour and 50 minutes later we were standing on the fortified wall gazing out towards Spain! At this point we could have played out a scene from Rocky, triumphantly jumping with fists in the air… but we were pooped, and that would have been weird. LOL!

This photo of Marvao is taken from the living room… It doesn't look that far!

3/4's of the way up we came across an oasis! Time to fill up the water bottles!

For those of you who might like to have a quick moment of prayer, there's a spot for that too!

Just a few more feet!

Now, here is a little background on this beautiful town. The history of Marvao can be dated back to the end of the 9th century, however the construction of the castle commenced in the 13th century and continued to be developed throughout the next 1000 years! The castle was built for defensive reasons and has been involved in every Portuguese war. Two that grab my attention are, "The Fantastic War" and "The War of the Oranges"! I'm not making those up, and I'm not a fan of war, but these names are pretty intriguing… I must read up on them! The town was fortified with the protective walls during the construction of the castle, and were meant to be a point of border control, keeping Portugal safe from a potential Spanish invasion. It is hard to imagine how this sleepy little town would have been able to maintain a hold against an oncoming enemy… But once you climb the tower's highest point and look down at the sheer cliff drop offs, you realize someone would have been nuts, but more likely forced to make that dangerous climb. Not to mention clad in heavy armour whilst arrows whiz by your head! What a life!

Marvao's outer garden with the castle in the background

This is the "Keep". It is the highest point of the tower and also the most impenetrable! Everyone needs a "safe room"!

Arrow slits!

How about trying to climb that wall? Easy peasy!

This is one of the largest cisterns within all the Portuguese castles. It was built to hold enough rain water to last 6 months! Just incase they had to outlast an attack!