evidence: Olivenza is a beautiful little place, one of the most pleasant we’ve seen in Spain on this tour. It has a lot going for itself - attractive public spaces, impressive monuments, beautiful sidewalks and plazas with lively tile surfaces that make you want to dance. And an appealing street scene that comes to life near sundown when the day finally cools down. Kids playing games in the carless streets, old folks chatting on benches - the usual Mediterranean social scene that I somehow never tire of watching. It’s like watching the sea - always the same, always changing. The thing that immediately impressed me on entering Olivenza was how Portuguese it looks and feels. Not surprising, since it’s only seven miles from the border at the Guadiana River and for much of its history this area was part of Portugal - and in fact it’s still contested territory even though the EU agrees with Spain that it’s theirs now, ever since it was ceded in 1801 as a condition of the Treaty of Badajoz that ended the War of the Oranges, whatever that was. Portugal claims that the treaty was invalid though, and hasn’t given up the fight yet. To give a sense of this, here’s a brief history of the place, told from a Portuguese perspective. It describes the taking of Olivença as ‘the unjust conclusion to an armed robbery’