Mr. Bones
Forgotten information: Last night we saw news video showing Lisboa Alagada - Lisbon flooded. The Plaza Rossi where we were several times was even flooded. Other parts of town showed cars being swallowed. Glad we left when we did!
Breakfast this morning was really good. There was an omelette station for Jenn, and the pineapple was sooooo good today. That combined with sunshine (and a rainbow when we went out to the coach!) and a woman allowing us the front most seat even though it was hers on the seat rotation made me very chipper this morning. J
I’ve been forgetting to tell you how Daniel makes us start the bus tour - with a really cheesy song. I haven’t quite started to like it, but I can see how it could grow on you. It’s called Happiness by Ken Dodd. Here you go for your “pleasure” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a5vaIsaxB8
We drove back part of the way that we drove in, at least through the mountains that I enjoyed so much yesterday. Today they were even better! Mist was hanging in the mountains, and it was such a gorgeous view. I hope some of our photos turn out from that.
Eventually we turned to a more eastern direction into the Alentejo region. We saw a lot of olive trees on our drive today. Daniel told us that the olives we had last night were probably not actually black olives, since they were quite firm. Most likely they were green olives died with squid ink in the factory. Real black olives are much mushier since they are very ripe. We also learned later in the day that olive trees can live to be 2000 years old!
Daniel also told us that Indian food is spicy because of the Portuguese. The Portuguese sailors brought the hot peppers back from South America, and then took them over to India. Japan’s tempura is a Portuguese creation. So is the British’s custom of afternoon tea - that started after a marriage alliance between Britain and Portugal.
We stopped briefly at a hotel in Beja for a rest stop. Though the hotel gave bad directions at first, which caused our bus driver to have to drive in reverse for 3 blocks. Oops!
Today’s main stop was Evora. When we arrived, we immediately got started with a walking tour. First stop, the Church of St. Francis, which is unfortunately under restoration. But the most famous part of it was still mostly visible - the Chapel of Bones. Apparently there are about 5000 skulls in there and even more leg bones. Some people were a bit creeped out by it, but I actually found it rather peaceful. The monks designed it to be a meditation room - that we are all the same at the level of our bones, it’s only our souls and actions that set us apart. Plus, there’s that whole dust-to-dust part. It was quite calming.
From there, we walked up through the center of town, which is very cute. There are the remains (a number of columns) of a Roman temple from the first century AD. That’s a big part of the reason that Evora within its 14th century walls is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of it from various angles.
We had a simple lunch from a stand - a ham and cheese sandwich and a cheese sandwich for lunch - simple but tasty. I do like the bread here. Then we moved on to photographing the 16th (15th?) century cathedral from all of its exterior angles. We didn’t bother going inside, since it didn’t open again until almost when we needed to meet up with the group. We attempted to shop for cork bags and postcards, but I was a bit overwhelmed and we were short on time. So we only ended up with a cork postcard, but just for us. Both of us would be concerned whether it could handle being mailed.
We signed up for the optional (read extra cost) afternoon tour to Monsaraz. It was absolutely worth it. We had a stunning view of the Great Alqueva Lake. And Spain is just on the other side. So, Jenn can now say that she’s “seen” Spain! ;-) The little hilltop town is not very touristy… yet. But it has a lot of fun angles and 2 cute streets to photograph. In total, 30 people and a handful of cats and dogs live there.
Finally, we go to our hotel (M’ar de Ar Aqueduto) at about 6:15pm. It’s very modern and fancy for a place that used to be a palace (Sepulveda) in the 16th century. I felt guilty for not going out an exploring since we still had about 45 minutes left of light, but my leg was done. I have been doing so much more in the last few days than I was at all capable of doing last week. Which is great! But I still need a bit more resting than I’m used to.
We went to dinner just up the street at a small local place - Restaurante S. Domingos. Jenn had good (though maybe slightly overdone) garlic shrimp (no tails, but heads), and I had a very decent pork tenderloin. We chickened out on the desserts since we had no idea what they were. So we stopped into a little shop to pick up some chocolate bars for Jenn. Then we checked out this little store that was 3 different vending machines - one hot food, two snacks and drinks. Jenn found me Fanta Maracuja! You probably don’t remember, but I really really liked this passion fruit drink in Brazil. I’m a bit unreasonably excited about this find. It’s just so tasty!
Breakfast this morning was really good. There was an omelette station for Jenn, and the pineapple was sooooo good today. That combined with sunshine (and a rainbow when we went out to the coach!) and a woman allowing us the front most seat even though it was hers on the seat rotation made me very chipper this morning. J
I’ve been forgetting to tell you how Daniel makes us start the bus tour - with a really cheesy song. I haven’t quite started to like it, but I can see how it could grow on you. It’s called Happiness by Ken Dodd. Here you go for your “pleasure” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a5vaIsaxB8
We drove back part of the way that we drove in, at least through the mountains that I enjoyed so much yesterday. Today they were even better! Mist was hanging in the mountains, and it was such a gorgeous view. I hope some of our photos turn out from that.
Eventually we turned to a more eastern direction into the Alentejo region. We saw a lot of olive trees on our drive today. Daniel told us that the olives we had last night were probably not actually black olives, since they were quite firm. Most likely they were green olives died with squid ink in the factory. Real black olives are much mushier since they are very ripe. We also learned later in the day that olive trees can live to be 2000 years old!
Daniel also told us that Indian food is spicy because of the Portuguese. The Portuguese sailors brought the hot peppers back from South America, and then took them over to India. Japan’s tempura is a Portuguese creation. So is the British’s custom of afternoon tea - that started after a marriage alliance between Britain and Portugal.
We stopped briefly at a hotel in Beja for a rest stop. Though the hotel gave bad directions at first, which caused our bus driver to have to drive in reverse for 3 blocks. Oops!
Today’s main stop was Evora. When we arrived, we immediately got started with a walking tour. First stop, the Church of St. Francis, which is unfortunately under restoration. But the most famous part of it was still mostly visible - the Chapel of Bones. Apparently there are about 5000 skulls in there and even more leg bones. Some people were a bit creeped out by it, but I actually found it rather peaceful. The monks designed it to be a meditation room - that we are all the same at the level of our bones, it’s only our souls and actions that set us apart. Plus, there’s that whole dust-to-dust part. It was quite calming.
From there, we walked up through the center of town, which is very cute. There are the remains (a number of columns) of a Roman temple from the first century AD. That’s a big part of the reason that Evora within its 14th century walls is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of it from various angles.
We had a simple lunch from a stand - a ham and cheese sandwich and a cheese sandwich for lunch - simple but tasty. I do like the bread here. Then we moved on to photographing the 16th (15th?) century cathedral from all of its exterior angles. We didn’t bother going inside, since it didn’t open again until almost when we needed to meet up with the group. We attempted to shop for cork bags and postcards, but I was a bit overwhelmed and we were short on time. So we only ended up with a cork postcard, but just for us. Both of us would be concerned whether it could handle being mailed.
We signed up for the optional (read extra cost) afternoon tour to Monsaraz. It was absolutely worth it. We had a stunning view of the Great Alqueva Lake. And Spain is just on the other side. So, Jenn can now say that she’s “seen” Spain! ;-) The little hilltop town is not very touristy… yet. But it has a lot of fun angles and 2 cute streets to photograph. In total, 30 people and a handful of cats and dogs live there.
Finally, we go to our hotel (M’ar de Ar Aqueduto) at about 6:15pm. It’s very modern and fancy for a place that used to be a palace (Sepulveda) in the 16th century. I felt guilty for not going out an exploring since we still had about 45 minutes left of light, but my leg was done. I have been doing so much more in the last few days than I was at all capable of doing last week. Which is great! But I still need a bit more resting than I’m used to.
We went to dinner just up the street at a small local place - Restaurante S. Domingos. Jenn had good (though maybe slightly overdone) garlic shrimp (no tails, but heads), and I had a very decent pork tenderloin. We chickened out on the desserts since we had no idea what they were. So we stopped into a little shop to pick up some chocolate bars for Jenn. Then we checked out this little store that was 3 different vending machines - one hot food, two snacks and drinks. Jenn found me Fanta Maracuja! You probably don’t remember, but I really really liked this passion fruit drink in Brazil. I’m a bit unreasonably excited about this find. It’s just so tasty!