We spent two days in Evora Portgual and left this morning for Alcobaça Portugal. Evoria was quite a surprise. I mean, we knew what the guidebook said about this region, but to experience it was something entirely different.
We stayed in a cookie-cutter hotel outside the old city wall. While the hotel did not have all the character and charm (translate quirkiness in some cases) as other, there is something to be said for good size room, really comfy beds, no street noise, some English speaking TV, and all the European soccer you want.
Since we got in late the first day, we just settled in and went into the town center to get our bearings. Oh, on the drive in, we had to get gas for the car. You can't even imagine the price per gallon - $7.50! Yep, that's right!
We walked up the hills into town (don't know why all the town centers in these old European towns are on the highest point, but they are. Actually I do know why just don't like it (built on the highest point because it was easier to protect from intruders). We located the restaurants we were going to eat at that night and the. Went for a wine while we waited for them to open. We thought we were on time but forgot that Portugal is on the same time as England, that is, an hour earlier than Spain. And then there is the language. Portgugese is not like anything else move heard. The words appear to be closer to Italian but the pronunciation is a jumble of sh, ch, and she. It has almost a Polish or Romanian sound to it. Thank you here is obrigada from me and obrigado from Ernie. Everyone here is so sweet and understanding and they all lovingly correct us as we speaking Spanish to them. When we stopped for the glass of wine, the little lady that ran the shop was so cute. She heard Ernie stumbling with Portugese and tried to correct him. When she determined it was easier to speak his language, she changed to English. Her English was much better than our Portugese. It turns out she was a teacher and had visited the US in the past, mainly California, and absolutely loves Americans. We've gotten that feeling from all that we meet.
Our restaurant experience that night was super! The restaurant was like an above-ground wine cellar. In fact, the waiter poured our jug (jarro) of wine from one of the wine casks in the wall.
Notice the board on the wall between the sconces, that's the menu. It is written in chalk and changed as their offerings change. Our waiter spoke excellent English and explained all the menu items to us. We chose their migas which was very different from Texas and Mexican migas. Their migas was several different cuts of pork (ribs, chunks of pork, fried pork belly) and a bread puddings made with the meat drippings. It was fantastic!!!! The other dish we ordered was a typical dish fromEvora, stewed pork chunks served with sautéed clams on top. Sounds really weird but boy does that combination work.
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| Isn't this a cool faucet and sink |
Following the meal, we had to try one of the local after dinner drinks, ginginja (pronounced zheen zheen hay). It is a grappa drink flavored with the fruit of sour cherries but the drink is sweet. Oh my was it good and it would put you on your butt with just a couple of them.
The next day we drove to the megaliths about 7 kilometers outside of town and the. About 5 miles down a dirt road. We drove through the cork orchards (don't know of orchards is the right term for cork trees). When they are about 25 years old the bark is stripped. It the. Takes another 9 years for the tree to produce more bark. These trees produce for over 100 years. Back to the megalithic sites, these are the Portugese Stonehenge dating from about 5500 B.C. There are 95 rounded granite stones erected in the shape of an oval. It's the largest megalithic monument in Iberia and one of the oldest in Europe, some 2000 years older than Stonehenge. Some believe that Stone Age sun worshippers gathered at this pagan sanctuary in search of harmony between the earth and the cosmos. The stones function as a celestial calendar with the far ends of the ellipse lining up with the rising and setting sun on each solstice.
We returned to town to tour a few of the churches, in particular the Chapel of Bones at the Church of St. Francis. The Chapel of Bones is the work of three monks who were concerned about society's values at the time. They thought this chapel would provide Evora, a town noted for its wealth in the 1600s, with a helpful place to meditate on the transience of material things in the undeniable presence of death. Above the entrance to the chapel there is a message that reads: "We bones in here wait for yours to join us". I'll let the pictures say the rest.
Of course all the churches are amazing in the they look old, run-down and decrepit from the outside and then you walk in and the altars and chapels are covered in gold and silver and so ornate they seem really over the top. Evora's churches were no different.
To our surprise, we came across a woman selling roasted chestnuts in the city center. We haven't had that since we lived in Italy. Of course we had a bag while walking. The restaurant we hoped to go to that night was fully booked and we were quite disappointed since it came highly recommended so we returned to the one we ate at the night before. Obviously we were quite impressed with it and again it delivered on his promise to be really good.
Next morning we washed the car and left for Alcobaça, north and near the coast. Of course we had to stop for fuel. Imagine our surprise when we realized fuel in Portugal was about $8.50 a gallon. Oh well it is what it is
I'll fill you in on Alcobaça in my next post.
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