Our little place on the Portugal Serengeti was peaceful and Kirk slept well. I got up to take a shower before breakfast and promptly squired water all over the bathroom b/c the hand sprayer was faced outward in our kind of weird shower. It is a rectangle with 2 doors that meet in a corner. The drain was slow and level with the floor and running out and the overhead rain shower isn’t working so it was a bit of a challenge! But I made it thru these high class problems! Coffee was good and so was what we’ve come to love as a normal Portugal breakfast w fruit, croissants, yogurt etc. Then it was Kirk’s turn to shower. More water everywhere and he was not happy how annoying it was but we made it thru and out the door to Evora.
Not a far journey. Looped around the town to the Chapel of Bones. So insane to think about using all the bones and skulls to make this. A lot of yuck and a bit of awe. Who thinks to do this? Why? Kirk says they dog up all the bodies to build something and just needed a way to ‘honor’ them. The photos we took don’t do it justice. Then headed up stairs to the museum where the Friars lived. Well it was a lot of pictures of Jesus and crosses and at one point I got a bit loopy looking at the hilarious representations of babies - one who looked like Gene Hackman! And the angels who had eyes moving in both directions? I’m sure people were aghast at my laughing. 😇. Oh and one guy looked like Frodo Baggins and Mary really looked annoyed in quite a few. Then upstairs to someone’s private collection of nativity seems. Everything from what looked like dollar store stuff to lapis to cork. Seemed excessive. Her kids are probably happy they don’t have to deal with them!! off to the Jardins and walked quite a bit around the inside edge of the castle/town area.
And then, of course, we were hungry. Just off the square, where they had all the touristy restaurants out front we went down a little alley and found a delicious gem. We had anchovies, wild boar fritters, cuttlefish, shrimp and an amazing dish with fries, tomato sauce (super light), onions and sunny side up egg and a tad of mayo. They bring it to the table and mix it up. I wanted to just lick the plate and eat another who dish! We talked about trying to make it at home. Then we shared some chocolate mousse for dessert which was like brownie batter topped with salt and olive oil! OMG!!! Oh and wine and beer. They attached a wine holder to the table like an old school baby chair. Awesome. Kirk looked at me half way thru lunch and said “what day is it?” It’s weird not having a real calendar and routine. I saw some Halloween decor and was weirded out.
It’s gonna be weird not drinking at lunch. :)
Walked to the Aqueduct and looked around. They built a lot of homes in the arches of the aqueduct. Interesting. Popped out of the area and then back in thru some small streets which are a bit outside of the touristy areas. Back to the car and off the THE HENGE!
Not called a henge. It’s called Almendres Cromlech. We had time and it was about 30 minutes from Evora so why not. Well it was off the beaten path. Large holes and bouncy dirt roads going about 5 mph. But we did see a ton of cork trees. We thought they were live or coastal oaks but up close we could see they were stripped of the cork and labeled with a number we haven’t looked into yet as of why. So, it was just discovered in the 1960’s! It’s older than the way more popular Stonehenge. This one dates back at least 6000 years. Really not much to see or do so we looped around, took pictures and commented that they needed some seating to relax. Of course there were tons of signs to not go into the area AND it was roped off but some asshat was walking right thru it all.
Decided to call it a day and head back to the bnb. Stopped at the store to get wine, cheese, meat etc to have at our place on the deck. People were drinking beer at the grocery store. Kirk said “i might go to Costco 3 times a week if they had that!”. Put the groceries and wine in the fridge and headed for a walk about. There are vineyards, pools, horses and paths all around. Our weird host didn’t tell us a thing about this place and it’s actually quite interesting. There are ancient stone burial sights (that may or may not have people in them), old buildings and A FREAKING HENGE!!! We have our own henge????? Well not exactly. We have a menhir which is a stone monolith. This one looked like a penis and balls. Of course we took pics and laughed b/c we are children! Then moved on to talk to the fat horse who definitely wanted some food which we didn’t have but she followed us inside her fence for quite a while. Her name is Olive but in Portuguese which Azeitona. Kirk then found some old looking flat metal piece which really looked almost like an arrowhead so we trotted off to the main house and gave it to our host who looked at us like we were loons. Honestly he might be crazy, on the spectrum or just giving up. We can’t decide. They also have 2 pools side by side. No clue why but they look nice and have a lot of chairs. I could see having a family party here and renting the whole place out but Evora isn’t exactly a wild place. Well maybe we are just old.
Sat outside and had some wine, did some internetting and then had our wine and cheese. Oh and the warm, freshly baked bread cost $1.55. I wanted to eat the entire loaf! Met a German man who is staying down the hall. He had a house in Florida and recently sold it and bought a place in Nazarre here north of Lisbon and still has a place in Frankfurt. He also thinks trump is CRAZY. Those exact words. He cannot understand how he is still president.
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