Evora Day 2

 Wednesday morning, we had breakfast at our hotel before our guide, Jorge (pronounced like George) picked us up for the day Jorge drove us into town so we could see the church of San Francisco and where the palace once stood. The church was gorgeous and it was a mix of styles including moorish. Next to the church is the chapel of bones. The chapel of bones was built in the 16th century by monks using very old bones from the many cemeteries that were in Evora. It wasn’t super creepy to me since the bones were so old and there is so much distance between us and when the bodies were alive. You can see that the chapel was meticulously built and it was to show that in the end we all end up the same way. After the chapel, Jorge took us to see ruins of a Roman temple and the Cathedral. The cathedral is gorgeous and had a great cloister area. Jorge showed us different additions they made to the cathedral in order to try to win favor with the Pope. The tile work in churches here is so great and what sets these churches apart from the ones we saw in Italy. 

After the cathedral, Jorge took us into a little town where we could meet a rug designer and see them embroider rugs. He described the stitch as a double cross stitch and we watched a woman restore an old rug. The rugs were beautiful and all handmade. After, we went to a winery that has vineyards, olive groves and walnut groves. Their logo is inspired by the rugs we saw in the town before. It’s also a bit of a wildlife sanctuary. We got a jeep tour of the property and then went to a hunting lodge (that’s been renovated) for lunch and a wine tasting. We got to taste different walnuts as well. After lunch, we got to go to a cork factory. It was interesting to drive into an industrial park and see so many giant piles of cork. This factory does a lot of the initial processing cutting down the bark and cork into planks for other companies. They did some finished goods as well. 

After the cork factory we went back into Evora for some shopping then back to the hotel before dinner. For dinner we went to a well known small restaurant (reservation only) that just does a chefs tasting menu each night. We had all kinds of food we might not have chosen for ourselves. It was all cooked really well. I couldn’t get into the turkey giblets but I did try. We had a tongue sandwich that was really good but they wouldn’t tell us what it was until after we ate it. It was an interesting experience. 

On the train to Lisbon this morning, our last stop in Portugal. 

Evora Day 1

 On Tuesday morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then explored the gardens a bit before packing up to leave. The gardens were beautiful but I found the map hard to navigate and I was looking for fountains that were more 3 dimensional than what was actually there. After checking out of our hotel, our driver picked us up to head to Evora which is about a 3 hour drive. We stopped once to use the bathroom and the rest stop was so civilized and organized.

Our hotel in Evora is a little outside the city and is a former convent from the 15th century. It’s beautiful and our room is pretty big. We had to walk through the cloisters to get to our room (and pass a lot of religious art). After settling in briefly we took an uber to our food tour meeting point and wandered a little before meeting our guide Marcus. 

Marcus took us into a wine shop to start and a few cafes before ending in a bakery. We had cheese and olive oil, bifana (but different than what we had in Porto), a pork dish with picked vegetables covered in French fries, scrambled eggs with bacon, and finally a local conventual tart. It was more cakey than custardy. He also took us into a store that sold olive oil, wine and liquor. We had a cherry liquor in a little chocolate cup. We had already had 2 wines and a beer so I had to spill some liquor out. It was so hot in the town, my fan was nearly useless. Today is supposed to be slightly hotter (high of 99) but hopefully the heat breaks soon. We get a tour of Evora today so we will get to know the city better. 

Coimbra

 On Monday, we had breakfast and met our driver in the lobby for the journey to Coimbra. It was about 2 hours away and mostly highway. We had trouble getting out of Pinhão because the bridge was narrow and giant tour buses were trying to pass. Our hotel in Coimbra is on the grounds of the famous Gardens: Quinta das Lagrimas. The garden has a famous love story involving a prince and forbidden love. We are going to explore after breakfast this morning. As I write this, there are mallards wandering around the patio we are eating at like less aggressive seagulls or little dogs looking for scraps. 

After settling in at the hotel, we took an uber to the top of the hill in town where we met our guide, Bruno. This town is also built into a hill. At the top is the university that is partially newer construction without a lot of personality and partially the former palace from when Coimbra was the capital. We toured the old palace and the library which was added on later. The university is really old, founded in 1290. Bruno took us for a tour of the former student jail which had a large common cell for lesser crimes and we went into a solitary cell. If a student was in for lesser crimes they would get taken to class and back. The library is gorgeous but they do not allow photos. We also went into the chapel that is still be used by students and alumni. 

From the university, we walked down hill and saw more of the historic neighborhood, including churches and parts of the medieval wall. Before Bruno left us, we had a convent treat that was specific to that cafe which was connected to a church. It was an almond tart which was so good. Bruno had heard about Trader Joe’s selling frozen pastel de nata and was offended they would try as they aren’t the same. 

After Bruno left us we explored the neighborhood some more and made our way to a Bistro for dinner I had found online. It was really cute and all our food was so good. We had duck, lamb, tomato salad and then dessert. After dinner we walked back across the bridge to our hotel.