Day 1 - Lisbon to Évora

Saturday, November 9th

Day 1 - Lisbon to Évora

Slept a few hours on the plane after dinner, surprisingly. Woke up at 8AM (3AM for me) and had a little breakfast. Soon we were descending. It had been a very quick flight. A fairly direct approach and wheels down at 8:54. A crazy fast flight, and we landed 40 minutes early! No luggage to await, so right through passport control, customs, and on to the Hertz rental pickup.

This was a little slow and things didn’t feel completely right. The car was much bigger than I’d reserved (a Subaru Outback) which is not uncommon with one-way rentals, as they tend to give you whatever they want to get rid of. But the guy seemed not on the level. I asked about electronic toll payment and he said it wasn’t available, but I could pay with cash by taking a ticket (I knew this wasn’t entirely true). He also said that there were scrapes on both sides of the car, but the damage report was only marked on one side. So we took pictures to be safe.

Once on the road it was an easy drive out of Lisbon, across the wide inland part of the Tagus (the Vasco de Gama bridge), and on to the Neolithic sites outside Évora. First stop was the Cave at Escoural, but it was closed without a prior appointment. I was afraid of that, but we couldn't really make an appointment in advance because we didn't know the timing for certain.

We drove on a few more minutes to the Dolmen of São Brissos for a quick exterior look. We didn’t bother to try calling about going inside.

This little shrine was apparently built around an old dolmen (rock structure) from ancient times. The chapel incorporates a few of the pre-existing large stones.


From here it was a bit longer drive to the Cromlech of Almendres. We drove through a tiny town then turned off on a bumpy dirt road. Google said that it was the right way, but it would have felt strange without the signs there to confirm it! And as we got closer, we caught up with a few other cars! Funny to find traffic here – the parking lot was almost full, too. But we found a spot and walked the last bit to see a large circle of stones.


Not Stonehenge, but pretty cool nonetheless! It was built during an earlier time period. The oldest parts are believed to date from about 6000 BCE.

This site is certainly rustic but it does require a lot of imagination to see the original configuration.







But you can walk among the stones, which is cool to do. No guards keeping an eye on you.
















And take funny pictures next to the misshapen stones.









We backtracked about 1km to the Menhir dos Almendres, a much larger solitary stone.







It was also seemingly off in the middle of a private farm. But there was a parking area, signs, and a marked path, so we went and took some pictures.




One last stop at the Great Dolmen of Zambujeiro – this was even more isolated. We literally turned off the highway into a cow farm, and followed dirt roads leading between cow pastures,  punctuated with big mud puddles, until we reached a parking lot. Crazy!





As we approached the lot, the only car left, so we had it to ourselves. A short walk and here we were.






Pretty cool! Huge rocks stacked up to make a semi-enclosed space.

The roof was obviously a later addition... neo-space age, not neolithic.






You can’t get in but you can walk around it and peek inside.







So now our choice was to go wine tasting, or maybe try for an early check-in. We chose the latter, atypically. We drove to Évora, and our hotel room was indeed ready. After a shower and change, we felt ready to continue. So our next order of business, after securing a dinner reservation, was to head out and explore the town. But, first a bit of lunch!

We wandered to the main square and looked for a promising place,









eventually settling on a tavern just a block off the square. Here we tasted a few red wines before choosing a glass each,





and we had sausage, delicious sauteed mushrooms with lots of garlic and sea salt,







and thin sliced of ham served over fried potatoes. It ended up being more food than we expected, but we needed lunch, so no complaining.






Now, back to exploring. The Cathedral was the first stop and here we bought tickets for the tower tour. You climb the tower and then wander out on the roof, which was cool.







Lots of interesting architectural details, all seen up close.






Despite the grey skies it was a pretty view.


















We finished with enough time to spare that we cut back across town to go to the Bone Chapel. The Church of San Francisco has a chapel where the walls are lined with bones




I liked the saying carved on the door before you enter:

Roughly translated, we bones in here are waiting for yours to join us! Sounds ominous!







It’s a really neat place. The designs are pretty, in a macabre sort of way.





The walls are completely covered with stacks of bones. Unlike other crypts we've visited, you can take pictures. So we spent a few minutes there, then went to the nearby public garden to enjoy the fresh air.





A slightly different atmosphere here.









Back up to the city center to see the Roman Temple ruins. They were not lit too nicely now, as it was starting to get misty.





We stopped at a terrace overlook nearby but it was starting to get even more rainy, so our scenic overlook didn’t last long.

We went to Cartuxa’s wine bar for a wine tasting, only to be told that they weren’t doing tastings – despite what the hotel staff had told us. Oh well. So we tried to visit the University – unexpectedly closed.

We ended up walking home along the aqueduct, cold and wet, but still happy about all of the things we’d accomplished.

Pretty cool. The old aqueduct (Aqueduto da Agua de Prata) was an old Roman Aqueduct, rebuilt in the 1500s. Now it runs down the side of a modern street, and some of the arches have dwellings built inside.



But, it was definitely getting wet! You can see the huge drop of water in the upper left of the last picture.

We dried off in the room and changed coats before dinner. We weren’t very hungry due to the big and late lunch, but we still enjoyed a good meal at a local place, Adega do Alentejano.


I had a huge portion of tomato soup. A local specialty, it's full of bread and comes with a fried egg also. The bowl could have easily fed both of us.







Chris had a massive piece of pork. We couldn’t finish all of the food, but we did finish the wine.





Back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep! So far, this trip is going great, even though a few things have been closed. We are generally happy if we can see half of what we plan to see, since we are big overplanners!