Elegant Evora

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With a feeling of elation and after a sugary, buttery breakfast at one of the little cafes, we left Vila Nova and began our long drive to Evora. We had now been in the mountains for a week and at last we would be returning to the plains and warmer weather!

The trip to Evora was interesting as I decided to give Mac a rest (is that the right word?) and drive. A couple of things came to my mind immediately that I didnt bother to bring up, firstly, it had been years since I had driven a manual and secondly, the Portuguese drive on the 'wrong side of the road' (for an Australian).

I have to say in my defence I did very well, I mastered the gears easily but the 'wrongs side of the road' tended to string my nerves rather tightly. At one point I stalled the car in the middle of the motor way as making the required cross over went against every driving instinct I had, I kept looking in the opposite way I should be - luckily we were the only ones on the motorway.

Along the way, we had a Loo Stop in the middle of nowhere at a roadhouse, the only structure for miles around. Upon walking into it I was greeted by a noisy, heavily smoky atmosphere and many, many men standing around drinking coffee and smoking with the only woman being the behind the counter.

My head filled with visions of a Western Movie. As I entered, they all stopped talking and turned to look at me, I casually sauntered up to the bar, pushed my way to the front and asked for the toilet key, for all to hear. The girl handed me this tiny key attached to a unnecessarily large, heavy block of wood and pointed to a door to my left (obviously key theft was a problem in this area). Trying to appear confident, with all these men still watching my every move, I made my way to the door and of course I struggled with the key in the lock as the 'keyring' got in the way, looking like a right idiot.

Once in the loo, I suffered stage fright, acutely aware that I had an audience outside and this was confirmed when I left the toilet and I was greeted by all eyes on me. I hastily returned the key and ran out to the safety of the car.

The drive was just as spectacular as our previous wanderings and eventually we could see we were descending onto the plains as the mountains gave way to rolling hills then green, grassy fields and small, white villages.  Unfortunately the hire car had begun to make a strange flapping noise once we went over about 80kms which was distracting, but didnt seem to serious.

I managed to ruin the day of one poor lorry driver, he was stuck behind me for hours as I didnt trust the car to do any highspeed overtaking and his truck was to cumbersome to over take me. After two hours he finally passed me, yelling something out his window at us and gesturing wildly, fairly sure he wasnt wishing us happy travels. Mac translated this to: "I dont think he was very happy with your driving".

Mid afternoon found us at last in Evora, our second to last town until our adventure finished in Faro, so it was with a tinge of sadness that we checked into Hotel Policarpo - a 16 century holiday home for the Duke Policarpo and still run by the Policarpo family. Its is an intriguing place, lots of little corridors everywhere, old stone pillars and original mosiac floors. The room was clean, bit shabby and not particularly cosy or attractive, despite the hand painted bed and colorful decor. But having said that, the staff were great and couldnt do enough for us.

Evora is another beautiful, old and interesting town surrounded by ancient city walls. It is one of the few towns not destroyed by the 1755 earthquake so all the layers of history are intact, well preserved and everywhere you look. Evora has a population of around 54000 and is also a University town, so it has a good energetic vibe.

We began our exploration of Evora by booking onto the Evora Walking Tour early the next morning. Again, Mac and I were the only ones on the tour much to our delight, as we greeted our guide Gertrude - whom was superb. She was Portugese and extremely  proud of her heritage, she was about 60, chained smoked and coughed, she knew everyone in town and said hello every few seconds as she passed a friend. Gertrude had been a history teacher and was still passionate enough about it to volunteer as a guide.

Our first stop was the Town Hall where Roman Baths were discovered in 1994 during renovations. The bath is 9 metres wide and there is also a steam room and an open air swimming pool. This complex is apparently the largest Roman public building in Evora. The impressive part of these baths are how intact and preserved they are.

Along the way to the Cathederal,  Gertrude pointed out remnants of the roman aqueduct that once ran around the walls and part of the original roman city walls. One truly stunning sight was down a little street we would never have seen -the remains of a roman palace. This palace was found under the current building (a bank) during renovations.  The palace was not disturbed and the outide wall of the bank is now a sheet of glass, so you can see a section of it. It was just awe inspiring to see the orignal frescos, mosiac floors and columns.

The Cathedral (started in 1186) was gorgeous and the interior was unexpectedly different from others we had visited. Instead of the elaborate ornate guilded carvings,the walls and ceiling was beautiful pink marble with painted frescos and mouldings. Europe's oldest pipe organ and one of the few remaining Pregnant Mary's is also to be found here (the Catholic church decided hundreds of years ago that depicting Mary as preganant made Jesus seem too human and pregnancy is not a thing to be promoted!)

Upstairs is a great little museum that demonstrates the immense wealth of the catholic church (if only this wealth was used to help the poor and hungry!!). There is reliquary that contains a fragment of the cross, encrusted with enough wealth in gems to feed a third world country forever. There are Saints skulls and elaboratley embroidered garments worn by Bishops and their cohorts, ming vases and numerous bejewelled, golden, silver items the the church just couldnt live without.

Our tour took a marvellously unexpected turn after we left the Cathederal and stopped outside of a large green street door. Gertrude pressed the door bell and began to speak rapid Portugese to the intercom, the door opened and she asked us to come with her. Slightly alarmed and a bit cautious (breaking every safety travel rule) we followed her through an old carriage way and into a shabby courtyard that has seen better days.

She explained that Jesuit Priests now lived on the second floor and Gertrude knew the HouseKeeper, while we were happy for her, we wondered why she had bought us here. Gertrude then took us over to a highly decorated hand painted wall with mythical and fantastic creatures. As we stared in awe, she then opened a small door to the right and a small chapel appeared.

Still awe struck we went into the chapel and she told us this was the private chapel of Vasco De Gama (14th century explorer whom bought immense wealth to Portugal with his exploration of the globe)!! He had this chapel built and prayed here before embarking on his last journey. This chapel was not open to the public and infact it had only been discovered in the past couple of years, the only reason we got to see it was because of Gertrude's friendship with the Housekeeper - we were so grateful that thankyou just wasnt enough. We stood in exactly the same spot as De Gama, we were able to photograph it and study the drawings (creatures he had seen on his travels) - just amazing

By now our official tour had ended but neither of us were in any hurry and there was one last thing Gertrude really wanted to show us - as you can imagine, we would have gone anywhere she asked now! She took us to a small white, unpreposing chapel, sitting peacefully under a peppercorn tree. Gertrude ushered us inside and once again we were gobsmacked by what greeted us. It was nearly siesta time and the guard wanted to close the chapel, but because he knew Gertrude, he closed the door to other tourists and let us stay behind.

The Miscordia Chapel dated from around the 17th century and the beautiful unique attraction was the walls down to the chapel were completly lined with hand painted Azuleos tiles. Above the tiles was carved and guilded woodwork with large hand painted religious scenes, it truly took your breath away.

With regret, our tour finished and we really were reluctant to say good bye to Gertrude. Our 2 hour tour had been over 3 hours long, we had seen so many amazing and unexpected things and had a whole new appreciation of Portugese history. Gertrude and her tour was simply wonderful beyond words and something we shall never forget.

Despite all we had seen that morning, there was still more - the Bone Chapel. After a fortifying and warming lunch of Vegetable Soup, we headed off to the Igreja de Sao Francisco. This church was built in 1510 and is a massive Manualine/Gothic structure with a martime theme but the big attraction is the Capela dos Ossos.

For the paltry sum of 2.50 each, we entered into the Bone Chapel, and it was one of the most disturbing, upsetting and compelling places I have been in for a long time. The room has the bones of 5000 people lining the walls and columns, skulls are used to highlight the arches that support a beautifully painted vaulted ceiling. To top it off, there are two very old corpses hanging on the wall - one of an adult and one of a child.

Why did this chapel exist? Well, in the 17th century the graveyards were overflowing, so what else would you do, but use the 'spare parts' to decorate a chapel as 'reminder of death'.

The feeling inside the chapel was not an easy one, there were definate cold spots (that even Mac felt), I captured some Orbs in my photos and there were at least three energies trapped in the chapel. I had seen a few 'things' in the old buildings we had visited, but this place was something else. I could actually feel my own energy being drained and there was such a feeling of despair and bewilderment floating around that I lasted all of 10 minutes and it took me a good half hour afterwards to recover (the chocolate crepes Mac bought us definately helped). I can now cross Bone Chapels off my list!

As mid afternoon crept up on us, Mac wanted to go the Internet Cafe, so after a spot of christmas shopping, we parted ways for a few hours. It was very pleasant to stroll along the collanaded walkway with lots of lovely shops to explore that ends up in a tiny little Placa. As early evening descended, all the trees were lit with fairy lights and the shops blazed with their own lights and xmas decorations, just gorgeous. 

Mac took me for a late dinner in the lovely upmarket restaurant, Jadim do Paco (part of the Duke of Cadaval's palace). The restaurant is tucked behind the Palace walls in the old stables which in turn opens onto a large garden square with perfectly manicured miniature orange trees, delicately hung with fairy lights. By day, it would be perfect for a relaxed lunch and at night it was perfect for a romantic dinner. After a delicious meal and lovely company, we went for our last, long, chilly stroll through town, admiring a roman temple along the way and  feeling very satisfied with our stay in Evora.

On to our last stop - Faro in the Algarve.