Apparently. Evora is a walled city, which is very cool. We picked a hotel near the outside of town, but still within the walls. I wanted a place with parking. It is very tight within the walls, and the garage for the hotel is underground, with about 7 spots. We were very, very fortunate that someone was leaving right as we arrived(at around 9 am). I was very surprised to find that someone that runs the place had followed me down the narrow ramp and offered to park it for me. He then asked if we had had breakfast. I said that we hadn't. He then offered breakfast to us, although it only came with our night's stay for the following morning. The people who ran the very small, but amazing buffet, were extraordinary. The person that seemed to be in charge had realized that Miles was only picking at his food, and so brought him out pancakes unprompted. Miles also tried a green caked and really liked it...until I told him that it was spinach cake. I knew that if I had told him what it was that he would not have tried it! They had amazing granola mix cereal and some other interesting cakes. I can not eat fruit, or I would have tried some. I noticed kiwis in particular.
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| Roman ruins that Evora is known for |
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| Aqueduct |
As I believe I mentioned or alluded to earlier, Evora was a bit of a wild card. Originally, it was not part of the itinerary. Then, I decided to move our arrival from Tuesday to Sunday, and so, I added it in. Information online gave the impression that it was a small, charming, almost quaint city. Despite having some cute things to see, I find it to be a miss. The streets are winding and cobbled, which is a plus, but they are shockingly devoid of human life. Maybe the town is too big, and so people are seen more sparingly. It might be the time of year, as this is likely considered to be offseason. A few things of note that we did enjoy was the Cadaval Palace, which had the typical rooms set up from the olden days thing going on, and an interesting upper tower, which had its walls lit up with cutouts, showing architecture from the world. Hard to describe I suppose. We found some ruins overrun with peacocks. The highlight was definitely the chapel of bones, which had an entire room's walls made of human bones. The museum was nothing with nothing in my opinion. The roman aqueducts that ran into town were kinda cool to see.
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| Peacock ruins |
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| Cool looking church |
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| Chapel of Bones |
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| Top of the Palace tower |
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| Weird diorama found in the chapel of bones |
So, why was it a miss? Well, we only have one thing left to do and a whole second day's worth of time to fill. There is a cathedral fortress that you could walk the ramparts on. Without the liveliness that I expected, and the fairly barren streets, it just doesn't have the feel that I was looking for. The last small town that I was in, the Cinque Terre five towns, had tons of people. However, they were tourists for the most part. That being said, the people who ran the tiny restaurants were clearly natives and it had a very home grown feel to it. Evora feels like a modern age city that just happens to be located on older style grounds. I will have to consider this further. For my last summer trip, to Japan, I plan to stay in some remote regions where an older way of life is observed. One is in a Buddhist temple, inhabited by monks in the mountains. One is in a tiny village that still use old style farmhouses with thatch shape roofs. Another 3 are connected on the olden trade route road. Lights are out by 8, and it is supposed to be pitch black. Maybe those will come the closest to this kind of experience. Maybe Europe's smaller towns are more about showing the older architecture and showcasing small palaces, castles, churches, and museums.
I am considering a handful of options to give us additional things to do tomorrow, as day trips from Evora.
The most important thing to me, and what alleviated much of my worries, was how much Miles enjoyed himself. He took literally 200 pictures, until the battery on his camera started to die. It was a lot of walking for him, and he had no more than 5 hours sleep last night, so I am extremely proud of him. We tried to go to a local restaurant, but we were hungry earlier than they were open, so we stopped at a kid's pizza place that was quite out of place in a town like this. We might go to a proper place tonight and he will just have dessert. He is a picky eater, as I was as a kid, and to a degree, still am. He tried a lot of new things at the breakfast, so again, I applaud him.
I will report again tomorrow, though if we don't find much to do, there may not be much to say! On Tuesday, we leave for Sintra, a small town in the foothills of the Sintra mountains on the west side of Portugal. It has a bunch of hiking trails that lead to castle ruins, is a much smaller town than Evora, and has some other interesting natural sites in the vicinity.
More pictures on flickr- https://www.flickr.com/gp/13109399@N07/UX5U8R
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