Monday 30 March 2015

Having missed seeing Evora 2 years ago, due to poor weather, we’d promised ourselves a visit this trip so after a latish start we wandered down to the bus stop, to find the next was over half an hour. It’s really not all that far, about 2 km so we started walking and no bus passed us in the 25mins it took to reach the impressive town walls. Another 10 mins saw us in Praco di Giraldo, the main square where we picked up a map from T.I. then had a coffee/orange juice whilst pondering where we go first.

Praca di Giraldo

Evora is very compact and is arranged in circles round the cathedral – it would only take 15 mins to cross it completely. Most of the attractions could be seen by following an extended circle in the order they were listed (no doubt that was the idea) so that’s what we did. With Roman as well as Moorish origins, it was a very pleasant place to stroll round in the bright sunshine and of course all the buildings were painted white with the yellow/ochre trim you see everywhere in Portugal.

It's broken, or was it designed like that?

Lunch at Mr Pickwick

We had a late lunch in a small restaurant just off the square before visiting the ossuary, a chapel built entirely of human bones that were excavated from a cemetery to create more room for building (not recently you should understand!) Presently undergoing full renovation, as was the church it was attached to, it was interesting if a little macabre!

From there a walk through the public gardens brought us back to the road to the campsite. Still no evidence of buses, we strolled, much more slowly this time, back to the van and welcome refreshment and relaxation. We very much enjoyed our visit, and if you go any day except Monday you’ll find everything open………..

One of the attractions we only glimpsed today was a complete Roman aqueduct, something we spotted on our way through 2 years ago. We’ll make a point of stopping off on our way out tomorrow; it’s on our way and mostly outside the town walls.