Portugal! Part 2

The second day had us up fairly early on a train to Evora.  Evora is east of Lisbon at the top of the bottom third of the country.  It was a beautiful ride out there and just a short walk from the train station to the heart of the city.

While Portugal was a part of the Roman empire of course, they were later led by Berbers and Arabs  so you see some of those cultural influences in the architecture and especially the tile work.

Much of this church in Evora was rebuilt but it's still very beautiful.

This doorway off an alcove with a 30 foot ceiling looked ridiculously small.  Behind me is a great example of some of the beautiful tile work we found everywhere.

Next stop was the Chapel of Bones.  This was very cool in a very weird way.  Read the info below before seeing the pictures.

Every wall is covered in bones and skulls with beautiful blue and gold tile lining the bottoms edges.

The posts are covered as well.

Skulls line the ceiling beams.

And the doorways. It's a serene place of peace.

After wandering around the city a bit, we stumbled into a small restaurant that looked good.  Since this small city lives on tourists, it wasn't exactly an UN-touristy spot but it was a bit off the beaten path.  But oh my was this good!!  Probably the most amazingly good fish stew I've ever had.

As mentioned, there are also some Roman influences still evident and rarely standing.

And like everywhere in Portugal it seems, you don't have to go far up to get some amazing views.

The side entrance to another small church.

The front entrance was much more elaborate with the 12 apostles flanking the doors.

And as is my tradition, I always have to get a picture of some horses when I travel!  We saw the horse drawn carriages in several places - this one happened to be right outside the tourist office in Evora.

And then the highlight and reason for our trip to Evora.  To see old rocks.  Leslie had hired a tour guide named Jones.  "Indian Jones" as he liked to call himself since he was half Indian.    He wasn't an archeologist but he knew his stories and had talked with enough archeologists (mostly one from Latvia) that he could weave a good tale.

First stop was this single monolithic rock in the middle of a cork farm.  (Cork trees are very common in this area along with olive trees).

This rock had fallen and was uncovered about 50 years ago but pre-dates Stonehenge.  The bottom half of it is almost as long as the top half.  Nobody knows how it got here or it's exact purpose although many believe it helped tell time or seasons.  We got there an hour or so before sunset so the shadows were already getting long.

You can see the shadow of the rock on the left side of this picture looking out over the cork trees.

Next stop was a much bigger monolithic rock site.

Coming up over a small hill to the site, you can see these ancient rocks forming a circle.

While not all the same size, they are all shaped similarly and most were at least 5 feet tall.

Nobody knows exactly how they got here or why they are set up the way they are.  They form rough oval shapes across the landscape maybe the size of a soccer field or so.  They were discovered not so many years ago, many toppled over  and buried by 7000 years of weather.  Sadly, the entire site is open to the public and unprotected.

A slightly slower paced day since much of it was spent on trains and in the car, we didn't log nearly as many steps or flights of stairs!

Portugal! Part 1

It had been a long time since I had been in Europe.  1998 to be exact.  So when my good friend (since 7th grade), Leslie, suggested a trip for this fall, I was all in.  We debated a bit on the where since we were hoping for decent weather but also knowing it wasn't going to be "hot".  We landed on Portugal.

As I packed, I amused myself that my packing skills have advanced to the point that I could pack for a week away in a smallish carryon suitcase and my backpack and still have room leftover in both.  And I ended up not wearing one shirt, a pair of shoes and a jacket I brought...

First stop Amsterdam!  Sadly, I have flown in and out of Amsterdam several times and never left the airport.  But a lovely airport it is selling tulip bulbs and tulips!

After a short delay of needing to land in Porto instead of Lisbon because of rain storms (and a shortage of fuel in the airplane), we made it to the airport.  Another short delay in finding our ride to the apartment (apparently he left when our flight was delayed) and taking a taxi, we made it to our 2 bedroom AirBNB which was much bigger and nicer than we expected.  But boy were we tired!  It was evening and getting dark so we ventured out the front door about 100 yards to a restaurant that we had spotted advertising hamburgers and beer.  Perfect.  I had a tuna burger with fries and an awesome sangria and Leslie had a mushroom burger with beer.  A quick stop at the market across the street for some snacks and breakfast foods and we were ready for bed!

One of the amazing things about Lisbon are the streets and sidewalks.  All are paved with these small squarish stones.  Easier to walk on than the more traditional cobblestones you find in other European cities!  They use all sorts of patterns but this one was popular.  In this direction it looks flat.  Walk across these squiggly lines and it looks like  you are walking over small hills!

Our first full day started out bright and perfect for exploring on foot to "get the lay of the land".  We didn't have much of an agenda but it was a great day of exploring Lisbon.   The first thing you notice about Lisbon are the hills.  While it is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean hanging off the western edge of Spain, it's truly the opposite of our sloping down gradually to the Atlantic seashore towns.

Since we stayed closer to central Lisbon and started our walking heading towards the Ocean, we did more downhill walking to start but everywhere you turned, there were these stairways taking you back up!

The "Lisbon Story Center", this was near the ocean and seemed to be almost like a gateway to the city.

But just a hundred yards away... It was a bit too cold and windy to spend any real time on the beach but had it been earlier in the year, Portugal had some very lovely beaches.

As we wandered through the city, we came across the very old buildings and many that had been remodeled or were new. But always, the hills going up!

The top of this church claimed to offer some amazing views over the city and the line wasn't long so we bit.  After climbing up some very steep stairs to the bell tower, we were certainly rewarded for our  efforts.

The typical Mediterrean red tile roofs are in full evidence in Portugal.  However the history of Portugal has influences from many places including Africa.

A close up view of one of the many sets of stairs we climbed.  Being that they were pretty helped!

I never did take a picture of the apartment building we actually stayed in but this one was directly across the street and was quite typical of the neighborhood.  Most were 5-6 stories tall and often pretty colors like this pink.  Many more are covered in beautiful tile - a hallmark of the area.

Having slightly more energy than the first night, we ventured out slightly further to a true Portuguese restaurant.  (Lunch found us at a really popular vegan restaurant which had been delicious!)  I opted for a split bottle of Portuguese wine tonight and it was good!

Dinner was steak and olives with rice and spinach - delicious!!

Checking my Fitbit at the end of each day became a bit of a laugh.  Not so much for the total steps since we knew we were walking a ton but for the floors of stairs.  On a typical day at work I will get in about 6 flights of stairs because I force myself to use the bathroom one flight down.  Leslie probably does more daily flights of stairs than I do because she has a house with stairs but neither of us comes close to what we did in Lisbon!

Halloween and Barn Time

Madison rather loves Halloween.  Mostly just getting to dress up! Cleopatra showed up this  year.

She bought the wig and a few accessories that we then added crystals and redesigned.  We took apart one head part of the head piece and made the arm bad and decorated her white sandals adding the gold rope ties.  Not bad!

One of what used to be a tiny barn kitty has grown up and was VERY interested in what I was doing!

Shortly after I found her curled up in a stall going to sleep!

Mata Hari got a new winter blanket this year and looked snazzy in the purple and teal. Unfortunately, it's really too big and I need to get her another...ugh.

Old Work Friends

For over a year I've been hosting a monthly event at work I call "Women's Wine Wednesday".  It started out with just the women in this picture and has grown into something so much bigger. Sometimes we have 20-30 women show up.  Other times, it's just a few.  But no matter, it's so awesome to have such good friends at work!!

Sky

Kensington Road near the GM Proving Grounds has a huge hill.  When you are at the top, you can see a very, very long way away.  I took this picture one afternoon because the clouds were cool but high enough not to block out the distant view.  Too bad the electric wires get in the way...

Just a couple hours later it looked like this over my house.

And then it got even darker.  You could see the lightening high up in the clouds yet there was still that one little gap of clear sky.

The storm moved across the sky west to east which was odd and passed just north of me.  That little gap of clear sky had the setting sun turning the clouds to the east pink. It was fun to stand outside to watch this one as it rolled by.

The next morning brought a pretty cool sunrise over the Detroit River.  Now that my office is on the north side of the building, I don't get to see many of these.

This sunset at Kensington wasn't all that spectacular but it did turn the eastern sky into quite a beautiful site just a little while later as we walked around the lake.

And then we had this.

The colors were beautiful and the shapes of the clouds just emphasized it all.

As we came back around the lake, you could almost see how the setting sun on the right was reaching the clouds on the left - west to east.  Pretty cool.