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!
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