Portugal - second week, with Patricia (São Bartolomeu do Outeiro, Portel, Évora)

Monday 7 October 2019

This week is mainly one of grocery shopping, sightseeing and pottering around at home.  It doesn't sound very exciting perhaps, but it's what we like, Patricia and I, when we are on house exchange.

On Tuesday we take the car and go for a drive.  First stop is at São Bartolomeu do Outeiro, where Johanna and Wolfram have taken me as well on my first day.  The view from the top of the hill is great and I want to show Patricia.  We discover the 'thingy' that we can use to zoom in on the various details in the distance and take a few pictures.  As you do! ;-)

There is also a miniature village, built by the locals, that we nearly missed the first time with Wolfram and Johanna, and I totally miss on the way back, because the streets here resemble sometimes a rabbit warren. Perhaps we will come back one day, as there is also a geocache to be found...

Next on the list is Portel, a bit further eastwards.  There are castle ruins to be visited and they also contain a geocache.  A double attraction for us!

I love the paving patterns here in Portugal

At the castle I found this cache after climbing a narrow flight of stairs.  Not easy when you have a problem with heights...

#2123 - castelo de Portel (cache)

In between a beautiful sunrise again: 

On Thursday we made a bigger trip.  We visited the medieval town Évora.  Évora is a beautifully preserved medieval town in the Alentejo region of Portugal – the city is mostly housed within 14th-century walls. Not only can you enjoy the medieval architecture but also some roman architecture, in the Templo Romano.

Though we started with visiting the Chapel of Bones.  The Capela dos Ossos is one of the best known monuments in Évora. It is a small interior chapel located next to the entrance of the Church of St. Francis. The Chapel gets its name because the interior walls are covered and decorated with human skulls and bones.

Walking towards the chapel:

Patricia and I posed for a picture against the backdrop of the beautifully tiled walls.

To our surprise the building also housed a museum.  It had a temporary exhibition of nativity scenes. 

A very good description, complete with pictures, of what we saw can be found when you follow this link: Nativity scenes.  Below follows my selection and a few of the pictures Patricia took:

Followed by the view from the rooftop of the museum:

After all that it was nearly 12pm, so time for lunch.  We crossed the street and sat down outside a bakery which sold delicious pizza rolls and coffee.

We walk further through town,  meandering through all the little side streets and squares.

Handbags made of cork

Ignore the graffiti, but the drains are marble
and the footpaths paved with two colours of pebbles/stones

Walking further we come to the Church of St John the Evangelist and the ruins of the Roman Temple.  

It's a hot day and we have been walking for a while, so we decide it's time to go back to the car.  We walk a slightly different way from when we arrived and pass through a narrow street with souvenir shops.  I have had my eye on one of those beautiful cork handbags, and finally I see one that I like.  The purchase is made quickly before I change my mind.  I don't often buy souvenirs, but then, this is not quite a souvenir, but something special to remind me of Portugal.

We enjoy an ice cream and a cold drink and walk to the parking lot for our drive home.  It has been a great day. 

The rest of the week is has been filled up with little trips of interest.  On Friday we went out to water the young carob trees that belong to the farm, but are on a small stretch of land a bit further down the track.  And talking about the carob trees, we are also in the land of the cork trees.  I took a picture of one of those where the cork has been cut away.  The new lot grows over time and can be harvested again after a number of years.

On the block of land towards the village is a block of land with a lonely ostrich.

On Saturday we hoped to find the market in Alvito, but the place wasn't marked on the map.  Only much later, after we had finished our walk through the town, we hit upon a covered market place in the municipal building.  Well, there you go, there was a market after all...

On our walk I photographed the Manueline-style arches over doors and windows.  I have created a special tab above for those pictures.

Street sign

Religeous figures adorning the houses

A, for this town, fancy restaurant

We walked into a shop where Patricia wanted to buy a dress, but unfortunately it wasn't in her size.  All the 'talking' was done through the use of my translator app on my phone.  It worked well, but the lady couldn't understand how I learned to 'speak' Portuguese so quickly. It wasn't until another lady who came into the shop, and who could explain it to her, that she understood.  With my very little knowledge of the language I understood her explanation quite well and she had it down pat!

When we got tired, it was a hot day again after all, we found a little cafe where we enjoyed a nice morning tea.

On Sunday we went for a short drive to a nearby dam/lake, but there wasn't much of interest to be seen.  The dam wall was too high on the sides to take photographs.  Indeed, there was hardly a good view at all.  And the one and only cafe where we had wanted to stop for morning tea was closed.  We drove back to Alvito and had a similar morning tea as the day before.  We're never stuck, we aren't..... :-)i