Best Western Hotel Santa Clara Évora

On Saturday my Gap adventure tour began. We headed to Evora, Portugal on the afternoon of May 8th. Evora is a sleepy little town in central Portugal. We walked through some of the medevil streets and admired the ruins of a roman forum which included a temple to Diana, we also explord a ghoulish church decorated with the bones of over 1000 bodies and enjoyed a sleep in a hotel room bed. Since I do not have much to dicuss about Evora I will take an opportunity to ...

... working the counter tried to call us a taxi with no luck, kept saying nata, nata which was a bit frustrating. Finally after 30 min. of trying to communicate with them we walk into town and knock on one of the taxi driver´s doors, said he would drive us back to Beja! So crisis avoided, we made it back 4 hours after we intended and had a cook-up with Alex and Jason...who were smart enough to take the early bus!!!

... a gorgeous, uncrowded beach that looked almost like Door County, WI or somewhere off Cape Cod. We set up camp and headed to the beach, where we watch a seaful of kite boarders and wind surfers. The Portuguese seem much more adventurous than the beer-and-brats Milwaukee crowd we're used to... Our next stop was Porto, Portugal, the home of Port wine and....window-smashing thieves. We spent our first day pleasantly roaming Porto, a nearly crumbling old city still ...

if portugal had a version of bath-spa, evora would probably be it. a tiny walled-town of roman origins, it's a fun place to walk around, grab some of the many local dishes, and get lost in the narrow alley-way streets that have discovery after discovery everywhere one turns. of note, the intercity buses here have stewardesses on ...

... to the Roman Temple. This Roman Temple - from the 1st Century BC - part of a Roman Forum was completely surrounded by water giving it a very interesting reflective feature. Amazing just how far those Romans traveled! We were then off to the Cathedral, where they honor Mary...."With Child". You will see a dedication to her in the chapel and then again in the cloisters. Three Archbishops are entombed here and one Archbishop currently resides in the town of ...

... the old city walls. I go to the Capela dos Ossos. The bone church. Creapy but Kutna Hora in Czech Republic by Prague, now that's a bone church (Sedlec Kostnice). In order to see the Capela dos Ossos I have to buy a combo ticket for the tower, museum of the "regular" church and the bone chapel. Hmm. It was just 3 euros with my student discount. I wander around town trying to find the Roman remains.. no luck. I do find the ...

... by ancient walls and has been preserved in its original state. It was known by the Romans as Liberalitas Julia, and vestiges from this period (walls and rooms) and the monumental imperial temple (Diana's temple), still remain. We have booked accommodation at the eclectic Pensão Policarpo. This charming pousada is the 16th century home of the Condes da Lousã, and is located down a narrow cobbled lane ...

... Portugal was absolutely stunning. It's kind of a shame that we all felt so terribly. It was a long, quiet car ride. Evora might be my favorite city to date, in Europe. It's a walled city that has taken great pains to keep its old world flavor. It was the first city that we've been to so far that I would deem romantic. We didn't do too much there, just took about a thousand pictures. The town had been occupied by the Romans ...

... Faro, Portugal. Faro wasn't too exciting but I was glad to be off the buses. It's sort of a seaside town, but the beach is about 6km from the town center...so really all there is is the town...and it's kinda lame. My Lonely Planet book was kind enough to provide no map of Faro so I just wandered and found a pensao. The next day I took the train to Lagos and it was much nicer. Cool little town with some nice beaches. A guy found me right after I ...

... pitcher. Our meals of strip steak and mushrooms and fries was plain and perfect. We sat and listened to the family behind us out for dinner. We watched the kids come and go, opening the ice cream cooler, leaning in, sorting around, and paying the lady for their selection before leaving again. We wandered the area afterwards, admiring the diamond shaped patterns on the Evora sidewalks. Next we were off to Sintra for 2 nights, a little place east of Lisbon.