Hotel Dom Fernando Évora

... hallway if you wished to put on a show. Second, the shower worked by rotating a handle to get water that sprayed from a movable nozzle, a nozzle above your head and a series of nozzles mounted horizontally to the shower wall that sprayed at you horizontally. Another awesome bathroom was our bathroom in Seville. It had my favorite toilet so far. Everytime the toilet was flushed it groaned loudly for ten to fiftenn minutes. Miss you all and hope to talk to you soon.

... left the cafe with enough time to get to the bus station. Once we got there though, we found out it was a holiday, All Saints Day, and we just missed the last bus! The guy at the ticket desk said we could catch a bus to Portel, 30 min. south and then hitch from there, only option since we already paid for a ccomodations and a taxi back would be 80 euros! So we catch the bus and arrive in Portel where a couple of ...

... have a day there anyway after the extension in Porto), and found a little guest house just outside of the city walls. A great decision, it turned out. After a brief rest, we headed back into the city to find it alive with the most lifelike, intense Renaissance Fair we have ever seen. It is truly a different experience to see a Renaissance Fair in a place that actually had a Renaissance. I mean, the backdrop was a castle! We enjoyed great eats, music, and parades ...

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 ...

... Freshman hazing occurring around town. As in Porto, the upper classmen make the 2nd years perform various acts of harmless ridiculous fun in the city. Here they were all dressed up in various outfits and they would sing. Entertaining. Back on the bus I go, I get my pack and book it to the bus station. I assumed that they woulod take cards for my bus ticket, nope. Damn it the bus is leaving in 2 minutes according to my ...

... back to our hotel after diner in the city, I discovered that the BBQ restaurant was not just open for lunch but dinner. The smoke, the smell, the vaguely menacing crowd, the grilling abattoir, it was all there, just like before. Unfortunately, I was too full to eat. Jeannie suggested that even though I had just had dinner, I should try to eat again. There was no way I could, yet a dark, desperate corner of my mind started to ...

... en lugares tan incomodos a los Portugueses. Nos hemos dado cuenta que los portugueses estan obsesionados con la epoca de los descubrimientos, esta lleno de estatuas, calles con sus nombres, y los mismo s portugueses no paran de hablar de ello...supongo que estan orgullosos de sus antepasados (los brasileiros se burlan de ellos, dicen que solo hablan del pasado). En Porto, me volvi paranoico, llegue a pensar que la persona que estaba en el camarote sobre el mio era un terrorista ...

... 15 years. *I'll try and take some pictures the next time I drive through the region. Our first stop is in Évora, a walled in city that once was the capital of the region. Now it's mainly a small town with Portugal's second largest college community. Parking was a major pain so we really only had time to visit the Iglesia de Sao Francisco and the adjoining Capella dos Ossos. (see pictures) Afterwards it was on to Espanha...

... 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.