Pousada Loios 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 ...

... people in our hostel who had also been robbed! After enduring the police station, we made our way to a crowded shopping center, the only place in town to replace the Tomtom, which pretty much derailed our carefully followed budget. With the new GPS, and many calls to Renault Eurodrive, we finally found a Renault dealer in Porto. When he saw our window, he immediately said, "Oh. The usual one." It can happen anywhere though, right? Mmmhmm. After a lot of ...

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 ...

... 7 - 10 years until the next harvest. The trees - we noticed - had markings on them - I believe this may relate to the harvest years. The soil is very dry and sandy. We have three Cork trees planted on our new lot in Costa Rica and I was amazed at how they did through the dry season - with absolutely no water. I think now I understand why. Passing through a grape producing area we also marveled at how things grow - although it is November and that may have ...

Today we went to Evora, a charming little town about 70 miles east of Lisbon. Today´s events certainly weren´t as exciting as yesterday´s - but a few notables: - I found myself in middle of a political debate with one of my English travel mates. She´s a crusty English woman with a huge chip on her shoulder. She sat next to me at dinner and we slowly began talking U.S. politics. She made several ...

Next came Evora, a UNESCO world heritage site in the south of Portugal. It was a Roman walled city that has some of the orignal wall still standing. The highlights were the Roman temple columns that still stand right next to the Cathedral. There apparently are so well preserved because a building had been built around them centuries ago that was used for a market, among other things. The bus ride from Coimbra, in the north, to Evora was enjoyable. We came ...

... what brought us to Evora. Yesterday morning we took a bus from Lisbon through the olive groves, vineyards, and agricultural heart of the country to the historic city of Evora. From the bus station we went straight to our hotel, the Convento de Espinheiro. It is a lovely spa hotel just outside of town that is built within the remains of 15th century convent. The structure is a surprising combination of ancient and contemporary styles. It certainly is the first ...

... walked lovely little Evora and ate the simple foods of Portugal--chicken pastries (we point, and ask "frango?"), strip steaks with onions/tomatoes and eggs, and wine. A favorite memory turned out to be this tiny little place we found when wandering by the aqueduct, called O'Portao. Only 4 tables and an ice cream cooler in the front. One woman in a pink dress took our orders, cooked them and served them too. She brought wine in a rough hewn, brick red, terra ...