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Published: November 15th 2006
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A Rainy Day Won’t Stop Our Fun
A Night of Fabulous Food Last night we finally got a moment of down time to focus on our finances. After posting yesterday’s blog we went back to our hotel and Kel worked some Excel finance magic. She created a spreadsheet that allows us to tally our daily costs broken down by food, living, transportation, etc. The spreadsheet gives us a daily total, a monthly average and a yearly average. This yearly average, in true Capital One style, gives us a Green/Yellow/Red status on what we expect our average daily expenses to be. Thus, after calculating our expenses thus far, we were able to figure out that we had a decent balance left for the day, which lead us to splurge a little for dinner.
Our guidebook suggested a restaurant that was a little pricey (25 Euro meals: about 37 dollar meals in the US) but was considered the best restaurant in Evora. We therefore decided to head to Restaurante Cervejaria Fialho which is off of a small side street near a old town theater. The restaurant had a beautiful interior which looked a lot like an
old world hunting lodge complete with exposed timber ceilings and antlers galore on the walls. We started the meal with local cheese and bread and then moved on to an appetizer of Roasted mushrooms which were amazing. For a main course, I ordered Pork and Clams which was served Alentejo style (Evora is in the Alentejo region…makes sense huh?) The meal was superb and amazing…I ate every bit of it and had no room for desert when we were done.
Let me turn this over to Kel for a brief account of her meal: Wild Boar is stupendous. Big word, I know, but man was it delicious! They grilled the wild boar with mashed apples and raspberry chutney - seriously nothing that I can remember has ever compared to how good it tasted. If fireworks and the thrill of a first kiss were food, they would taste like grilled Wild Boar in Evora. Yum.
As you can tell, we both thoroughly enjoyed the meal. I would say that this is probably the best restaurant I have eaten at in Europe in my recollection. I hope that more of our European food experiences live up to this standard because
it was worth every cent of the 60 Euros (approximately 90 US dollars) that this cost and even with this expense we were still under our daily expense expectation.
Sightseeing in the Rain is Still Sightseeing Today we decided to explore Evora despite the colder gray outlook on the day’s weather. Doing a trip like this, especially in Europe in the winter, you can’t let a little rain slow you down. We followed our guide books Evora walk and started in Placa de Giraldo and walked some of the area nearby which afforded us some views of Roman architecture. We started with an old Roman wall, an Aqueduct (or parts of one anyway), a Roman Arch, and some towers. After walking awhile we came to the main sights in the area, Igreja dos Loios dos Duques de Cadaval, a Roman Temple, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria do Evora.
Most of these places don’t allow pictures so I will do my best to convey the thoughts and feeling had while touring the. The Igreja (I will shorten it to this so I don’t have to write it every time) was built as a mausoleum for the
Cadaval family of nobles. Their tombs litter the floor which feels kinda strange to me. I don’t really like walking on the tombs of nobles, or anyone for that matter, because it seems dishonorable. But, you can’t walk anywhere in the church without stepping on someone’s tomb. The walls of the church are covered in Portuguese tiles which are blue and white, kind of like Wedgewood China. The tiles along with the huge gold alter piece convey a sense of grandeur which is not always captured in churches in this area. One more interesting bit, there are grated metal covers in the fool along two pews which cover a large set of bones and a very deep well. I’m not completely sure of the significance, but I can say they were cool.
Outside the Igreja, is the Roman temple which was built in the 1st century AD. There isn’t much still standing except 14 Corinthian columns which mark a small bit of its previous beauty. Once past the temple you come to a building which is now owned by the local University which was the center of the Catholic Inquisition in this part of Portugal. It’s strange to think
about the fact that hundreds or even thousands of people were tried in this building and then led through town before they were burned at the stake. Wild!
From here we moved on two the Cathedral of Santa Maria do Evora. We paid the full price which enabled us to view the Cloisters, Museum and the Church itself. The museum was full of old paintings as well as Bishops vestments, and incredible church chalices, reliquary and crosses. I snuck a picture of one of the more beautiful objects…shh, don’t tell anyone. The cloisters were austere and gave you a sense of the hard life nuns and the sort must have lived in the medieval age. Then on to the church which I found to be one of the more disappointing parts of our day’s romp. After paying to get into the church, you then had to pay for coins to actually see parts of the church because they were shrouded in shadow. The coins allowed you to actually turn the lights on in each section. This seems to me to be an unnecessary cost due to the entrance fee that you’ve already paid. Have to give it to the
Catholic Church; they do really know how to make a buck!! (Kel’s note: I wanted to light a prayer candle for a friend in the chapel, but instead of having real flame candles, they had electric ones which would only turn on with inserting a token you can buy from the Ticket table. I think Jesus had a moment with moneylenders in the temple, etc. that could apply to this . . . )
We headed back to our room to gather our rain gear as it was obviously getting ready to start raining. After a quick potty break and gear gathering we were back on our way and were planning on hitting the Cathedral of the Bones which is exactly what it sounds like. Unfortunately, it was closed for lunch. We walked through a nearby park to kill time and while walking the rain started. We decided now was a great time to get some more food and to write the day’s blog.
We each had a light lunch and are now writing the blog in Cup of Joe lounge near a Wi-Fi square. Tomorrow we head on to Lagos which is on the southern coast of
Portugal. It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow which will make traveling a ton of fun I’m sure. We will do our best to post a blog tomorrow but don’t be surprised if we can’t until we get to Seville, Spain on Saturday. Everyone have a great rest of your week!
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Bruce / Daddy
non-member comment
Kel and Mike, I've become increasingly aware of only one problem I have in reading the blogs. When I hear about all the great food you guys are enjoying it immediatley makes me hungry. I am then tempted to run to the kitchen and look for whatever goodies I can find. I think it is very possible that by the end of this trip you guys will be thinner and I'll be heavier. Oh well, it's all good.