Blogs from Évora, Alentejo, Portugal, Europe

Set off early to get to our next destination as it was a 3 hour drive. We said out goodbyes to the hosts and German guests and hit the road. The drive started out the same as it had been on all our other trips, on the wide open super nice toll roads, hearing the beep of a fare every so often. $0.60 here, $0.50 there... Beep. It then turned into a drive through the Portuguese country side on smaller country roads winding and twisting through small towns and in between grape fields and some other trees we couldn't recognize. I think it might have been olive trees. Definitely agriculture area. The roads were fun to drive but would have been better with a good car , i.e. one with more than 75hp. It struggles up ... read more

We changed plans yesterday, and decided to make Evora a day trip rather than a place to spend the night later in our trip. So, today we took a bus to the historic city, and spent the afternoon wandering its streets. The area has been inhabited since before 4000 BC, and important city for many cultures: Neolithic, Roman, Muslim, and Portuguese. Three rivers come together near here, and it is thought that is why this area had such importance early on. Romans were here from the second century BC to the fourth century AD. The Moors took over from the eighth to the twelfth century. Évora was reconquered from Arab hands in 1166 by Geraldo Sem Pavor (Gerald the Fearless), and soon afte... read more

14th April A leisurely start to the day & 68 year old Herman told us that the site was for sale, they wanted to retire. We set off for Evora, an ancient walled town established by the Romans & now a world heritage site. Most of the journey was on a super ‘A’ road with straights that went on for miles. We had wondered where the main cork producing area was...well this was cork central with millions of cork oaks which gave way to olive groves & vineyards. The other striking thing were the amount of storks about, huge things that roamed around the sky on thermals just like eagles except that they looked like pterodactyl. The government or electric company had fitted the poles with ironwork platforms for their nests, which were equally huge. We ... read more

Now on to Evora, the drive took two and a half hours. We read that driving in Portugal was dangerous and there are a lot of accidents but once we got out of Porto the roads have been almost empty. Maybe that is because we drive on the toll roads. We also rented a car with GPS and this is a must, there are lots of roundabouts and without GPS it would be easy to take a wrong turn. Our hotel has no address and the directions say take exit 6 and follow the signs to the hotel. There were no signs to the hotel but the hotel is called Convento Do Espinheiro, and we followed the signs that said Espinheiro and yea we found the hotel. This is the most beautiful hotel we have ever ... read more

Nazaj v Evropi in takoj pogledat kaj je novega na Portugalskem. NIČ!! V regiji Alenteja, kjer je vse bolj na počas se nič ne zgodi hitro, menda. So najbolj leni, najbolj počasni, najbolj neumni, najbolj pasivni...nekdo mora biti kriv vsega. Iz Lizbone z avtom v notranjost Portugalske, na žgoče sonce, nič sence, na ravnino, pogledat par gradov, zapuščenih ulic, na počasen ritem (ja, še bolj počasen kot v Španiji), na dobro hrano, fado in na ta čudoviti nič. Monsaraz in Marvao, obe vasi sta bili trdnjavi v času Arabcev, zdaj pa se tam še mačkom ne ljubi veliko hodit. V Monsarazu je vsega skupaj 60 prebivalcev, ki praktično ne delajo veliko, so v penziji. Par restavracij, nekaj turistov in sonce, to imajo zagotovljeno in fantastičen razgled. Dobiš občutek pozabljenosti in policaj, ki je sedel zraven nas ... read more