Sines to Evora

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We got out of Porto much faster than we got in. It's amazing, you can get around really quickly when you're on the right road. We headed South on the Autovia, Portugal's version of the Autobahn. The official speed limit is 120 kilometers per hour (about 72 mph), but after observing the BMWs travelling at 160-180, I decided that 140 (approx. 84 mph) was not likely to attract the attention of the Policia. That meant we made pretty rapid progress, arriving at Sines in 4 hours.

Sines is a rapidly-changing town. Probably 10 years ago it was a decaying fishing town, but now it is undergoing rapid redevelopment into a container-shipping port and beach town. Most of the historical houses have been renovated into holiday rentals. The lifelong Portuguese population is adapting to seeing visitors from all of Europe and around the world.

We quickly found a modern "apartment hotel" featuring a living room and kitchen, for the great off-season rate of 60 euros per night. We visited the local castle, birthplace of the 16th Century explorer Vasco da Gama, gazed at the natural harbor that gave Sines its reason for being, and started looking for places to eat and drink. We decided on a restaurant that specializes in local seafood and meats. After we shared an octopus salad, I had sardinhos asados, grilled sardines. The fish were about 8 inches in length, much larger than the ones in a can. The restaurant displayed the fresh catch on a counter, and they looked as though they were still ready to swim. Delicious. After a great dessert (I had a wonderful coconut tart, accompanied by as good an espresso as I have had), we wandered the streets a bit and shared a pitcher of sangria.

Tuesday morning, we packed up and headed for Evora, an ancient city and the largest in the province. Along the way, we made a stop at Santiago do Cacem in order to view an extensive and remarkable set of Roman ruins that are still undergoing excavation. A large area of houses, public baths, and a hilltop temple dedicated to the cult of the Roman emperor were joined by a flagstone Roman road that is still largely intact. It was very evocative, and it's undeveloped rural setting helped even more to give the sense of what this place was like 2000 years ago.

We then made our way to Evora, an important town since the Stone Age. There are neolithic, Roman, and medieval elements in the structures found there. We arrived in time to visit the 12th-Century cathedral and the astounding Capila dos Ossos, a Franciscan chapel built from the bones of some 5,000 people. It was an eerie sight.

We had an excellent dinner at Pan e Vino, a restaurant featuring simple bread baked with manchego cheese, good Portuguese wine, and Italian entrees (pizza and pasta). It was a great day, and Evora was a great town. We got up on Wednesday to head back to Spain, specifically to Granada and the Alhambra.

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Photos

Sines harbor
Sines is an active fishing pprt, as well as a container-shippijg port,

Bells at the local church
Andrew and I attended Mass before dinner.

Entering the Chapel of Bones
The inscription says, "We bones that are here, await yours."

Comments

[Ursula]

Evora
The harbor is beautiful but the Capila de Ossos makes my skin crawl