Evora - Thurs

Thurs 31st July 2014

Another great sleep although we could hear the 2 men! in the tent behind snoring!! We were up and out on our bikes by 8.30am which is very early for us at the moment! Cycled into the walled city of Evora which was only 2kms away and was very flat. Lots to see and reminded us a lot of some of the Spanish walled cities we have been too. Very interesting and a photo opportunity around every corner. Locked the bikes up outside the tourist info then stopped for a coffee before heading up to the Roman Temple of Diana (amazing how well preserved this was). Walked around the tiny streets and watched in amazement as cars tried to get through! We then found the cathedral - wow it was amazing. We first went up to the high choir and watched some women varnishing all the wood (will take them a long time) we killed ourselves laughing when one of the ladies broke a bit of the wood off! the views from up their down into the main part were fabulous and the sound from the choir up there would be majestic. Then we climbed higher up the tower and came out on the roof! Spent along time up there as it was panoramic. Down then into the cloisters then into the museum of old art (no photos allowed in there- thank goodness as I have taken so many). We have just noticed that every painting we see - if you look at their hands they always have the middle 2 fingers together(see photo) sometimes these are crossed over? We don't know why so if anyone knows please let us know. After the cathedral we wondered down some tourist streets and saw many cork made products (see handbag photo) typical of this area (from the cork oak tree explained in the other days blog). Now we were very hungry so found a lovely little restaurant and had the typical Portuguese meal of pork with coffee and cream sauce and homemade chips!!!! It was delicious although not very healthy!  Enjoyed with 2 beers each and was only 18 euro. After that David wanted to go in the main city Museum and I wasn't fussed so he went in and I sat in the shade typing the days blog. Very hot gain today but a lovely breeze. Again the museum was a hit and David was in there for 2 hours. The lower floors you could walk on glass walkways over excavated Roman ruins! And again he was obsessed looking at paintings of people's fingers! This area goes back to Neolithic times. It is a lovely city and the people are in the process of restoring lots of the old buildings. Good cycle back to Priscilla for a lazy evening spent getting the hard skin off our feet and odd jobs like mending the inverter.