Had a fabulous day exploring Évora on foot today.  Started at 9am with a walking tour- once again a very knowledgeable guide who had done her masters in history at the Evora University- which must be one of the most beautiful (and oldest) university campuses in the world. 

Evora has an amazing history with multiple civilisations on top of one another and vestiges of each visible today – Romans, Moors (Muslims), Jews, Portuguese. 

Like many Portuguese cities there are Catholic churches, every hundred metres or so. One of the most intriguing is the Chapel of the Bones constructed from over 5000 human skeletons. Built in the 17th century the bones are supposed to encourage reflection on the fragility of life. The inscription reads “We bones are here, for yours we wait” – a bit macabre but we couldn’t resist going in.

The  120 step climb  to the roof of the Evora Cathedral gave us a Birds Eye view of the city. We arrived at the top right on midday so were met by a cacophony of bells. The bells on the cathedral ring twice on the hour (two minutes apart). Legend has it that this is to confuse the devil- arriving at noon therefore meant 24 bells gonging in our ears.

We had lunch at an amazing local restaurant recommended by an American couple we met in Lisbon who seem to be travelling much the same route as us only one day ahead. 

The restaurant (Taberna Tipica Quarta-Feira) has been run by the same family for 27 years. They don’t have a menu, they simply sit you down and bring you numerous small dishes until you can eat no more. Very traditional dishes- for some they told us what we were eating in advance, for others we had to guess what we had eaten after.  David focused on the vegetarian dishes and I focused on the meat dishes so between us we managed to polish it all off. Some (that I can remember) were: a melon muse bouche (or Portuguese equivalent), the mandatory olive/bread starter, sautéed mushrooms, dates wrapped in bacon, a gorgeous raw vegetable salad, sweet breads/gizzards  (eaten by me largely to be polite but actually quite tasty), codfish, beef tongue sliders (described retrospectively), pumpkin terrine, potato fries, ricotta tart and apple crumble. Needless to say we returned to our hotel in a food and wine coma for a late afternoon nap.

Early evening walk to finish our day.

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