We spent
our last few hours in Evora searching out the gothic Chapel of the Bones. It
was attached to the cathedral and convent. We thought it would be a quick tour
but we were there about an hour. The chapel was founded by St Francis and his
followers. The bones of the dead were used to decorate walls, columns, and even
the ceiling. It seemed odd to be surrounded by so many relics of the dead and
instead of being horrified, to think about how decorative it looked. Looking
closely we could see the different sized bones and therefore the different ages
of the people who had died. The city’s
graveyards were just too overcrowded at the time, so skeletons were exhumed so
new bodies could take their place. It was once believed that these were victims
of the plague, which killed millions throughout Europe in the 14th century, but
research has found them to simply be the remains of the general population of
Évora, buried in different periods. There are also two mummies, a
woman and a girl. The woman died between the age of 30 and 50, probably from a
tooth infection, while the girl was just 2 or 3 years old.
From the
chapel at ground level, we went upstairs to a variety of artistic displays.
There were paintings of religious scenes as well as a wide range of artefacts
like the cloaks and the utensils used by the early churchmen. There were the
strangest dolls with jointed and movable limbs that were dressed up for the
various religious events. There was a display of paintings of the chapel from a
range of Russian artists. Then 2600 interpretive models of the nativity sent
from countries all around the world.
From here
it was back to the hotel to check out, load the car and begin our drive to
Beja. Beja was a country town hub which in Roman times was called Pax Julia. It
was there to service the surrounding vast farmlands. We had passed vines and
olives that stretched on for many kilometres. One watering machine was 250
metres long! There were huge grain silos at least twice the size of ones we
have seen in Australia. No wonder this region is known as the bread basket of
Portugal. As we flew through the countryside we caught sight of a
stork which had made its home atop one of the light poles. It was great taking
secondary roads again as we felt closer to how the local people were living and
working.
The centre of the Beja town was pretty enough but again set out the Portuguese signature spider web of laneways that google maps found it hard to navigate. We had lunch at a café near the castle. The kids from the local school were dropping in on their way home. The standard uniform was tight jeans, orange crop top, bare midriff and cigarettes. Not a laptop in sight.
After lunch and
wetting my hat so that it would drip down on me to keep me cool, we set off for
a walk through the castle and a couple of interesting local museums. Everything
closed between 12 and 2 so we spent the time walking in the baking heat and
then rehydrating with a zero alcohol beer outside the pub. The castle, curiously, has been
rebuilt often with strangely modern and pale cuts of stone that stood out oddly where repairs had been made to the walls. The museums were shut for
repairs. This was not a city set up for tourists. Still, that meant we could
get to our accommodation earlier and thoughtfully, Britt had organized an early
check in for us. And parking was available, although the locals do seem to throw the car into the spot at various angles rather than between the lines.
We were
booked into a vast “loft” but it was gratefully on the ground floor and we did
not have to hump heavy bags up stairs again. It looked like a modern airy wine cellar
that could have accommodated 6 people. It was wonderfully cool in there. The TV
was HUGE. Imagine a large fridge turned on its side. Johnny parked the car
about 10 mins away and I got into my bathers before we headed out to a very welcome
private pool.
OHHH how
refreshing that was!
We had a few places chosen as possibles for dinner, but the first two were unexpectedly closed. We kept walking towards the castle street, and opposite the theatre, the Japanese all you can eat restaurant that we had seen earlier in the day was open! We had a good meal and half a bottle of local red wine. I got chatting to the waitress, who was not Japanese. In fact she was from Nepal.
After this it was a short walk back to out "loft" and coffee with chocolate salami. Great.
