You Get Used To It: Évora, Part 3

We love living in Portugal; we really, really do. One thing we’re still getting used to is just how blasted hot it can get. (Yes, yes, people from Texas, it’s not as bad as the worst place on Earth…) We chose the north of Portugal for a reason. And yet, the alure of Évora and similar attractions draws us south every now and again for the cultural enrichment and, apparently, for the lovely crisp that we achieve under the broiler. Anyway. On our last full day we have a plan to catch whatever we missed on the first two days. We actually caught everything we wanted to see in the city environs, so we had another jaunt into the countryside on tap.

Our early morning plan had been a rousing (a ha ha ha… ahem) success so the alarm was once again set for 6:30 in the morning. Ah, vacation. Still, we were fed and showered and out the door while temps were barely in the 70s; sold! Our first location was to recover an aborted attempt to see the Almendres Cromlech. I kinda breezed past the difficulties on day 1. The drive to the Almendres Cromlech ended with 2km or so of a truly terrible dirt road. Clearly subject to wash outs and with no municipality much interested in keeping it up (it leads to exactly one place with no commercial purpose), we ended driving slower and slower to survive the potholes and crevices, eventually moving slow enough that bicycles might have been faster. To top it off, we reached a point where a barrier had been erected indicating that the road ahead was worse. We were once sent into gales of hysterical laughter (emphasis on hysteria) on a winding road in Ireland that had been turning my hair gray at a record pace when we suddenly encountered a sign warning “curves ahead”; how much worse was it about to be??? This sign was the same thing. We had no idea how close we were to the cromlech, and the heat had reached the 90s at that point, so we punted.

Well, the road wasn’t any better this time, but when we reached that barrier it was still only like 7:30 and the weather was warm-ing but still comfy. We pulled off to the side and started walking a gradually ascending path with intermittent shade. It was probably another km+, which definitely would have stunk to pull off two days earlier in sweltering heat. This day, it actually was a pleasant, almost romantic stroll. Cork trees on either side of the path and occasional clusters of grazing livestock, birdsong, wildflowers… it was nice. It also put us in a more contemplative state of mind, perfect for what we arrived to.

The Almendres Cromlech is hard to capture in a single photo, at least without a drone. It’s 90+ stones set into two circles (plus odd clusters), arranged on a hillside slope. Archaeologists have been able (don’t ask me how) to determine that the two circles were very precisely arranged, although over the thousands of years they’ve drifted into a more scattered appearance, although still incredibly impressive. And, like most of these sites we’ve ever visited, it aligned to the sun’s path at the solstice. Given that we were there in early June it was a pretty good time to see this “in action.”

The ringed path you see marked out around the perimeter is part of an interesting conservation project. Apparently the frequent visitors through the years who tromped all throughout the rings actually killed off the grass and flowers and such within the area, plant life that was apparently keeping the soil in place. Losing the vegetation increased the washed away soil, meaning the stones were increasing danger of falling over. So, appropriate plants were seeded all throughout the space and signs and light barriers put in place encouraging visitors to keep to the outside path. Fair enough; you can still get a good look at everything.

Another site we visited that absolutely got up my nose was the Dolmen-Chapel of São Brissos, so called because Christians in the area however long ago took an ancient dolmen site (most likely a tomb), and encased it in plaster and made it a chapel. Take a look and you’ll start to see where the completely intact dolmen has been… appropriated.

With a morning of driving and exploration behind us we retreated back to our home base for another arduous day of… let me check my notes… splashing in a pool and laying in the shade reading. I mean, it was a vacation, right? That was it for our trip and quite a success it was. The next morning we just hit the road for home. We like these short trips to new places when we can manage them – if it doesn’t really enchant us, well, we can catch the highlights and be done with it. If we love it, we can always come back. Évora definitely made the cut for a return visit, albeit (hopefully) in the early Spring or late Fall, when we’re less likely to melt.