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.

On our first day in the environs of Évora we were hitting up ancient stone arrangements that were by and large out in the middle of nowhere. We still had more sites that we wanted to see, but to make sure that we didn’t run out of gas before checking off some key items we decided to focus our second day of tourism on the city itself. We’d save anything that we missed from either day as a good third day for the trip and this way minimize the chance that we’d miss out on “can’t miss” attractions. “Hey guys, you were in Évora, how did you like the chapel of bones?” “Oh, um, we didn’t make it?” That’s never a fun conversation. The heat was going to stay in the high-90s for our entire visit so there was never any serious thought to skipping the day and staying in the shade – might as well have stayed home at that point. Instead, we were up early, again (ugh), and into town.

John, did you just say “chapel of bones?” Why yes, yes I did! One of the most-remarked sights to see in all of Évora is the “Capela dos Ossos” – literally “Chapel of Bones”. Said chapel is lined with human bones, the remains of people who by and large had hoped for just this honor. Seriously, it was mostly the Franciscan monks who had dibs and anyone else in town had to play their cards just right in order to spend eternity stacked up like cordwood. I may kid, but they were (ahem) deadly serious about this stuff abck in the day; it was a tremendous honor to be so interred.

Well, it was an honor except for two people, whose mummified remains are still on display to this day. As the story goes, a man and his son treated their wife/mother quite badly for years. The mother cursed them both on her death bed, saying more-or-less that y’all will neither touch sky nor earth, reaching neither heaven nor hell. Now, why this lady’s curse carried any weight with the monks we do not know, but carry weight it did, and for hundreds of years the increasingly mummified bodies of father and son were kept suspended in the chapel. They only took them down in 2021!! And even still, to this day, they are displayed in glass cases, still not being interred. We can only hope to achieve such aggrieved cursing someday.

Another key location is the “Temple of Diana”, although as Roman ruins go it’s only exciting if you’re grading on a bit of a curve. (Yes, we are incredibly aware of what a privileged life we’re leading that we can stack rank ancient Roman ruins. Nevertheless, once you’ve been to Paestum it’s not going to stun you into insensibility merely to encounter a few upright columns.) Plus, it turns out that nobody really called it “that “the Temple of Diana” until a 17^th century monk made up a legend whole cloth and it took hold. The site was actually dedicated to the cult of Augustus around the 1^st century CE. Still, it’s neat to see something like that standing in the middle of the town square in southern Portugal.

There were numerous smaller pleasures, including the aqueduct that runs into the city which we also encountered miles away the day before. Speaking only for myself, it’s one thing to understand what aqueducts are in an academic sense and entirely another to realize just what a massive undertaking they were. Thousands of years ago they were building miles and miles of arching stone paths, straight as an arrow, to bring water to where they wanted it. (The featured map at the top of this post is a section of the aqueduct running through the surrounding fields.) And to top it off the center of town, the “old city” as it were, is surrounded by thirty-foot-high stone walls that are in magnificent shape, whether through rugged longevity or careful maintenance I cannot say. It was a great, hot, day, with more still to come.

You may recall from an earlier set of posts that I got a serious crush on the Alentejo region when we visited. It was still spring time and everything was green and lush. The fields were carpeted with wildflowers, and the temperatures were just great – warmish during the day, jacket weather in the evenings. When I would tell my friends about this they’d give me a grin and ask “have you seen it there in the summer?” I knew in the abstract that the Alentejo was known as a hot, dry region – it’s one of the reasons they cultivate so much wine down there. But, you know, temperatures on a screen are just numbers. With all of that as prelude, Lisa caught up on my birthday by taking us down to the city of Évora for a few days. What a difference a couple months make.

To be clear, this isn’t just a post whinging about how hot it was there; that’s not a story, and I wouldn’t waste your time. It does sort of frame the story, though. First of all, Lisa found a charming little rental cottage 10 minutes or so outside of town that had its own pool (not Olympic size, but plenty of room to splash around in and do laps if you want) as well as air conditioning. On the days we were there the highs were in the mid 30s(!) celsius, aka high 90s(!!) farenheit, so we needed to be thoughful in our plans each day. Especially since most of the chief attractions were outdoors.

So, for example, our itinerary for the first day consisted of heading out into the boonies. Honestly, if you put a description of the day next to many of the days we spent in Ireland, just with some place names scrubbed off, you’d be hard-pressed to tell them apart. We were chasing down ancient megalith sites, which are often in the middle of not much and practically guaranteed not to have much shade. And so, we set our alarm for 6:30 and were out the door a little after 7. Maybe not a typical vacation itinerary, but it was barely 70 when we left; score!

Speaking of scoring, the first site we visited was amazing. The Cromeleque de Vale Maria do Meio was fantastic. Lisa said they seemed cheerful, which was actually a good way of putting it! So many of these sites seem somber; beautiful but often in a sort of reverential way. These stones seemed to want you to have a good time. Part of it is definitely the surrounding environment. We’ve seen these sorts of things in fields, of course, but not too often are they nestled into trees with wildflowers strewn amongst them. It was a lovely site and we enjoyed just spending time with them.

Sadly we had a couple of travel snags (closed/damaged roads, no tresspassing signs that didn’t used to be there) that cut this part of the day short but it was still a good time. After a few hours of hijinks we made it back to our oasis of coolth, had a splash, and generally enjoyed the day. I’m not much of a beach person, but over the years we’ve figured out that I actually can have a great time with just a few adjustments. Namely, a shaded cabana with soft chairs and someone who will bring me drinks at my beck and call. Hanging out at the backyard pool is a lot like this! We popped into town for dinner that evening (to be discussed later) and then tucked ourselves in, the better to attack the next early morning.