PORTUGAL: EVORA, PART II - EVORA CATHEDRAL, ROMAN RUINS, A LOST CAR, AND DINNER AT TABERNA TIPICA

 July 2, 2022

As I noted in the last post, we realized that we hadn't really paid attention to where we had parked the car, and so we decided we had better retrace our steps before we went any farther. We knew the more places we went, the less likely we'd be able to remember how to get back to the starting place. By the time we had walked about two blocks and made two turns, we realized we had no idea where to go next. There were so many narrow, twisting alleys and staircases that looked the same. We also disagreed on the general direction to go to find the car. I was sure it was one direction, and Bob was convinced it was another. We had no real landmarks in mind. We were in serious trouble.

However, in our wanderings, we did come across several other sites on our list, starting with the mid-gothic Cathedral of Évora, the oldest and largest medieval cathedral in Portugal. Construction started in the 12th century and was completed in the 14th century, although significant changes and additions were made up until the early 1700s. This cathedral is one of the structures cited in the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation for Évora.

A few years ago I read the book The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris, which tells of the author's experience living in a Benedictine monastery for nine months. I think of her quiet, soul-searching prose every time we stroll down a cloister walkway, and somehow at the Évora Cathedral the laughter of running children made this particular experience that much more spiritual.

Off the cloister is a funeral chapel that contains the tomb of the cathedral's founder, Bishop King Peter, as well as the Archbishop of Évora who died in the 20th century. (However, I am not sure if I have these labeled correctly because there are also a few other tombs connected to the cloister.)

Funky lions stand guard in the corners.

Like most cloisters, the cloister windows look out on a central courtyard, walled off from the noise of the surrounding town by the granite walls of the cathedral.

The baroque main chapel was one of the later additions to the cathedral and is breathtaking. It is said that the flags of Vasco da Gama's fleet were blessed here in 1497 before he sailed to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Just look at this vaulted ceiling. The marble in the cathedral comes from Estremoz (which we had visited the day before), Italy, Montes Claros (Spain), and Sintra (near Lisbon).

The transepts are lit by stained glass rose windows that date to the earlier centuries of the cathedral's construction.

I didn't get a very good picture of the glass-fronted crypt below the altar above, but Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte is "Our Lady of the Good Death," a sisterhood devoted to the Assumption of the Virgin. It was founded in the early 19th century in Brazil for African enslaved and formerly enslaved women. I'm not sure how that ties in here.

There are some wonderful carved pillars throughout.

Mary seems to have an even larger than usual role in Portuguese churches. She is everywhere.  Is that because of her apparition to the children in Fátima? Anyway, the real name of this cathedral is actually Basilica Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption.

Paintings of The Last Supper are common in cathedrals, but just what is that on the plate in front of Jesus?

Could it be a DOG? It reminded us of a Last Supper painting in Cusco, Peru, where the dinner delicacy was cuy (aka guinea pig). 

Another typical Portuguese touch--a floating organ. This organ, however, dates to around 1544 and is the oldest organ still in active use in the country.

This ceiling . . . !

Practically next door to the cathedral are Roman ruins that look like they have been transported from Athens.

The Roman Temple of Évora is believed to date to the first century CE. Scholars think it was built to honor Caesar Augustus/Octavian, the first Roman Emperor, who died in AD 14.

Note the Évora cathedral spire in the background.

We were there, but where was our car?

We were hot, tired, and increasingly worried about finding our car. We started searching in earnest, disagreeing more and more about its location. Did I mention it was very hot? We wandered around the cathedral area (a large hill in the center of town) for about an hour and a half with no luck. We even tried to get a cab, thinking a driver could take us around looking for our car, but we couldn't find a cab, and a Lyft or Uber wouldn't work because you have to input a destination and we didn't have one.

Bob suggested that we walk to our hotel, located about 10 minutes away from where we currently were, check in, and call a taxi from there. But then miracle of miracles, on our walk we passed the very street where our car was parked. I recognized a bridge over the street that I had forgotten about. 

What a relief. Next time I will take notes, drop a pin, sync my phone to the car--something! We are definitely getting old.

We drove to our hotel and crashed in our room, totally exhausted. We had dinner reservtions at 7:30, and I was hoping to do just a little more souvenir shopping, so we had a taxi drop us off at the restaurant at 7:00, only to discover that 1. it was definitely not in a tourist and/or shopping area, and 2. all shops close early on Saturday night anyway.

The restaurant was in a narrow alley and there was nowhere to sit to wait for it to open, so we had no choice but to walk around a little bit to kill time. Note how much the streets look alike, then multiply that by about 20 turns and 5-6 sets of stairs and you can see how we lost our car.

Here's one memorable landmark--vestiges of more Roman ruins.

We were intrigued by the primitive electrical wiring on all the apartments. These buildings must be older than they look.

Our dinner was at the Taberna Tipica Quarta Feira, or the "Typical Tavern Wednesday Fair."  I have no idea where it got its name or what it means. From the outside, it doesn't look like much.

But Bob had done his homework. Trip Advisor ranks this restaurant #2 restaurant out of 229 restaurants in Évora. It has just one seating per night and a fixed menu, which means you get what they want to give you. Bob made our reservations two months in advance. We were the first ones seated, and by the time we left, every one of the 38 chairs in the place was occupied.

The inside was small--some tables were outside in the narrow street--but welcoming.

The owner, Jaoa Dias, inherited this restaurant from his father. Jaoa was friendly and jovial and appreciated Bob's obvious excitement for the meal and general love for food. 

The meal began with SEVEN appetizers, which was great as appetizers are often the most experimental and tastiest part of a meal.

We started with green olives, a cucumber dip, homemade bread and jam, and some kind of a drink. Then there were fried mushrooms and some smoked pork pancetta that I don't have a photo of.

Next came two kinds of salad.

I thought that by far the best appetizer was a mini cone filled with a mixture of minced rabbit and pig's ear. It was just a few bites, but it was scrumptious. Jaoa, by the way, would not tell us what we were eating until after we had tasted the food. He said too many of his customers are turned off by something like "pig's ear" and won't even try a bite. (That is definitely not our problem.)

The other fun appetizer was a cow tongue sandwich. Bob guessed the meat after one bite, definitely surprising Jaoa.

There were two main dishes--black pork cheeks and black pork neck served with creamed spinach, homemade potato chips, and grilled tomato slices. Everything was an A+.

Dessert had multiple parts as well--an alcohol-based drink that we didn't sample, two pastries, and fresh cherries.

This meal may not have beat the tapas meal we ate at Sr. Lisboa in Lisbon early in our trip, at least for me, but it was definitely the most FUN meal of the trip. 

We were so incredibly stuffed that we opted to walk back to the hotel (guided by GPS), and it only took about ten minutes. We saw several geckos on a wall in one of the alleys on the way, not a creature I would associate with this climate.

Dinner just about made up for the horrendous experience of almost losing our car. Well, maybe not quite.