Evora Portugal

 

We headed out South from Lisbon.  The bridges were fascinating, and we watched countless people digging seafood from the banks of the river early morning. We decided to go see the Almendres Cromlech on the way to Evora. Megalithic stones probably from the 6th millennium BC. It wasn't super hard to get there, but it was a one car dirt road the whole way.  It reminded me of driving up behind squaw peak to see the leaves in the fall.  They don't know the reason these were put up, but they have identified that 5 of the stones have carvings on them and were graves.  Then we drove to Evora.  We had lunch at a BBQ sandwich place.  That was fun and delicious.  Restaurants in Spain and Portugal are not anxious to get you fed and out the door.  They take their time, and you need to be prepared for about a 1 1/2 hour to 2 hour stay. Then we toured the cathedral, which was neat because they had palm leaves and purple drapes out for Easter.  Then we went to the half of the cathedral that they use as a museum.  Years ago, they ran out of room in their cemetery, so the clergy used the bones in their chapel as part of the architecture. It's called the Chapel of Bones.  We went in, Evelyn wasn't comfortable, so she and I walked the length of it quickly and I took her to sit outside while everyone else wandered and took pictures.  Jer and the older kids kept saying that it would be a perfect place for D&D. After that, there was a nativity scene museum that was really fun to look at. 

My favorite nativities were the ones that showed real life with a real baby.

I thought that this one reminded me of the one that Judy has at her house.

This one was interesting.  On one side was a Nativity set, on the other side was the fall of Adam and Eve.

This stackable one was super neat.

Ada saw these flowers.  I was not in the mood to take pictures because we had gotten separated from Jer at the bathrooms... and on our way to go to where Jer said he was waiting; Sam went back into the museum looking for Jer instead of asking me where Dad was or where we were going.  So, I was standing midway between Jer and Sam with Ada and Evelyn wanting to take pictures.... yeah, I got a little annoyed. I texted Jer to come back and look for Sam while I stayed with the other kids in the garden.  All ended well, but Sam got an earful for wandering off instead of talking to the one in charge. 

The inscription in latin says something to the effect of "Here lie our bones and we await yours".  We talked to the kids about cultural and religious differences.  We talked about how even though to us this was creepy, for them it was sacred and a form of worship.

Astrix and Obelix rock.