Road To Morocco – Take 1: November 18–20, 2017

Morocco – a sea change from our recent Latin / North American and European travels; new sights, sounds, tastes, music, art, religion, and customs and two unfamiliar languages. We spent almost three weeks there, two of which were with a small group (16-person) tour organized by Intrepid Travel called “Best of Morocco”: camel ride, check; Atlas mountains hike, check; night in the desert, check; mosques, souks, medinas and kasbahs - check; carpet purchase, check; and lots of couscous and tagines, check!

We enjoyed Morocco very much and we’ll share what we experienced in this and our next few posts. We also learned a lot about a different type of traveling:

Travel Lesson

As we confessed in our last post we were a bit apprehensive about how well we would “work and play with other children” on a tour. We are relieved to report that we were The Last Kids On The Van only once, Molly gained several new Facebook Friends and we think we parted amicably from all of our 14 fellow travelers. Whew.

Still, we’re not complete package tour converts. Here are some of our thoughts (scroll on down if you want to get to the tour stuff):

• We got a much broader overview of Morocco than we would have traveling at our usual, pokey pace. But it was tiring and involved a lot of travel time.
• We doubt we could have travelled as far for a lower cost on our own (rough estimate: tour + independently purchased meals and day trips = about $115 a day per each). That said, at times we might have been willing to pay extra for a more comfortable experience.
• Our tour leader, Abdou Taghda, was great – charming, patient and organized. He got all of us on the train/bus/tourist van/dromedary on time and knew the location of frequent enough clean washrooms, reputable (if not always fabulous) restaurants and liquor sales outlets (infrequent and not highly advertised in Morocco). As a result we learned almost nothing about how to travel on our own in Morocco and we allowed ourselves to be lazy about acquiring even rudimentary Arabic (we got no further than Hello and Thank You . . . ). 

Abdou

• The tour van was safe, new, clean and well maintained and the driver, Moustafa, was excellent. The taxis we found on our own – not so much. Hiring a reputable transportation company ahead of time is a great idea in certain countries.

Our Chariot

• The local guides arranged for us were Just Fine and three were Excellent. It’s impossible to tell what our luck would have been playing the Independent Traveler Local Guide Lottery.
• Our tour group included many very interesting people, including some hard core travelers (four days on the Siberian Express . . .  eight months driving through Eastern Europe . . . ). But traveling with a group can be insular by times, with one's focus on the group rather than on the culture one came to engage. 
• Tours involve accommodating others and being accommodated in return. Waiting for others to finish meals / find banks / buy souvenirs can be tedious and likewise we weren’t on our own schedule when eating / touring / buying souvenirs.

In sum, a tour is a good way to get an initial overview of a country. It can ease traveling in an unfamiliar culture or in a part of the world where travel arrangements are complicated. We will probably take other small group tours – but we learned that we would find a large bus trip maddening!


That's more than enough about our group travel thoughts – here's our Morocco experience:

As Time Goes By . . . Casablanca

Could there be any more romantic place to celebrate a 28th wedding anniversary than the setting for one of the great movie love stories of all time?

Well -- yes, actually.

Casablanca, Morocco’s financial center, is many things – big, bustling, a large port, home to the third largest mosque in the world (more later), overwhelming, gritty, smoggy . . . but not very romantic. Add our failure to find a celebratory glass of bubbly (or even a post-travel, relaxing glass of wine) and, well – we’ve had more romantic anniversary celebrations. But few as memorable.

[Side note: Not one frame of the famous movie was shot in Casablanca. It was shot in Burbank and Van Nuys because in 1942 Casablanca was controlled by Vichy France.] 

Due to a late arrival (Royal Air Moroc from Lisbon) and two hours in passport control / baggage claim / customs we didn’t begin to look for dinner until almost 9 p.m.. We asked the hotel desk for a recommendation within walking distance and were escorted by the bellman to a nearby restaurant where we were the only guests. Dinner was just fine, wine was not available and the restaurant owner insisted on walking us back to our hotel. The purpose of the escort services was never clear – was the tiny, elderly bellman there to protect us or to make sure we didn’t get lost? 

But we will likely remember that our 28th anniversary was in Casablanca!

There are few tourist sites in Casablanca. The day before meeting with our tour we decided to make up for our so-so anniversary dinner with lunch at a well recommended restaurant, Sqala (pron., Skalah). Sqala is named for the port fortifications (a sqala) in which it is located.

Sqala at the Sqala - Behind The Gate

The restaurant’s gardens are beautiful and the salads were fabulous but the vegetable tagine was a bland, mushy disappointment. Over time we learned that we prefer meat tagines and that it takes a very talented cook to keep vegetables from turning mushy in a tagine.

We walked through the Medina (the old walled city).

[Side Note: Moroccan cities are divided into Before The French / During The French / After The French. The French Protectorate was established in 1912 (protecting French business interests) and not dissolved until 1955. Most of the Protectorate’s administrators failed to see the charm of the medieval labyrinth that made up Moroccan cities at the beginning of the 20th Century, so the colonial administration (oops – sorry – the protectors) built what are still referred to as “villes nouvelles” – new cities – of wide boulevards, parks and big homes. The ancient walled cities that pre-dated the villes nouvelles are referred to as Medinas.]

Casablanca’s Medina is not as tourist-centric as those in some other cities and so is an interesting look into the lives of (predominantly low-income) urban Moroccans. Interesting, but not a charming tourist attraction.

The Plastic Store

The Street

The Skyline

 

Hey, Amigo! [Wait - Where Are We?]

The big tourist attraction in Casablanca is the Hassan II Mosque, opened in 1993 to honor King Hassan II, the father of the present king, Mohammed VI.

Moroccan Minarets Are Square / This
Minaret Is the Tallest Religious Minaret In The
World / Green Is The Prophet's Color

Unlike most mosques, the Hassan II Mosque is open to non-Muslims, though only those on scheduled tours.  Travel Tip: Check when those hours are – Lonely Planet was incorrect. We missed the last tour of the day and compensated by a visit to the related museum. We are so glad we did! The museum displays and explains various Moroccan traditional design elements and offered a wonderful introduction to not only the mosque but Moroccan architecture and design in general.

Zellige - Moroccan Tile Mosaic
(Individually Chiseled Tiles Set In Plaster)

Woodwork

Plaster Work - Al Gabs

Apparently we weren't the only ones who missed the last tour of the day. The next morning Abdou delayed the group’s departure from Casablanca so those who wanted to could join a scheduled tour. Bryce passed but Molly joined in and can report that it is impressive. 

Prayer Hall For 20,000 -- The
3rd Largest In The World

Grill Work Open To The Sea Breeze--
Important During Ramadan When
20,000 Worshipers Gather

Ablution Hall (41 Fountains)

 

Women's Mezzanine (Accommodation For 5,000)

And they provide visitors with nice little bags to carry their shoes (don't forget to wear clean socks).

The official literature says that the mosque was partially funded by public subscriptions. We were later told by an unofficial source that these “public subscriptions” came from photographs of King Hassan II which were made available for purchase throughout Morocco. The bigger picture of the king in the living room or office . . . the more loyal the subject.

Rabat

The current political capital of Morocco, Rabat, is less gritty and more charming than Casablanca. During our afternoon there we visited the mausoleum of Mohammed V, the king who negotiated the end of the French Protectorate (King Mohammed VI’s grandfather). He has been joined by King Hassan II (see above). 

Guard at The Mausoleum
He Wouldn't Pose Unless Bryce Joined Him!

Impressive Courtyard Outside of the Mausoleum

Local Showoffs!

We also wandered briefly through the Medina, which is relatively small but complex enough to act as an introduction to the art of Medina wandering. Medinas grew organically over centuries and are labyrinths with few direction signs and many dead ends. Travelers frightened or frustrated when lost should consider taking a local guide even to this relatively small Medina . . . 

A pleasant way to spend an afternoon in Rabat is drinking coffee or mint tea (unless you are Bryce – he thinks mint tea is vile) at Cafe Maure, overlooking the estuary between Rabat and the town of Sale.

Traditional Fishing Boats of Rabat

Medina Wall On The Estuary

A Rowing Style That Fascinated Bryce

Sailboats - Checking In With The Port Captain?

Meknes

Meknes, occupied since the 10th century, became the imperial city in 1672 when Moulay Ismail bested his 83 brothers (murdering more than a few of them) to become the sultan of the Alawite dynasty. Ismail reigned from Meknes for 55 years, and, during that time built (not personally, of course): 25 kilometers of city walls, gates, palaces, a granary and water works (to sustain his court and infamous army during a siege), a stable for over 12,000 horses and a pleasure lake for the court. Though Ismail’s successor moved the capital to Marrakesh, and in the process appropriated building materials from a lot of Ismail’s monuments, walls and palaces, the leavings are impressive.

Our pictures capture a bit of the charm - but do not do justice to the scope of these buildings and gates:

City Wall

Granary

Stables

 

Bab el Mansour Gate To The Medina

Non-Imperial Meknes is also charming. There is a lively central square – the Place el-Hedim – with many coffee houses and restaurants and shops.

Tagines, Anyone?

And a vast covered market (Molly’s favorite place anywhere):

Olives, Olives Everywhere

Herbs and Beans

Spice Mountains

Meat Market - This Is Where Bryce Left -- He
Prefers His Meat Cooked!

Somewhere in the Medina is a great camel burger joint. We’re not sure we could find it again, but if we could, we’d have another camel burger!

Camel Burger Chef

The Medersa Bou Inania – completed in 1358 (no, that’s not a typo) – is also worth a visit. It is a beautiful example of Moroccan decorative arts, and an interesting look into the educational system of medieval Morocco. Like medieval European monks or rabbinical students the medersa students lived at the school and studied one holy text (here, the Koran). The primary focus was on memorization and the casual agnostic visitor is left to wonder what value was placed on interpretation of or questions about that text.

Medersa

View From The Roof
(The Prophet's Green)

Arabic Script - An Art Form Of It's Own

Our local guide for Meknes was one of our favorites. He gave an informative and well organized tour and introduced us to the djellaba – the loose fitting outer robe with a pointed hood worn by both men and women in Morocco (and, apparently, much of the rest of the Maghreb).

Djellaba At The Camel Burger Joint

The djellaba can be a very dignified garment. It is very evocative to see a man in a djellaba standing by the side of a dusty highway stoically waiting for . . . someone. And anyone who has watched a Star Wars movie will recognize the design inspiration for the robe of the Jedi Knights.

But djellabas worn by many lower income Moroccan women can look a lot like what Molly’s grandmother called her “house coat” – complete with pink or turquoise velour and embroidered flowers. Comfortable, and somewhat more dignified than Walmart Shopper Pajamas – but just. [To be clear: Grandma Mollie never wore hers in public.]




We won’t inflict any more of our trip on you in this post. But steel yourselves – we have only covered two days of our 14 day tour! As we said – we covered a lot of ground.

Follow the Green Dot –– Walking In Alentejo –- October 31 - November 9, 2017

It's been a long time since our last post and we've been very busy so there's a lot to catch up on. The ultra-condensed version is: 

• California (family / friends); 
• five weeks in Ontario, Canada (thanks Brenda! / family / friends / Bryce became an official senior citizen); 
• California (thanks Ken and Claudia and Frank and Irene / Bryce had a second cataract blasted out / Molly had her last pre-senior citizen birthday / lots of friends); 
• a few days in London, England (theater!); and 
• six weeks in Portugal. 

A less condensed version of some of this is planned, and here's our start:  


Greetings from Cascais, Portugal where we are hanging out in a nice apartment, doing laundry, dining “at home” and generally resting up from our Portuguese travels which we launched in early October. While we enjoy the off-season calm of this famous beach resort and have had lots of interesting experiences before we arrived here, we’re going to humor ourselves and blog first about what we did most recently:

We walked.

We walked for 65+/- kilometers (40+/- miles) over six days through beautiful countryside and lovely villages following routes planned by a company appropriately called Portugal Walks. We observed rural Portugal on a very human scale while the company arranged for the transfer of our luggage between three very different but comfortable and charming accommodations. And in the evenings we consumed even more rich Alentejo food and wine than our walking justified.

This walking tour was inspired by our walk along the coast of Catalunya last year which we enjoyed very much. If one’s feet (and hips and knees, etc.) are up to it, walking is a wonderful way to experience a place and we hope to do it again in other countries. 

We, The Green Dot

In addition to the daily route maps and walking directions we expected, based on our walk in Catalunya, Portugal Walks equipped us with GPS tracks to download via an application on our cellphones called GPX Viewer. Once downloaded the tracks were usable even without cell or data connection. All we had to do was keep the green dot (representing us) headed toward the next “flag” (representing the next route change or point of interest). This new-to-us technology became very important because, after our first day’s trail walk, we alternated between walking farm roads

and crossing almost trackless farm fields. It turns out that, to the unschooled eye, one cork tree can look a lot like another.

We spent a lot of time pausing to let the green dot (the electronic us) find its place on the electronic map and then figuring out where to go from there -- it was similar to hitting the “find ship” button when tracking waypoints on Abracadabra’s moving map display. Occasionally we found that we had veered off the track or some farmer (the nerve) had put a new fence between GPS waypoints and blocked our path. We would huddle and compare the electronic data to the handy old-school paper maps and improvise. Bryce alternated between an elevated state of frustration and geeky map-guy bliss.

When we reached our goal at the end of each day we were tired and foot-sore -- but feeling very clever!

Neolithic Sites

The most unique thing about a walk in Portugal’s Alentejo region

FYI

is that the area near the town of Évora is practically littered with Neolithic (pre-Bronze Age / pre-1700 BCE) monuments.

On our second walking day we visited the Zambujeiro Dolmen which was built around 3000 BCE. [Archaeological factoid: A dolmen is a tomb structure formed by standing stones capped by a horizontal stone.] The Zambujeiro Dolmen is unusually large and is believed to have been the burial place for some very important Neolithic types.

3,000 BCE -- Hey, Kids, Let's
Build A Big Tomb For The Head Guy! 

It's All About Leverage

We Are Told This Was On Top of The Standing Rocks --
It Was Blasted Off By Explosives In The  1960's

Perspective: Our Model i= 6'2"

We also saw several Menhirs – freestanding stones from the Neolithic period. Though some internet information suggests that archaeologists aren’t sure of the purpose of these stones (religious, community gathering place – ?) our second thought upon seeing our first menhir (after the initial “Holy cow how did they get that here and then stand it up?”) was “well, uhm -- we have a pretty good guess what those Neolithic folks were worshiping there . . . .”

Menir of Almendres

Three of the menhirs we saw can be found on tourist maps and the Almendres menhir had quite a few visitors when we were there. But our favorite menhir -- at Barrocal – is not well marked at all. We found it at the edge of what seemed to be an abandoned housing development, standing to the side of a large area that included crumbling curbs and streets and large electrical boxes and conduits. Apparently having a neighborhood menhir was not a big selling point  . . . .

The Menir Down The Street

The most complex Neolithic site we saw was the Cromlech of Almendres, a series of over 90 free-standing stones in a pattern which clearly meant something important to someone about 5,000 years ago. We have read that two of the stones create a range which points to the sunrise on Winter solstice. Some of the stones still bear carvings.

Cromlech of Almendres

Standing Stone With Circular Carvings
(And Water On Camera Lens . . . )

Cromlech of Almendres

Unfortunately as we approached the cromlech site it began to pour rain. Shortly we were alone except for two other lunatics (who had at least thought to bring an umbrella) and had the soggy privilege of an almost private walk among the stones. We pondered the amount of community commitment and physical effort it must have taken to create such a place at that time. And thought how hard it will be to put up with the selfie-taking crowds at Stonehenge if we get there . . .

The other cromlech on our route, the Cromlech of Xerez, was drier and totally unoccupied, but ever so much less impressive. The information at the site explains the center Menir was found and placed there in order to protect the stone, and the other standing stones were moved to the site and placed around the menir in a square pattern because, well – that’s how the guy in charge decided to do it. The square pattern doesn’t correspond to any Neolithic design. In essence, Xerez isn’t so much a cromlech as a collection of random Neolithic standing stones.

Cromlech of Xerez -- Tidy But Inauthentic

“Recent” History
On our third hiking day the route took us to the medieval Castle of Valongo notable because it was not originally built by the Moors, nor was it surrounded by a village. Our personal memory of the castle is that we arrived during a rain so hard it flooded the pocket of Molly’s jacket and temporarily disabled her cellphone (see above re: the phone’s important GPS feature).

Storming the Castle - Literally
(Rain Jacket Over Pack)

Lesson 1: Put Phone In Plastic Bag
Lesson 2: Don't Wear Jeans In The Rain

On another, drier walk, we were routed to an interesting medieval water feature with a carved Latin message which, according to the English translation posted nearby, assured us that if we blessed our face and breast with the water there we would have nothing to fear from the "treachery of lemures" (spirits of the dead) or "false apparitions".

Bryce Watching For Treacherous Lemures

Molly Looking Out For False Apparitions 

Sadly for us, the fountain was dry . . . . 

Our first walk was along a path following a very impressive “water feature”, the Aqueduto de Agua Prata (the Silver Water Aqueduct) which was originally built in the 16th century (though most of what one can see now is from the 19th century reconstruction) and is still in use today.

The Aqueduct Path

The most interesting parts of the aqueduct for us were the “visitors boxes” – repair access and aeration ports.

Visitor's Box

Farms
Alentejo is a farming area so we walked through and by lots of farms, farmers and farm animals. We saw cork trees, marked to show the date of the most recent harvest, some showing signs of multiple harvests.

Pre-2017 Cut

Cork trees are first harvested about 20 years after planting and can be re-harvested every 9 years on average. They live for 150 to 200 years. Stockholders should be informed that cork is a long-term investment.

We also saw hectares of olive trees (necessary to provide the bushels of delicious olives we have been eating!) and passed beside several orchards at harvest. We had read that the "old school" way of harvesting, which involved beating branches with a rod until the olives dropped, was harmful to the trees and that new harvest methods had been adopted. And then we saw the new method in use:

Olive Harvest - The New Technology 
Looks And Sounds Like A Tree Vibrator

Of course we also saw lots of farm animals – some quite curious about us

Bryce's Buddy
(Too Young To Be A Good Snarling Dog)

Well, Helllo There

. . . others not so much.

Pay No Attention And They Will Leave Us Alone

Accommodations
Unlike our walk in Catalunya, which was primarily a continuous path (on most days we would leave our accommodation and walk to our next), this walk was six distinct routes, some which started from or ended at our accommodation and others which required coordinating a drop off and/or pick up with a driver. This difference meant we missed the sense of accomplishment that we had from walking a continuous distance in Catalunya (“we walked from here to there . . . “), but we enjoyed not having to pack our bags every morning and it made it easier to “cheat” on one rainy day.

Our first three nights were at the Monte do Serrado de Baixo which, for our cyclist friends, is the base for Portugal Best Cycling. It is also a lovely and comfortable guest house, offering delicious, hearty food. We don’t often include pictures of food, but how could we not take a picture of the quail eggs and squid salad appetizers?

The staff at the farm is very charming as is Pipoca (Portuguese for Popcorn), the dog. Pipoca insisted on accompanying us for a portion of our first walk and after awhile we realized that she was “protecting” us from the neighborhood dogs (which were safely barking and snarling behind fences). Pipoca put on quite a show of barking and snarling back and running along the fences. If we took too long looking at the map or reading the tour notes about the aqueduct Pipoca would herd us on.

C'mon You Guys!

[Side Note About Farm Dogs: Alentejo may not be the best place to walk for someone truly frightened of dogs. Farms have dogs -- working dogs whose job it is to keep animal and human predators away from the expensive animals, crops and equipment. Some of the chained dogs looked  scary, but our experience was that the free-range dogs were only interested in fulfilling their duty statements (See stranger:(a) Bark, (b) Snarl). They would snarl and bark but not approach closer than the edge of “their” property. We kept to the road or trail and would greet them in our best non-threatening voices, “Good job there, dog! You are protecting your farm – good dog! We will tell your farmer that you are a very good dog and won’t come near your farm!”. And we didn’t.]

Our second accommodation was Convento de São Paulo, a former convent (with a 15th century beginning) which is now a very lovely (if a bit worn around the edges) hotel. The Convento looks like it might be jammed with bus tours in the high season (two pools, two bars, a huge breakfast room and dining room) but on an off-season Friday night we encountered only one other couple at dinner. On Saturday night the restaurant was full of small groups, many Spanish, on driving tours of Alentejo.

Molly’s favorite part of the Convento was the big fluffy white robe which greeted her after walking in the rain to Castle Valongo. Nothing better than a hot shower and fluffy robe after a walk in the rain!

The convent was also our place of refuge on the following day. Our planned walk was a circular one starting from and returning to the hotel. It looked like more rain. Our clothes were soaked. Really, who would know? We slept in, ate our packed picnic lunch in the bar and spent the rest of the day wandering the halls of the convent and enjoying the 18th century tile work.

Joseph as a Weary Backpacker -
We Related

Yeoooow! [What Is This?!]

Our last two trek nights were in the beautiful medieval hilltop village of Monsaraz - lovely, even if "hilltop" is not exactly what one wants to hear at mile 35-ish . . . 

Keep Climbing - You Can't Miss It

We stayed in Casa Pinto, a converted townhouse decorated in High Raj décor (water tinkling in the background and lots of incense) -- a bit uncomfortable given that Portugal controlled several areas of India which they didn’t give up until forced to in 1961. Bryce sneezed a lot (see above re: incense) and kept banging his head on the very short doorway between the bedroom and bathroom. But the views were lovely and breakfast was great.

Monsaraz is small and charming and while it looks like it may be gruesome in high bus-tour season we enjoyed our time there very much. The castle ruins offer very nice views. 

There are a couple of churches and two little museums to visit. The museums are not very accessible to non-Portuguese speakers and the churches prohibit picture taking. Everybody closes at 13.00 for lunch - no negotiating.

Kindness of A Stranger

Our favorite Monsaraz-related experience was our last walk of the tour. We decided that the previous day’s climb up the hill to town had been enough climbing and that, rather than take the entire circular route laid out for us we would walk down to the valley, take the portion of the route with the most interesting sites (8-ish kilometers / 5+ miles), have lunch as we passed through in the village of Outeiro at the café prominently marked on our map and, in the subsequent village of Barrada call a taxi for a ride back to Monsaraz (we have purchased a Portuguese sim card for one phone and had been given the number for a taxi company). Perfect plan.

Problematic execution.

The walk down the hill was lovely. We stopped in Férraguda for coffee. More pleasant walking. Then things began to go a little off the rails. In Outeiro we found only one closed café and one where we were told, with great regret, “não, não cozinha” (no, no kitchen). Coffee, beer and packaged snacks. Hmmmm. We sat on a nearby bus-stop bench and ate our hiking snack (apples and Kellogg's cereal bars) supplemented by potato chips and some weird Cheetos shaped like soccer balls we had purchased at the não, não cozinha café. 

More pleasant walking and then at our planned final destination – the village of Barrada - our plan really began to unravel. The one café in town was closed; the taxi company phone number we had been given didn’t work; and the bus to Monsaraz wasn’t due for two hours. On the plus side we provided a lot of entertainment for the two pensionistas hanging at the bus stop.

We were sitting on a park bench Googling “taxi Monsaraz” when a lady came out of her house and greeted us. We offered up "Boa Tarde" (Good Afternoon) - one of the few Portuguese pleasantries we had committed to memory -- and Bryce asked in Spanish (which many Portuguese sort-of understand) if she knew a telephone number for a taxi. She made reassuring hand gestures, went back to her house and returned with her husband who spoke English. Enough, anyway. He offered us a ride to Monsaraz which we gratefully accepted. We learned that he had recently retired to the village and lived in a house he had inherited from his father; he was the owner of 215 olive trees; he didn’t like Trump; and he seemed reassured that we didn’t like Trump either. When we arrived in Monsaraz he refused our offer of money for gas, saying “Portuguese are good people.” We agreed - yes, they are.

Resting Up In Évora

Portugal Walks arranged for our transport from Monsaraz to Évora where we had decided to stay for a couple of days. We had spent a few hours in Évora before – it was the destination of our first walk along the aqueduct - but we thought it deserved more time.

Évora. Aqueduct.

Aqueduct Arch = Prime Real Estate 

 

Portugal's "White Villages" -- Not As Well
Known, But As Pretty as Those In Spain

We stayed for two nights at the M’ar de Ar Muralhas hotel (which we think means something about air; any real Portuguese ideas are appreciated) and are glad we added the extra time in Évora. There are several interesting things to do / see there and staying in a big, tour type hotel with a plush mattress was very nice!

The University of Évora is high on the list of Things To See In Évora. It was founded as a Jesuit seminary in 1551 but after the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal in 1759 the university was closed. It was reopened in 1973. In the intervening 200 + year the buildings were used for a wide variety of educational and social purposes, including a high school and an industrial school. The 200+ year hiatus doesn’t seem to matter to the University, however – it bills itself as having been a university from 1559 to the present day.

University of Évora

The “sights” at the University are primarily classrooms, which have totally cool tile murals on the walls, much like every other Portuguese public building decorated in the 16th – 17th century. Many of these murals contain scenes that seem generally uplifting in nature, even if the imagery is not entirely clear to modern viewers.

Others seem a bit violent for impressionable youth.

But we weren't disturbed until we were leaving through a departure hall lined half-way from floor to ceiling with tile pictures of flowers and birds and realized that . . . the eyes of every single bird had been chipped out.

Every Single Bird

That calls for a psychology class or two.

Speaking of creepy, another Big Deal Site in Évora is the Chapel of Bones at the Church of St. Francis, which we almost passed on. [After all, we lived in Guanajuato, Mexico for over four months without visiting the famous mummy museum there.] This time we took the tourist bait.

Yorick - You There, Dude?

The stated purpose of this 17th Century chapel was to invite contemplation of the transient nature of life.

We Are Told This Latin Phrase Means
"We Bones Here, For Yours Await"

It was oddly interesting, but we found a better lesson abut transience at the Neolithic sites nearby. Those Neolithic people lived, worked their asses off hauling and raising stones, died (probably not unrelated to all that rock hauling); the rocks remain but we are left to wonder – what the heck was that all about? 

The church also has a museum with the usual beautiful church things – but one painting was particularly interesting to us: a very graphic explanation of St. Francis’s stigmata.

Follow The Red Lines . . . 

Speaking of transience, there are some Roman ruins in Évora, though sadly the beautiful (based on pictures) temple columns that are the symbol of the town were covered in plastic and under repair. What we were able to see was a small Roman Bath complex which we finally found in the lobby of a city government building. While waiting to deal with a utility bill or building permit issue, citizens of Évora can either sit in the hard plastic chairs in the lobby and watch the electronic take-a-number machine or walk a few feet to see what’s left of a Roman bath.

Some city employees can look down on the former baths from their desks.

Does Magritte Work Here?

As retired civil servants, we couldn’t help but wonder if looking at the remains of an empire renowned for its organizational structures encourages Portuguese civil servants to heights of efficiency – or puts things in perspective in a very different way?

We visited the Cathedral and paid to climb to the roof of the cloister. The view of the cloister and cathedral were very nice.

In sum – there are a lot of things to see and do in Évora and we are glad we stayed a few extra days. 

NEXT

We are off to Morocco soon where we will be undertaking an experiment in travel. We have arranged to take a two week group tour of the Highlights of Morocco. We think this is our first multi-day group tour experience since we hiked the Inca Trail in Peru over a decade ago and are quite nervous about it. We will let you know whether we work and play well with the other tourists or become the annoying couple that delays everyone by arriving late in the morning complaining loudly about the hotel breakfast. Stay tuned.























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