Our way back from Sagres, Portugal took us through the medieval city of Evora, where we stayed the night in the Loios Pousada, which was converted from a monastery which was founded back in 1487. I don’t think the pool was there back in the days of the monks though.
Pousadas are historic old buildings (castles, abbeys, monasteries, etc) that the Portuguese government has converted to hotels and inns.
Evora, considered the home of the Portuguese renaissance, had a beautiful 18th century cathedral right next door to our rooms.
The walls of the sanctuary were completely covered with blue and white ceramic tile mosaic pictures and the alter area was quite a contrast with all the gold gilding.
The city was settled much earlier, however, and still sports one of the best preserved Roman temples in Portugal. 14 of the original columns still stand of the 2nd century temple of Diana.
As we were gravely standing there contemplating the age and the history of the place Sarah commented that “those Romans sure ruined a lot of stuff. We’ve seen it all over the place!”
Apparently we need to do a better job of explaining history to her…
After a night in Evora it was on to Madrid. We arrived right at rush hour, and wouldn’t you know the GPS took us right through the heart of downtown. I drove right through that!
Madrid was a bustling place with lots of beautiful buildings and green spaces.
After weeks of trying to decipher Spanish and Portuguese menus we decided to go for comfort food when we spotted the Irish pub.
The food was good and the proprietor was friendly, although somewhat aghast when he discovered that we lived in Clermont-Ferrand and had never been to a rugby match (Clermont was about to play in the European Cup finals).
After our fish and chips we strolled through a huge park in the middle of the city.
There was even a small lake where Sarah insisted that we rent a rowboat and paddle around. We chased swans and admired the fountains.
The weather was in the mid-80’s and gorgeous. In retrospect it was actually warmer and nicer (in early May) than most of the summer here in Clermont turned out to be.
After Madrid we headed southeast for a stop on the Mediterranean before heading home. The scenery along the way looked very much like the American southwest. We understood why the Spanish settled where they did in North America – it looked like home!
Our last destination before home was small coastal town of Altafulla near Barcelona. We stayed at the hotel Gran Claustre, an old abbey near the center of town.
It was definitely cooler on the coast but we enjoyed one last beach stroll and one last beachside feast of fresh mussels (and chicken wings).
Then it was back to town to enjoy sunset poking around the old twisting streets and terraces. The next day we made the long slog back home. The traffic picked up steadily as we approached Barcelona and by the time we reached the French border it was pretty heavy. For almost two weeks we had enjoyed almost deserted autoroutes and mild weather.
Back home we had yet MORE snow almost three weeks later!
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