Day 8 - Evora - The Algarve

Here we are in Evora. Me and a vicious cold. Janet got it a couple of days ago and I knew it was just a matter of time before I get it. We had to find a pharmacy to get ourselves some cold medicine and what not. 

We had dinner in the hotel last night as a group. The worst meal of the trip so far. They didn't put out signs as to what things were so we were guessing at what we were eating. Nothing was overly delicious. Well, except the deep fried cheese thingys I found.  They had the desserts on the same table as the "salads" and cold items, which just confused most of us. I know it's a first world problem, but it threw us all off a bit. 

Those brown, golden things to the right of my plate (above the chips) are these delicious deep fried cheese (and I think shrimp) croquette things. We found them a couple of times on the buffets during our trip. They are quite tasty. 

Up bright and early the next morning, we met our guide to walk us through Evora. Our first stop was the the church and monastery of Sao Francisco. 

Next door to this church is the Chapel of Bones. 

I'm not really sure why this little place fascinated me so much, but it did. The tour guide did an excellent job of setting this up for us. She recognized that some people would be put off by it and presented it as while we're alive we all see our differences. The color of our skin, our religions, our values etc. But when we die, we're all the same. Bones. 

It's an interesting way to really reflect on life and the end of life. 

Anyhow, the chapel is made up entirely of human bones. The bones all came from graves in and around the Evora area. In the 16th century there were over 42 monastic cemeteries in the city and was taking up too much space. The monks wanted to honor the dead still, and found a creative way to extract the bones from the ground and used them to build and "decorate" this chapel. 

Translation: “We bones that are here, for yours we wait”.

There were mixed feelings about this chapel. Some folks didn't want to go in at all, and that's ok. I think most of us were fascinated at the macabre display. 

Once done here, the tour would be taking us up a hill to see another cathedral. I choose to not go and instead sat with a couple other folks and have a cup of coffee. 

On the bus and headed to our next stop, The Algarve. It's the very southern part of Portugal and is a beach destination for a lot of Europeans.