August 13th : Lisbon & Evora, Portugal
Today we arrived in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon (Lisboa), south of Spain.
Our destination is the historic Roman town of Evora (pronounced ‘Evordha’) which has been heritage listed by the UNESCO. We ate a rushed breakfast at around 8:15am before joining the tour at Celebrity Central.
The journey took us east (about a two hour drive with a rest room stop). The town of Evora has been built in and around the 5th century centre of town, and the walls were built accordingly (the outer most walls were last built in the 17th century).
Our tour, in sweltering 44’C heat, took us into the heart of the city beyond the reconstructed Roman aqueduct, where our first destination was the church of Sao Francisco, which is adjacent to the Ossuary Chapel, whose walls are covered with thousands of human bones and skulls!
After we had visited the Chapel (which was quite a sight), we headed up to Evora’s Cathedral, an impressive 13th century religious building which stands very close to the centre of Evora’s hill. The Cathedral was very interesting in terms of the intricate artwork and especially the stain glass windows which cast a lovely pattern on the marble floor.
At the very top sits the ruins of an original Roman temple – the temple of Diana – which was our next destination. The ruins are at first quite startling, since there is little to prepare you for the sight once you turn the corner past the Cathedral. It stands alone in a square, next to a restaurant where we ate lunch.
Afterwards, we walked back to the Portas de Moura Fountain, on our way towards some local shops and, finally,back to the bus for the return trip to Lisbon.
Once back in Lisbon, we had very little time before the ship was ready to depart. As such we did not get to spend any quality time ashore. We ended up on the Lawn Deck, watching the Corning Museum of Glass show, whilst enjoying panoramic views of Lisbon harbour.
At 6pm, the ship departed from Lisbon heading to our next destination: the rock of Gibraltar. We will be dining once again at Murano (specialty restaurant) this evening.
As usual, stay tuned for more!