1 year, 178 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020
Our last day in the lovely town on Évora. By surprise I had received an email yesterday in response to my enquiry about entry to the cave and we had one of the few appointments of our Portugal trip - a meeting at 10.30am outside of the Gruta do Escoril to be taken down into the cave. We arrived in good time and waited for a few minutes for Sonia to arrive. There were also another two visitors (in a camper van from Setubal near Lisbon). We had to wear masks inside as is the norm in Portugal which probably explains their very low rates of Covid compared to the UK and attractive hairnets to keep our helmets clean. It was an impressive networks of caves of which we only saw a tiny percentage with Neolithic drawings and scratched art. We also spotted a few bats flying around. By the end we were getting on well.
On the way back from the caves we decided to visit some of the many Neolithic standing stone circles which we had driven but a few times. The day had got hotter so we enjoyed a choc ice whilst sitting outside of the interpretation which unfortunately became melted all over the back of my shorts. I was mortified and had to spend the rest of the morning trying t keep my back turned away from anyone we happened to pass!
The standing softens were up a long track with large pot holes but it was well worth the effort to get there.
We returned to our apartment and a rapid change of clothes (the chocolate has seemed to come out) and after lunch and a rest I headed out into the town to pick up some gifts for Mum, Hester and Sophie. Evora is such a nice town and I think I’ve got some very tasteful things which will probably be saved until Christmas!
Before we headed out there was a pretty spectacular sunset mainly because clouds had begun to gather.
This evening we gave Pingo Doce a miss and headed out for a restaurant that I had identified before we had even arrived in Portugal. I had managed toybook it by meal the day before and surprisingly had received a reply. It was a bit of a walk past our parked car but once there is was really upmarket but reasonably priced. We had a medley of starters including crackling and cheese before the main event of suckling pig, was he down by a very good vine verde and polished off with a dessert. We were stuffed when we eventually rolled out. It was hot and humid which should have given us an idea of the weather to come.
We sat on our terrace watching flashes of lightning and hearing low rumbles of thunder around the city at the ned of our trip to Evora.
