Hi everyone,
I told the fam that I had to lead with the housing story, even though we all were very impressed with Evora. For the thumbnail, I’ll open with this pic of the Roman temple there — the sign said originally thought to be to Diana, but now thought to be from the cult of the emperor. Dated 50 CE.
But more for the fun story.
We booked a two bedroom apartment near Lisbon airport through Booking.com. I am sure I had K’s approval of this particular, but after being in the place, she denies it. 😋🙁
Wednesday, I got a text from the person, asking when we’d be there. That she wanted to meet us there. I said 7, after consultation.
We made it at 6:58, having cut it a bit close getting out of Evora and there was one section of red line on G maps.
When I parked in front of the address, I looked at my phones and now there were directions to a lockbox, with combination. 🤔 Then why did we set a time to meet?
It gets A LOT better. EE (who yesterday groused that his name changes in every blog, so today is going to be WHN [whatshisname]:)) went with me to find the lockbox. She gave an address around the other side of this building. We found the address, but no lockbox. We looked around the main door, there was a side door, there was a column with something on it. No.
I look back at my text messages and there’s a photo, which I took as a marker of where the second building was. Instead, it was a pointer. We look at the picture and it has the mural in it that is on the wall above a kids playground that is surrounded by a yellow picket fence. Here’s the photo.
It’s dark remember? As we walk back towards this fence, I see a dark blob on the inside of the fence and say “i see it.” Yes, the lockbox was there! WHN was able to just get his hand in and put in the code and get out the keys.
But we’re not done! The key to the outside is sticky — we wonder if we’re at the right door, but we get in, then up to the flat and that key works pretty well. We walk in and WHN hits the light switch —
NOTHING!!!We try this and that; I text her. She says there’s a button on the wall to turn. It does nothing. WHN wanders the apartment and there’s nothing on and no light switch works — there’s no electricity! He finds the fuse box but…
It looks good, but we wonder if that right hand switch should be up. She and I are texting and she tells me to turn off a heater before pushing it up. I don’t know what she means (yet, it’s dark) but we push it up and we have lights!!!! Glory to God! :)
“Heater” turns out to be 3 space heaters, which heat the three main rooms. Adequately. But it was 2C here last night.
And, now, for jinky (is that the spelling?) #xxxx — the kitchen is freezing because the window is open!!! We all work at it, but it won’t close all the way. It is eight glass slats that fold out and open and the mechanism is broke enough so that it won’t close. I texted her.
Then the toilet seat broke!!! Ah, well.
I told K our host won’t want me giving a review. 😡
The day started perfectly well with a fairly early getaway and a quick stop (with a scream of “you can’t get in there” as I whipped into a parking place) at a pastellarie (bakery) in downtown Almancil. It was the first place that had no English signs 🤔 As WHN said “all you have to do is point at what you want in the case” and “Americano” and “latte” are universal. It was good, but not great. But cheap (this has become a thought)
It was over 2 hours from Almancil to Evora. M was navigating and took us to a parking lot just inside the castle walls. It was full and I followed the sign out and the traffic flow (one way). the road got narrower and narrower, to the point the car, which loves to beep, was beeping all over the place. We climbed up and up till the road turned through a low arch and into a square with parking around it. There were no places as we circled, or none I could fit into. And every turn the car beeped because the room between parked cars was limited. There was finally a small spot after going 360 and K stood and held it till I got there — I ended up backing in, but they were out before I did. We weren’t sure the car to my right could get in — it was there when we left.
We went down the hill to see the aqueduct — which is in good shape (and which, it turns out, was the arch we went through to the parking lot!), then climbed the hill to the temple.
WHN, who didn’t have pastry, was hungry, so we had charcuterie at the restaurant on that square. It was good.
Then to the cathedral, ,which had great views from the tower. No one died climbing the circular staircase to the top.
It was a very impressive place, started in the 12th c.
The next stop was another chapel — this one was the chapel of bones. I kid you not.
They charged admission.
It was almost 5 as we left there. I was talking about all the gelato places I had seen and was doing little but getting grief for “ruining my dinner.” 🥲 I never got that gelato.
Back to the car, off to Lisbon for the housing adventure, etc.
Dinner was found after a “4 1/2 stars nearby” search — an Indian place. It was quite good and the owner chatted us up the whole time — we were the only ones in the place. K had korma, I had dal, WHN had chili chicken, and M had tikki masala. The owner was Punjabi (she made it clear, not Indian, not Pakistani :)), who had come to Portugal via Singapore. Interesting case.
Then home for cards, where it got down to WHN and K tied at 5-2 (?)…the championship will have to wait, or remain a tie.
That’s the big day.
Friday in Lisbon. There was a story ‘what to do with 1 day in Lisbon” and the guy’s first suggestion was “check into the Four Seasons.” 😂 The rest of the list was less funny and not helpful.
Down to the last day…tears.
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