SOME TOURISTY FUN BEFORE A WALK INTO THE FOREST (OR ANDY’S PORTUGAL TRIP PART THREE)

Some touristy fun before a walk into the forest”

Part three in Winemaker Andy Schweiger’s eight-part blog series about a trip to Portugal, where he learned everything one could know about corks, and furthering perhaps the most lively debate in wine: CORKS OR SCREW TOPS?

After a brief meet up with my fellow travelers at SFO, a long flight to Frankfurt, a shorter flight to Lisbon, and a brief bus ride to Evora, our tour was officially off and running (I’ll discuss Lisbon more in a later post as I wound up having more time in that city at the end of the tour). To be honest, I was not expecting the beauty that Evora had in store for us.

This ancient city is still partially enclosed by medieval walls and has been occupied by Romans, Moors, and the Spanish. After a brief refreshing poolside Mojito”you can see some of the ancient walls from our hotel (photo) it was off for a brief walking tour of the city.

The streets were a beautiful mix of cobblestone, granite, and marble.

After a brief stop at a Roman temple, we went into the Capela dos Ossos Chapel of Bones! This is a small interior chapel located inside the Church of St. Francis. Every interior surface is constructed of or covered with human skulls and bones. The motivation of this décor was to illustrate the transitory nature of this human existence”to focus on the afterlife and not this present life. Normally there are mummified remains also on display, but they had been removed for refurbishment”guess they were a little too dusty

A brief shower and another walk and what became a staple of this trip”amazing food. Our group took over a restaurant one evening for what is their house specialty: braised pork and clams. The pork was actually not from domesticated animals, rather wild boars.

A great meal to wrap up our first full day in Portugal as we all went to bed that night ready for the real trip to begin. Tomorrow we are off to the forest to watch the harvest”