Leaving Evora, moving on to Tavira

Monday we walked around the small town window-shopping. We were scouting out sandwich making items for our bus ride to the southern coast of Portugal. Our habit is to eat out once a day & prepare sandwiches for our other meals. Yogurt is a breakfast staple as well. A well-stocked supermarket is hard to find but little mini-markets are keeping us in rolls, cheese, luncheon meat &, our secret ingredient, Philadelphia cream cheese.

Shana in Evora

The narrow winding walkways between the century-old buildings provide visual stimulation as we wander. Luckily Evora is small enough that we were not afraid of getting lost!

Keith & Shana outside Evora's city walls

Evora's Cathedral from the back

The ride to Tavira in the coastal area of Algarve lasted over four hours to Lagos before waiting for another local bus to take us the last 20 miles. It was very dark when we arrived in Tavira, the streets empty and no taxis to be seen, so we trusted Rick Steve’s sketchy map and walked to the unmarked door of Rita’s Quartos. I was very glad we had asked the woman at the hotel in Evora to call ahead for a reservation earlier in the day! Rita’s Quartos had no email or internet for such preparations to be made stateside.

Again we were offered a second room, both rooms were very large with nice bathrooms. The two previous showers were so small you are in trouble of you drop your soap; so small you have to suck in your tummy and squeeze through the doorway sideways!

After dumping our bags we went out for a late bite to eat, Indian Food, one of my very favorites! There are at least four Indian restaurants in this small town. It was a treat!

Keith on Tavira's Roman Bridge

All sightseeing activities had to wait on our laundry, self-service facilities only. As we waited for the wash we enjoyed a couple of tiny, but extremely tasty cups of coffee. While the loads dried we walked back to the bus station to buy tickets for the next morning’s journey to Sevilla, Spain.

We put the clothes back in our rooms and went back out to see the sights. Tavira straddles a river that starts in Spain. There is a bridge that is from the roman times. There is a castle fortress and many architecturally interesting buildings. We enjoyed walking around town, it was small, full of beautiful flowers and not crowded.

Tavira