Tag Archives: safe parking

Day 25 – Tango to Évora

Still raining … hm. Ah well. Four weeks are long, but not that long. We have to get going. The seven stork families and their clattering are still very enjoyable background sound to our packing up. Évora is next on our little itinerary. Known for a very well persevered roman temple and a lovely medieval walled old town. It is actually part of the Unesco heritage list.

preserved by being turned into a medival storage bnuilding

We found a parking spot near the university within the wall – a good spot to explore on foot – strapped into our gear and faced the ongoing drizzle. It still turned out a pretty good location. Yet, there was a constant battle going for our moods between the grey wet drizzle from above and the picturesque sights right in front of us. We held on, mood wise, and Évora started to evoke other medieval old towns we have seen in the past. For me, it reminded me most of Avignon. Recent Carcassonne came to mind as well, although this was bigger and had a much more lived in feeling compared to the open air tourist attraction vibe of back then.

Lunch was a brilliant experience at an all vegetarian place trying to reinvent local traditional tastes in a vegetarian way. It was buffet style pay-by-weight and we both overstuffed our plate to make sure we can get a taste of everything.

… to make space for more

On our way here, we passed a tantalising window display of an arrangement of pastries. All kinds of tarts, including the mandatory pastel de nata as well as a local treat. The time on our parking ticket ran out, and so we split up. I went to renew the ticket and Nina did some window shopping with Number 3. Once reunited, it was time to tackle the treats! We had one of everything as well and sat down in this barn of a café. It was clear that looks were not what they were going for, but the vibe (and the pastry) were great. We sat right next to grandpa in his break, sipping a coffee and getting a quick round of candy crush in.

It was still raining when we got on our way to Lisbon. After half an hour, we decided that arriving was more important than saving some money and we hopped on the toll motorway. Some tolls we wanted to pay anyway, to get a chance to cross into town over one of the two colossal bridges connecting the south shore with Lisbon proper.

Earlier today, we finally abandoned the idea to switch up accommodation from campground to cheap room. So we arrived at the dreaded Lisboa Camping & Bungalows – and the grey sky amplified everything that seems horrible about this place. Overpriced, under maintained and horribly noisy due to two motorways surrounding it. The things you can get away with for being the only camp in striking distance of the city centre. A white whale could opt for one of the camper parkings, but we cannot.

Town really has to make up for this … at least tomorrow should be the last of this weather.

Wroooommmm …. woooooosssshhhh … wrooooooommmmm ….

  • farewell Mr. Donkey
  • Separation of labour
  • no respect for history
  • cool aqueduct, although this one is from the 16th century
  • preserved by being turned into a medival storage bnuilding
  • a lot of the towers have been integrated into other buildings
  • central square of Évora
  • never spare an oppertunity for an “i was here”, even in a chapel
  • tiles all around, even in the churches. Odd reminder of Iran
  • A lot of austentatious main altars all around
  • that stopped Nina in her tracks
  • Local variity, with cocoa
  • weather bad!
  • guy in a park
  • random free roaming peacocks
  • jup, up there he is
  • walking off our lunch …
  • … to make space for more
  • we take … all of them, please
  • this was when Number 3 called quits
  • 110m Jesus in Lisbon. Build as thanks for no WW2
  • Ponte de 25th Abril over the River Tejo
  • Flo unnerved by driver over noisy grates
  • one more motorway intersection and we are here ….

Day 95 – Into the heat (again)

Our lovely room for the night

Our lovely room for the night

I might be getting old, but curfew rocks 😉 – we slept blissfully in the clean beds of the Congregation and got a hearty breakfast to kick start our day. I even went for the rice for the first time (the whiter than white bread is dreadful).

Because we pushed so hard to get to Ruteng yesterday, there were only manageable 120 km left to go to hit Labuan Bajo, the western port of Flores. On the way, we rode through forested hills on windy mountain roads, then through a large plateau covered in ride fields and onward, always down and west. This will be the general direction until we hit the end of Java in a month or so.

We arrived before lunch time and were happy with the first hotel we picked from the lonely planet. $17 NZD for the night, including breakfast and it had a secure spot for the bike. While still checking in, we got the first offer for a boat tour to the islands of the Komodo national park (the main reason to come here). The price was mid-range to what the lonely planet suggests and I felt absolutely no desire to shop around the harbour and main street to compare offers in the afternoon heat, so we took it.

So touristy, they even have Nutella! And no, I didn't have a crepe

So touristy, they even have Nutella! And no, I didn’t have a crepe

Labuan Bajo gives us a first taste of regions “developed for tourism” and I am getting wearier about being fleeced or taken advantage of, but so far our open and straight forward approach has worked for us. Still, seeing whites on the street and being the constant target of sales pitches is surely not something that we will overly enjoy.

… said he and went all out tourist for dinner 😉 We had fancy Italian tonight, costing about a third of what we would pay in NZ, but after almost exclusively eating in warungs with the locals for the last week, this felt supremely decadent. The pizza was OK, but we both miss our favorite Italian restaurants: Renato in Frankfurt and Scopa in Wellington.