April 22, Elvas
Leaving Évora, we first stopped in the town of Vila Viçosa, dubbed "the marble town". Buildings and streets were covered in marble that came from nearby quarries. The enormous ducal palace, which was closed to visitors that day, was an impressive site, with multiple colors of marble, including blue, on the facade. Then we walked through a 13th century castle, saw its church and adjoining cemetery.
We arrived in Elvas, a town largely surrounded by a 15th-century aqueduct in surprisingly good shape. After checking in to our hotel, we walked up the hill to the castle and admired the view. On our way down we stopped into an old plum factory and viewed some of the tools used in the trade, and examples of package decorations from the past.
April 23, Elvas
In the morning, we drove to the medieval town of Castelo de Vide - like many of these towns, a castle was at the top of a hill and the town lay below it. The town has many remnants of the large Jewish community that lived there starting in the 13th century, up through the Inquisition of the 16th. We walked up the steep and narrow streets to the castle, stopping along the way to go through a Jewish museum that was thought to have once been a synagogue.
We wandered back down the hill to the main square, where there were some interesting sculptures and other artwork.
Then we came across this and didn't know what to make of it.
Once we looked around the corner, however, we understood. Rather than spoil the surprise by including the image inline, I'll have you click here.
Our last stop of the day was to the Coffee Science Center of Delta Coffee, a brand found in coffee shops throughout Portugal. Coffee lover that I am, I found the presentations disappointing; many of the supposedly-interactive displays didn't work, the history of how coffee spread throughout the world seemed overly sanitized, and the cup of espresso I was given at the end wasn't very good. There was an interesting display of uniforms/costumes worn by certified coffee sommeliers (or whatever the equivalent word was.)
