Surprise!
December 2
Day 52
Silves, Portugal
We finished our week in Portugal touring the Southern coast a bit.
But got totally distracted by one beautiful place.
We found out Dec 1 was a holiday when our first venue was closed.
Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo. The home of the Bone Chapel.
Happy Portuguese Independence Day!
There were 3 French tourists and us standing there looking bewildered.
The Frenchman asked me “What is ‘holiday’?” (In French, I love trying to speak French!)
In my 4 year old level of French I answered that is is a day where someone doesn’t work.. hahaha
Fortunately, they laughed too and understood we were out of luck.
Stay tuned though.
So we checked with Mr. Google and found our next stop, Silves Castle, was open.
This place was originally built by the Visigoths (=very old), then the Moors improved it then the Portuguese finally got it for their own.
You can walk the whole perimeter on the top walls.
The Portuguese seem to have the same belief as the French about railings. If you fall off it’s your own fault.
We found delicious and huge castle worthy coffee.
And a house for sale.
With a garage…maybe? Tony’s on it.
There was an 11th C Church nearby, of course. Built on the foundations of Mosque. I learned that this was done because both faiths understood that the place was sacred ground.
Silves Cathedral.
I think this was St Mark’s Chapel.
He had a lion in front on the floor.
Definitely Christmas and no crucifix, which I appreciate .
This guy’s been here a while.
We found no Templars or Grails.
So we moved on.
Next we walked through the walled city to the museum.
There were doors.
Doorknockers
And a lovely gate in the city’s fortress walls.
They chose to build this museum around another creepy well. With stairs to the bottom.
But surrounded it with history.
These guys look like my grandkids.
Thank goodness for ancient pottery.
There were so many beautiful Moorish and Portuguese artifacts found in the fortress.
What a day!!
We closed the gate.
Said goodbye to our neighbors.
Got a quick bite to eat.
And drove back to Tavira in the sunset.
3 Responses
What a marvelous day- and fabulous pic- thank you
Now that's a coffee! And some door in the wall but I bet Tony could just step up there in one step. Those faces do not look you adorables, my guess is you are suffering from grandchild deficit and having delusions!
The iron work on that gate is amazing and I loved the picture of your neighbors- that's something I've never seen before! You're so funny!