I don’t know about you, but I need a break from the overwhelming volume of pandemic stories, so I’m going to return to my travelogue series on our trip through Spain and Portugal last fall. The day after my adventures in a Lisbon ER, we were due to drive from that city through the Alentejo region to Badajoz, a mid-sized city just over the border in Spain. Although we could have taken a major freeway most of the way there, we chose to stick primarily to two-lane highways which took us through agricultural landscapes and the historic city of Evora.

We decided to take it easy on ourselves and didn’t leave our apartment until around 11 a.m. so we didn’t face major traffic. Once again, our travel companions were the heroes, with Paul navigating while Julie drove. This gave my husband, Harry, and I the opportunity to gawk like the tourists we were at all the scenes we rolled past. Our route took us first along the wide Tagus River, bustling with river traffic ranging from fishing boats large and small to enormous tankers and cargo ships. We then crossed the river on the Vasco da Gama Bridge, opened in 1998 and, at over 10 miles long, the longest bridge in Europe. On the far side, from its viaducts, we observed people out on the mudflats at the river’s tidal edges, some fishing and others gathering shellfish.

From there we proceeded east, passing through alternating sections of olive groves, vineyards, cattle pastures and, most stunning of all, cork oak forests. Crowding right up to the edges of the roadway, these trees ranged from small and fairly regular in form to thick, old, gnarly, twisted giants. Those from which the bark recently had been harvested stood out brilliantly against the deep green of the leaves and the dark gray of the outer bark: deep red-orange wood showed in wide bands on trunks and up along major branches. I found it hard to fathom how a tree could survive (and thrive!) after the removal of so much of its bark; a remarkable plant!

Some two hours later we arrived in Évora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a town with a long history dating back to the Romans and encompassing the Moors and the Inquisition. Because of our leisurely start, we couldn’t devote as much time to exploring its many features as we might have liked, but we were able to hit the high points in just a few hours (and grab some refreshments, as well), as everything in the Old Town is fairly compact. We parked outside the old city walls    and approached the north end, where the remains of an old aqueduct stand.   The Old Town appears to be very much a part of modern life, for the narrow, cobbled streets were lined with two- and three-story buildings housing little shops and cafés on the ground floor and apartments above. On the main square we stopped in at the Town Hall in search of tourist maps and restrooms, and discovered an unexpected treasure in the remains of a Roman bath unearthed when the building was undergoing renovations.

We saw more evidence of the Romans nearby in the remains of a first-century A.D. temple.    It provided a nice frame for a view of our next stop, the Évora Cathedral.     The 12th-century cathedral, built on the site of a mosque which was built atop an early Christian chapel, presents a heavy, solid, Gothic/Romanesque façade. We decided we couldn’t afford the time for a full tour, but we did get a peek at a beautifully ornate Baroque side chapel inside.

We made our way back to the main plaza  for some cool drinks and a little souvenir shopping before winding our way back through quiet streets to our car. Refreshed and reinforced with some fresh bread, meats, cheese and fruit from a little market we passed on our way, we headed out for the afternoon trek to Badajoz.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor