More fun in the (small) city

We have been enjoying our time in Evora and getting to know the city quite well. It's actually a quite small city - Maddie can walk from one end to the other and back. I'm taking Portuguese lessons from two different college girls in town, which is doing quite a bit to help us get around and feel comfortable. In all, we're starting to feel more at home in the city and are loving the history, culture, and warm weather!

 Flowers in the public garden

 Cafe kids!

 Fountain in the public square

 Playing King and Queen in the public gardens

 The Temple Diana 

 Temple Diana Park

 The back side of the Temple Diana

City Life

We have been enjoying spending our days walking around and exploring the city, visiting cafes, going to the playground, checking out the historical sites and generally seeing what the city has to offer. It's hard to believe that we've already been here a month - the time is going by so quickly!

The Howell men at the Cafe.

The Howell ladies.

Guinea Pigs and fowl for sale at the open market in Estremoz.

Meat and cheese for sale at the market in Estremoz.

The Temple Diana

In front of a Cathedral

Cathedral steps close up

Every adventure ends with a trip to the playground!

Minhirs

On Friday, we took our first out of town adventure and went to see some minhirs. It's akin to the Stonehenge of Portugal. We took a picnic and enjoyed walking around the standing stones. Along the way, we saw a lot of sheep, some goats, and a local farmer plowing his field. We also saw our first cork trees (it's the main export from the area). In all, it was a really fun adventure and I'm sure we'll go back.

The Public Fountain

We recently discovered a public fountain near the Town Hall that is perfect for kids to play in on hot days. As there have been no shortage of hot days here lately, Maddie and Otis were keen to enjoy it!

Dance Festival

This weekend there was a dance festival in the town square and it was quite interesting to see. While there were numerous hip hop groups, we were most interested in seeing the traditional dancers. It was a lot of fun.

Snacks in the square 

The musicians 

Cute kids dancing

Daddy's work shirts

Flat Ramona

Maddie made a flat Stacey doll for a school project not long before we left. While in Virginia, she told me that she colored it to look like Ramona and the paper doll has since become known as Flat Ramona. I think it's a great way for Maddie to have a "friend" with her on this adventure. She's really gotten a kick out of taking Flat Ramona everywhere with us! We're all excited for more Flat Ramona adventures!

On the swings 

Playing at a different playground 

Out for lunch

Getting to Evora and First Impressions

Getting to Evora turned out to be an adventure unto itself. As we were getting ready to leave Virgina for the airport, our flight was delayed so much so that we would miss our flight to Lisbon. Because of that, our trip was delayed for two days. We finally got out on Saturday and the flight was largely uneventful. I wish they would have turned off the lights sooner on the plane, though, so the kids could have gotten more sleep. We had to get off the plane on the tarmac and take a bus to the actual airport. During that ride, we saw a rainbow, which I took as a good sign for our time here. Customs and immigration were very, very easy to get through. We got a small SUV for a car and it's a good size for our family. The first song we heard on the radio was Gotye, which I also took as a good sign for our time here. Luckily one of Eric's co-workers was on our flight and was able to take some of our luggage in his car. Otherwise, I'm not sure how we would have gotten it all to fit. We had an hour car ride to Evora, during which Otis fell asleep. Maddie, however, did not. Instead, she puked on my jacket in the back of the car because she was so tired. Finally we arrived at our apartment and met some of Eric's co-workers. The apartment is not quite up to our standards (it's missing an oven, not great walkability, washing machine barely works, etc.), but is decent. We'll be moving into another apartment in a week or so that will work better for our family.

Evora is a relatively small city. Everyone is very friendly, though most people speak no or limited English. Inside the walled city more people speak English, as they have more tourists come through. People seem to be very fond of kids and Maddie and Otis are both constantly getting their hair tousled and kisses on the cheeks from strangers. There's an interesting mix of urban life as well as rural (the roads are shared by all kinds of cars as well as farmers in hay carts pulled by horses). Driving has also been an interesting experience. The use of lanes is fast and loose, as is the speed limit, though it seems to work quite well. We are figuring out the grocery store and have found the price of wine quite fantastic!

We're starting to feel settled, get a sense of the city, and get adjusted to the time. We have many great adventures ahead of us, I'm sure!