After loving Lisbon, we wrapped up our tour of Portugal with a few brief but spectacular stops.

We stopped in Evora, and walked the town to find the Royal Church of St Francis and next to it the Capela dos Ossos – Chapel of Bones!

The sign over the chapel door says: “We bones that are here await yours.”  It was eerie and amazing!

The level above the chapel was a museum filled with nativity scenes that had been collected from around the world.

We spent the night just outside the town in a convent (Convento do Espinheiro), and this was our room!

Not really, our room was down the hall. These are views from our terrace.

During our stay we enjoyed a wine tasting, a tour of the grounds, a swim in the pool, and a walk to the chapel (no bones). We even visited the oldest olive tree (over 1100 years old) on the property.

Next day we drove to the Algarve region of Portugal. We cautiously walked the ruins of a fort in Sagres and were amazed by the beautiful view of the coastline.

Then we drove to Farol de Sagres, the lighthouse on the most southwestern point of the Iberian Peninsula, for more stunning views.

Lagos was our next stop, and we walked across the town to an elevated boardwalk to see more of the coastline. Amazing!

Wandering the town, we enjoyed the lively crowd, refreshing mojitos and delicious food. It was a wonderful last day in Portugal!

A few observations from our travels in Portugal:

The summer weather was beautiful, but cooler than we had anticipated.

Many of the cities and towns have serious hills!

The churches of Portugal have the most ornate interiors we’ve seen. Everything is gold-plated.

Food was fresh, delicious and inexpensive.

We enjoyed sweet port wine more than expected.

Also unexpected was how great the regular dry wines are in Portugal. Any local wine was great. Not one bad glass in two weeks (and we drink wine every day).

The people of Portugal are friendly, helpful and fun! We had a great visit!