October 16, 2021 – Lisbon to Evora

October 16, 2021 – Lisbon to Evora
We left the hotel at 9am and drove first to Azeitao where we stopped at a tile factory. The process of making tiles was shown to us . We attached a women painting a large tile mural. Then came the hard part, we had to paint a tile. Carolyn did a nice job. I did mine very quickly and it looks it.
Next we drove down the street to a cheese producer. Phillipa explained how sheep’s milk cheese is made. She asked for 6 helpers and had them take the raw cheese, remove the whey, and form the cheese. We then had lunch where we started with the aforementioned raw sheep’s milk cheese, ricotta (made from whey), and the final cheese. They were all delicious,. For lunch we had pea soup with mint, turkey and potatoes and carrots. Very nice lunch.
On the road again, we headed east and stopped at a cork factory. We learned all about the method of getting cork off the trees to processing it for production of corks and other items
Finally we arrived in Evora where we had to exit our bus and walk up a steep hill to get to our posada. It is a former convent and our rooms are referred to as cells. We are in cell 116. It is a beautiful room overlooking the pool.
We set out on an orientation walk to get to know where ATM’s,, pharmacies, and grocery stores are.
Dinner was at 7:30pm. We had pork cheeks on stuffing that was very good.

We are tired after a long day. Going to bed early tonight.
Tomorrow, we tour the town and have a cooking class.