Faro, Portugal. Home of the Chapel of Bones.

Thursday 14/3/13

OK, it was walkies time. We set off on our economy sightseeing walk and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air. First stop was an interesting little church that I'd read about. The Carmelite Church was literally just around the corner.

Sometimes I think some things are just

a little bit over the top.

Is the person who gave this to the church

an organ donor?

Sometimes you see things that make you do a double take.
(Thanks for pointing that out Suzanne.)

Tied up and whipped.
I have nothing to say.

Then we got to the interesting part. The Chapel of bones. When this chapel was built it displaced a cemetery that held the remains of previous monks from the church. Someone thought it would be a good idea to use the bones and skulls of the monks to build a chapel. Yes, it's true.

Yup! 1,245 skulls. No, I didn't count them.

I've probably posted a few to many photos, but it was intriguing. I'll let the photos talk for themselves.

is my head really that big?

The local cat was in residence.
I guess having a dog here would be a bad idea.

With the Chapel of Bones out of the way we walked towards the harbour. I didn't know this, but Portugal, like the UK, used to have a very strong motorcycle industry before the Japanese onslaught. Unfortunately it is no longer. We saw a few shabby examples of the bikes on our walk.

This Macal needs a little TLC.

A cool little fifty cc Famel powered by a Zundapp motor.

These are becoming desirable now and good condition bikes are fetching around two thousand euros. That doesn't sound like much, but with the cost of living being so low here, it's bloody expensive.

We had a quick lunch and continued wandering toward the harbour.

Rest and recovery for the long walk back.

It was a long stroll back to the hotel via a supermarket to pick up some supplies for dinner in our room. We had a quick drink at the bar and Suzanne thrashed me (again) at Scrabble. It was interesting playing Scrabble with a Portuguese letter mix. Yes, it's different to the English version. The letters are different with some not included, and the points value was different as well. It didn't help me beat Suzanne though.

Portuguese Scrabble letter mix.

It was a good first day in Portugal. Tomorrow morning we'll be back on the bike and heading north to see what else we can discover.