Portugal Vacation - Tomar

7/8/17

Upon arriving in Tomar, we learned that there was a medieval festival right next to our hotel, Hotel dos Templarios.  It was a little outdated, but very clean and centrally located with an excellent A/C system.  At around $80 per night, it was the best deal of our entire trip.  This hotel was also very conveniently placed right next to the medieval festival.  Allison refuses to believe that I did not plan for this.  We had some $1 sangrias before heading to the city center for our reservation at Taverna Antiqua, a medieval themed restaurant.  This one I did plan for.  Before dinner, I met a chain mail clad Templar Knight.  Made my day.

"Amanha nos passeio em Jerusalem." 

We are ready to repel the Moorish invaders.

7/9/17

We didn't have much time on our schedule for Tomar, so we scheduled a Tuk Tuk tour for the morning before continuing on to Sintra.  Our tour started in the city center and the Igreja de Sao Joao Baptista, which was built in the 1400s by King Manuel I.  It's not a "must see" type of sight, but the exterior blends in well with the main square and it's pretty easy to pop in and check out.

City center.

We made our way to Igreja de Santa Maria dos Olivais, which was built in the latter 1100s and served as a burial place for members of the Knights Templar.  The Knights built a tunnel to this church as an escape in case their castle fell under siege.

Convent/Templar escape tunnel.

After checking out the churches, we stopped by Museu Dos Fosforos.  I did not expect to enjoy a matchbook museum, but it was a fun little stop.  We followed up with a stop in a local tile gallery, where we were able to buy a few pieces to take home and get framed.  These pieces now reside in our living room, over our wet bar.

My favorite part of the tour was being able to see the Pegoes Aqueduct.  We were even able to walk along the top due to the maintenance pathways, which are apparently pretty rare, so it made me feel fancy.  Construction on the aqueduct began in 1593 to deliver water to the nearby Convent of Christ.

Tuk tuk tours of Tomar.  Say that three times fast.

On top of the aqueducts.

We only really had the morning to see Tomar, so we were not able to devote much time to the Convent of Christ and Castelo do Tomar, which is one of my biggest regrets from our trip.  The convent and stronghold was founded in the early 1100s by the Knights Templar and successfully repelled invaders from the army of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur.

Restaurants

Taverna Antiqua

Taverna Antiqua is a medieval themed restaurant in the main square.  In a masterful stroke of luck, my chainmailed friend that I met earlier in the day and all his Templar buddies had a dinner reservation for 30 that night.  Our entire meal consisted of slamming beers out of old steins and listening to drunk Portuguese sing songs while eating venison. Favorite meal of the trip.