Inter-city Train to Evora and Sights

There was only one train to Evora, so we left early to make the connections. As we walked through the metro stop for the National Zoo, which connected to the train station, we saw some of the same tile art by  artists whose art we had seen in the tile museum. The intent of these artists was for individuals to see their art as they go about their day. It was fun to see the art in the place they had mentioned.

I was hoping to see some cork trees. The scenes below were very common on the trip, and we passed a large collection of harvested trees, ready to be loaded onto trucks or a train. Since the area is known for cork forests, maybe that's what we saw.

We found this luncheon hideaway near the St. Francis Cathedral.

 

 

 

 

The Botanical Garden

Since rain was predicted for the afternoon, we decided to switch our plan and visit the Botanical Garden or Estufa Fria. It was located near the Parque Eduardo VII, which was easily accessible by bus and featured an expansive esplanade as well as what looked like a topiary maze. 

 

 

 

The botanical garden had three sections – a cold greenhouse, a warm greenhouse, and a sweet greenhouse, as well as many ponds, chickens, ducks, and swans. My favorite was the warm greenhouse with its many cacti.

Many of the plants were not identified with a label, so I had to be content to just enjoy.

I bet Gates a gelato that the small turtle on the rock was a statue. I had watched it, and it had not moved. But then it did move...

The construction of the greenhouses was very interesting. The roof consisted of bamboo poles arranged in a slat formation (first photo) which allowed rain to enter. The second picture is of the intricate metal supports for the glass. That greenhouse  had small windows that could be opened (not sure how) to control the temperature. The open windows are show on the right below.

I liked how water dripped off the ferns into the pond.

An interesting curly cactus on the left and, sadly, graffiti on some of the large cacti.