We planned to visit the Lisbon Aqueduct (Aqueduto das Aguas Livres) today before our journey back to Spain. According to the hotelier, there is no direct bus or tram from our hotel. We have to walk. According to the map, it was supposedly a 20 minutes walk. However, after walking for 20 minutes under a scorching sun, and still no where near it, we decided to drop it. After all, we had a tight schedule to adhere to today.

We travelled south of Portugal for our journey back to Spain. That means, we got to drive the Ponte 25 de Abril Bridge! It was said that this bridge is longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Franciso. Not sure about that. But, definitely looks identical except that this bridge is unique....top part is for cars and below is for trains!

After crossing the bridge, a short drive brought us to the Monument to Christ (Christo Rei).





This monument with a 28 meter tall Christ on the top was built in 1959 to thank God for sparing Portugal during WWII. On the first floor is a small art gallery. This picture caught our eyes...

An artistic impression of the Holy Family

From the first floor, we took an elevator to the top of the monument (82 meter high) to have a sweeping view of Lisboa city before continuing our journey to Evora to visit the Igreja de Sao Francisco.

City centre of Evora

Evora's city centre is very small but full of live. We reached Evora near 12 noon...bad timing. The church is closed for siesta for 2 hours! Despite our tight timeline, we didn't want to miss out on this church. So, we went for a light lunch (though we weren't hungry) to kill time and had a chestnut snack to kill more time!

Finally, it's time and here we were in the Igreja de Sao Francisco.

Main altar

An interesting expression of the suffering of Christ on His Passion

After seeing these pictures, you may be wondering why had we waited for 2 hours just to visit this church when seriously there isn't anything exceptionally special about it. Well, it was the Capela dos Ossos or Chapel of Bone that drew us there.


The above inscription at the entrance of the chapel reads "We bones that are here, we are waiting for yours".




If the inscription at the entrance sounds rather eerie and the idea of covering the interior of a chapel completely with the bones of 5000 people sounds gross and inhumane, it really wasn't once we understood the intention.












Built in XVI, the bones were taken from the graves of the town. It was built as a prayer and meditation on the human condition place of the Franciscans.

At the end of the chapel where the altar is lie the grave of Bishop Jacinto Carlos da Silveira, killed in 1808 by the French soldiers of Napoleon.




And at another far end of the chapel, the corpses of a father and son was hung there as it was believed to have been cursed by the dying wife/mother for ill-treating her to death (myth or fact?).




Due to the two hours delay (which we had no regrets), initial plan to visit another two interesting churches enroute to our destination in Spain had to be scrapped. So, the rest of the day was spent driving monotonously through freeways and country roads.

The excitement came when we were near our destination, Guadaloupe. We entered the El Escorial region at last light. It is a mountainous area, which means everywhere was pitch dark. Coupled with Spain's lack of good road signs, were still wondering till now how had we managed to find our place! Upon exit of the main road, we had to drive through a deserted village (those kind that appears in horror movies) and another populated village with no one in sight. At the end of this village is a road with either a left or right turn with NO SIGN BOARD to show where each direction heads to. With half a tank of fuel left (hadn't seen any petrol station for the past 3 hours!), at 7pm and no map or GPS, we were definitely panicky. But, our faith saved our night. At this critical moment, a group of children (not more than 10 years old) with two adults appeared. We grasped that opportunity to ask for direction. And guess what, the children were the ones who saved our night (the adults don't understand English and weren't able to help). We were hesitant at first....direction from children....they are so young, are they sure? Eventually, we took the leap of faith and viola, not only were we able to make it in time to top up our fuel before the one and only petrol station closes for the night, we even made it in time to top up some food at the only supermarket in Guadaloupe 10 minutes before they closed. It was indeed a blessed trip!

As recommended by many, we stayed at the monastery-converted hotel, Santa María de Guadalupe. Guadalupe is a very small village in the El Escorial region. The hotel was easy to find...can't miss it the moment we drove into the village. But getting to the parking is a little challenging.

Anyway, reception was friendly and here we were, room 218 as suggested in forum.


The heavy metal door definitely add to the historic atmosphere of this place! Love it.

Room 218 of Santa Maria de Guadalupe Hotel

It was said that this room used to be a chapel for the monastery, thus the humongous space and superbly high ceiling. It was a lovely room with lovely view except that it was very chilly given that it only has one heater to serve the whole room. We were shivering throughout the night.

The hotel was the most expensive among our lodging in Spain. We decided to go for it still partly because of its history and partly because a portion of the profit made goes to supporting the Franciscan Monastery next to it. So, it's money well spent.