Conimbriga and Tomar - Romans and Templars

Today was a wide-ranging history lesson for us. The day kicked off with wind and rain but by the time we arrived at Conimbriga by 11:30am it had tempered to showers. That was lucky because we spent the next hour wandering around a very large site of  Roman ruins. In fact, they are one of the best ruins we think we have seen. Apart from being from impressively early on in the Roman era, 1st century AD, they included the remnants of some staggering large individual houses. One of them was over 3500m2, with its own private complex of warm and hot rooms and plunge pools. Many of the rooms still had complete mosaic patterning. We both love the paved roads that we've seen at a number of Roman ruin sites because, typically at the arched gateways, you can see the grooves ground into the stones by generations of wagon wheels. This place didn't disappoint. Also, for the first time we saw columns constructed from bricks made from tapered segments to form circles.

An enormous (but not the largest) Roman house, Conimbriga

Of extra interest was the evidence of pre-Roman habitation uncovered by the archeologists excavating the site. It was possible to see how the Romans had built their huge forum over a scattering of Iron Age dwellings, and in another location a new concrete roof has been installed to protect the remains of adobe dwellings thought to date from the 4th century BC. It was fascinating stuff. So far the archaeologists have only excavated about a tenth of the entire site, so who knows what remains to be uncovered. It is definitely on my bucket list to take part in an archaeological dig, somewhere, somehow. Perhaps the basement of an ancient Ceret stone-built house?

Having battled wind and showers we set off for Tomar, the Portuguese hub of the Knights Templar in the 12th century. However, hunger got the better of us at 1.30pm and we pulled off the road to a small restaurant to grab something to eat. There were plenty of cars parked up so we thought the place must be popular with the locals. It was packed. The waiter kindly cleared a vacated table for us and was extremely pleasant in explaining the dishes of the day in English. He was in fact superb throughout the meal, taking time out from waiting on the many Portuguese families having a hearty family Sunday lunch, to make sure we were happy and enjoying our meal. All we basically knew was we had ordered one lamb and one fish dish. It was slightly surprising what appeared, no doubt typically Portuguese. John's huge chuck of fish, about 7cm of a fish's torso, was topped with a large clove of raw garlic and accompanied by chunks of cooked cabbage and boiled spuds, my lamb looked rather pressure-cooked. However it was absolutely delicious and accompanied by salad and chips. Pretty basic fare, but very much what we have come to expect here. Boiled potatoes appear at most meals. Wine this time was a very pleasant litre (yes a full litre) of red. We did leave some!

Into Tomar nice and early, and being a little town were able to park right outside the hotel for once. Bonus today - it is the first Sunday of the month, so all sights are free. We saved 7E each at Conimbriga, but a whopping 15E each at the castle and convent above Tomar. That's the steepest entry fee so far, so a good day to happen to be here. Even at 15E each, it would have been a good value visit.

Some lovely tiles in a very old chapel

The Templar Castle was spectacular. It somehow looks superbly Templar and mediaeval, and the octagonal oratory is an amazing space and in beautiful original condition. They have recently cleaned whitewash off the walls to expose all the original frescoes underneath. There's an absurd organ pipe some 10m tall and perhaps 60cm across. It must have sounded amazing.

Spectacular Templar castle

The circular Templar chapel

No less amazing is the Convent of Christ which was built in the 15th century onto the existing Templar castle. We spent most of 2 hours looking into all the myriad rooms, chambers, kitchens, cells and so on until we were kicked out for the 6pm closing time. It's the best monastery we've been to, and we've seen a few. A massive complex, and full of interest.