Obrigado Portugal

Portugal has been our favourite country so far! Why? Because English is widely used, it is much cheaper than Spain (a beer or coffee is $AUD1.10), most of the country is against the Atlantic (making it bearable) and it reminds us more of the Greek villages. Other high points are that the countryside is greener, lots of olive trees and wine and the Portguese can pay their household bills using any ATM!!! The Portguese language is not like Spanish, it has many guteral and "sh" sounds reminding you of Dutch or even one of the Slavic languages. "Thank You Portugal!"

We spent our last day in Portgual visiting Faro, a city of 55,000 against the Atlantic, in the southern province of Algrave near the Spanish border (near Sevilla). Faro has a strange claim to fame. Inside its main church, the Igregia de Nossa Senhora de Carmo is a little chapel called the Capela dos Ossos or "Chapel of Bones". Have a closer look at the photo of it and you will see, yes, human skulls and bones!!! This chapel is constructed not with bricks but the skulls and femurs of 1,245 monks who served in Faro over the past few centuries! Gruesome but true!!!