Tomar and Castelo de Vide

 Our tour this morning started with a visit to the hilltop Convent of Christ (the Convent is surrounded by the walls of the Castle of Tomar).  The "Military Order of Christ" was established in 1318 (but the Knights Templar existed outside of Portugal prior), and those in the order were known as the "Knights Templar". This UNESCO site has some fascinating information on the convent, and as we all know, the Knights Templar have a very interesting (and I would also argue confusing as well) history. We were told that King John III changed the order to be a more traditional religious order (in the 1500s). The order was secularized in 1789, all religious orders were forced out of Portugal in 1834, and dissolved in 1910, when the monarchy ended. It was revived in 1917, as an Order of Merit, headed by the President of Portugal, as a decoration in recognition of outstanding services to the state.

Henriquinos (Prince Henry the Navigator), was part of the order (before he had to ascend the throne, and thereby marry to have legitimate heirs) and settled in Tomar.  In the first half of the 15th century he ordered a Gothic nave added to the church, and with it came the frescoes.

The main cloister (they had 8 over their history) was constructed by order of King John III in 1557, and is one of the best examples of Renaissance architecture in Portugal.

From Tomar we headed south, across the Tagus river, for a stop in the town of Castelo de Vide.  It is located in the Alentejo (pronounced All-N-tay-jo) region, which is known for its unique cultural traditions. 

The Jewish quarters there is one of the best preserved in Portugal and is an example of the Jews' presence in Portugal dating back to the 13th century.  The synagogue from that time is now a museum, and if Nélia hadn't pointed it out we would have missed it.  I believe she told us that King Manuel was the only one who persecuted the Jews (but they simply hid in plain sight and took in refugees from other areas).  Overall it was a lovely town with lots of steep cobblestone alleys.

  

We had a few hours there to grab some lunch, but I mostly wandered around before settling on a shaded bench in the town square to eat my pear.  One of my tour-mates works for the Australian government in the U.S. so I enjoyed talking to her about our shared interest in that country.

Our next drive took us through beautiful fields with old cork trees and wild lavender - I wish we would have been able to stop so I could get a picture.  Anyway, our drive ended at a cork processing warehouse in Azaruja (at a company called Cortiçarte).  I found this stop to be incredibly fascinating, who knew cork was so interesting?  Our tour guide was excellent and had us all laughing with his deadpan humor.  Did you know that if you plant a cork tree it will take 40 years before you'll get any cork?  And did you know you can only harvest cork every 9 years after that or you'll kill the tree?  They can only remove the cork bark from May to July, so they have to obtain enough cork to last the rest of the year without closing their factory (they only have 7 employees and they need cork from 10,000 trees to have a year's worth of work).  Oh, and to complicate things even more, they can only extract bark from the bottom of the tree.  If they extract the bark too high the next batch of cork will becomes too thin and requires extra time for the tree to heal and regrow the next batch.

They dry the cork bark for two months, then they have to boil the cork (for 1 hour) before they can start to work with it.  You may be wondering why they would boil the cork, cork is waterproof after all.  The reason is that the temperature of the water changes the molecular structure of the cork so that it becomes flexible (and stays that way for about 2 weeks before it hardens again).  Side-effects of the boiling process is that the dirt sinks to the bottom and the bugs and bacteria that may have been in the bark die, and this flattens the cork (they they stack it on pallets to keep it that way).

They pull the cork bark off by hand/axe to this day, no machine is able to tell how deep to go yet without killing the tree.  The number one use for cork is for stoppers (wine, champagne, etc.), mostly because that's where the cork producers can make the most money.  The cork is all graded manually by the employees (they're taught to visually distinguish the grades of cork) and the poor quality, or leftover, cork is shredded for insulation or sound absorption.  They use cork to make furniture, fishing pole handles, shoes, clothes, purses, and more - it is incredibly versatile!

Buçaco - Coimbra - Fatima - Tomar

 We headed south through Buçaco National Forest (pronounced boo-sack-oh) to visit the stunning Buçaco Palace Hotel (located inside the forest). The former convent was destroyed and then used to build a 19th Century Manueline-Gothic style hunting palace for Portuguese royalty.  It was breathtaking and looked like something from a Disney movie!  Interestingly, at one time no women were allowed in the park, with the Queen being the only exception.  

Our next stop was Coimbra (pronounced queem-burr-ahh) for a visit to their university. The city used to be the capital of Portugal until 1241 when they moved the capital to Lisbon to help maintain their control of the south of the country. Coimbra University is one of the oldest universities in all of Europe. It is a public research university and was actually established in Lisbon first, back in in 1290.  It relocated a few times until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537 (by order of King John III, or João III). Not only does Universidade de Coimbra have a long history, it was the only university in the country until 1559.

The Portuguese language was formalized (from the Porto accent) in the 1200's by King Dionisio I (known in English as King Denis I), and he helped to establish the university.  The students are known for their outfits (Nelia kept calling them costumes, and they're not quite uniforms, so I'm calling them outfits) which include a long black cape, still worn to this day (picture from 2019 here).  São Miguel Chapel was part of the original royal palace from the 16th century, and when they moved to that location the university decided to keep the chapel, thinking the students might attend (it seems they never did while they were students).  The students only seem to use the chapel when they want to get married.

My biggest interest was the university library, but unfortunately, you cannot take photos in the main library.  We entered through the old prison, at the bottom of the library.  The prison had also been part of the palace, and it was then used by the university (they had/have very strict rules).  Even if the students were incarcerated they still had to go to class, accompanied by the Academic Guards.  The 2nd level had books from the 1600's and 1700's and the library, as a whole, has 5,000 manuscripts and over 60,000 books (including many first editions).  Almost all of them have been digitally scanned and can be accessed by the students.  Here's the Wikipedia photo of the library, but it doesn't do it justice.

We tour other parts of the former royal palace such as the throne room, where doctoral students present their dissertation.  It was a lovely visit and I got to see more azulejos, which always gives me a smile.

Our next stop was the catholic shrine dedicated to Virgin Mary in the town of Fatima.  It's well known the world over, but I honestly didn't find it all that fascinating.  We moved on to the town of Tomar (pronounced too-mar) where they were known in the 1500's-1600's for making paper and textiles.  Their main claim-to-fame now is being the former headquarters of the Order of the Templars (our hotel was called "Hotel Dos Templários". 

Medieval Portugal Tour

 What I had thought was only a morning tour turned out to be a full day, so that was a nice surprise.  They called this a "Medieval Tour", which I suppose is true, but after Croatia it didn't seem that old to me.  Anyway, we began in the town of Guimarães (pronounced ghee-mar-aye-ja) for a stroll through the old town.  A beautiful town, it was much like Croatia in that it was very easy to take loads of pictures when the spring flowers are blooming!

We then headed to Braga, the capital of Minho province (pronounced mee-ni-you).  It was founded by Roman Emperor Augustus between 15-13 B.C. and was named Bracara Augusta.  Home to Minho University it still retains the gardens from the original Episcopal Palace:

Lots of lovely old buildings with tiled facades and flowers on balconies.  They used to pay for the land on which they built, so the old buildings are often skinny with several stories to cut down on the cost.

It was soon time for lunch, so we headed to an unobtrusive restaurant called Cruz Sobral.  It's the oldest restaurant in Braga and is still run by the same family that started it in 1926.  A delicious soup (possibly potato and cabbage, we weren't quite certain), roast veal and potatoes, a fresh salad (grown by the family), and a nice sponge cake for dessert.  

Back on the bus we made the drive to Bom Jesus do Monte which sits atop a 1,300 foot hill.  It's now  UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is stunning.  It's actually a huge architectural-landscape complex which they began building in 1494 and even in 1722 they were still adding things!

It's one of the most popular places  of pilgrimage in Northern Portugal, but since we weren't pilgrims we walked down (not up) the 500+ steps.  Definitely my favorite spot thus far on the trip!

Porto, Take II

 We had a morning tour of the area and were on the bus and ready to go at 8:30am.  An overcast morning drive down Avenida Da Boavista (the longest avenue in Porto, and also the one on which our hotel is located) to where it ends at the Atlantic Ocean.  The Boston Crew had walked there yesterday (it doesn't look far on a map, but it's a few miles there and back) and said the city park (Parque da Cidade) is lovely.  From there we turned south and headed down Av. de Montevideu before a quick stop at Jardim do Passeio Alegre - best known toilets in Porto!  Maria, our guide for the morning, was quite serious about that because, as it turns out, the toilets have Art Nouveau tiles inside (and no, you cannot use the restroom there for free, you must pay).  The garden had some lovely fountains as well, but we didn't stay long enough for me to have a proper perusal.

Bathroom tiles

From there we headed to the Stock Exchange (it's not really a stock exchange anymore, but the name stuck), the home of the Commercial Association of Porto.  It's a beautiful building with a neoclassical facade.  It houses lots of paintings and lovely carved granite.  But the pinnacle is the "Arabian Hall" - a stunning room full of gold-gilded tiles from floor to ceiling, absolutely spectacular and well worth the 18 years it took to finish building.  

While there we learned about some of the history of Portugal.  King Pedro IV (he was also King Pedro I of Brazil, just to keep things confusing) had a daughter named Maria. She became the only European monarch to have been born outside of Europe (though she was still born in Portuguese territory).  Anyway, the death of Maria's grandfather (King Dom João VI) sparked a crisis because her father, King Pedro had claimed thee independence of Brazil (and himself as Emperor there).  There was another male heir Miguel (or Michael for those of us English speakers), but he'd been exiled for causing problems.  Since King John hadn't proclaimed which of his sons was the next ruler, and Brazil didn't want to be united with Portugal under one monarch again, Pedro decided he'd give the throne to Maria (only 7 at the time), she married her Uncle Miguel (crazy, but true) and he would act as regent until Maria was old enough to rule.  A civil war broke out in 1828 (known as the Liberal Wars) after Miguel agreed to the plan, but then arrived in Portugal and quickly deposed Maria and proclaimed himself as King.  Maria was restored to the throne in 1834, and her former-fiance (Uncle Miguel) was exiled to Germany.  The final king of Portugal, Manuel II, was exiled in 1910 after a revolution which ended the monarchy.

Whew...that was your history lesson for the day.  From there we took a wet walk over to Igreja de Sao Francisco (Saint Francis Church), a Gothic church covered in gold-covered, wooden, Baroque carvings.  

No photos allowed inside, which I thought was a tad odd since it's no longer a church.  The Italian Friars arrived in Porto in the 13th century, but since the friars were originally beggars the bishop wouldn't allow them to live inside the city walls.  They eventually grew quite rich and built the church in the 14th century.  The friars left in 1834 and the church closed.  When they reopened it as a museum they decided keeping the bodies buried there was no longer appropriate, so they moved them to some catacombs across the street.

Another rainy walk towards the southern side of the Duoro River, over Ponte de Louis I (Louis I Bridge was built by a student of Eiffel), and into VIlla Nova de Gaia.  

Although only across the river, it's a completely different city and actually has a larger population than Porto.  When in Port, you do a Port tasting.  We headed to Burmester Winery to learn about Port making and then to try some.  To make port they had wine spirits to fermenting wine which stops the fermentation process and keeps the sugars.  The Duoro Valley is a demarcated wine region (much like the Champagne Valley in France) and is actually the first such region in the world (and therefore the oldest).  The grapes are grown in the valley, harvested by hand, and then transported to Porto to be aged.  They can use 100 different varieties of grapes to make port, but Burmester uses only 18.  The white port was very sweet, hints of honey, and even the tawny port was sweet, but I still preferred the white.

A rainy walk back to our bus, and then we were deposited back at our hotel.  A snack-lunch of tuna and crackers (my long-time readers will recognize my preferred travel snack), while drying out and waiting for the rain to end (by 4:30 it had stopped) gave me time to journal and upload photos before heading back out for the evening.

My fado performance for the evening was at Ideal Clube de Fado, where they advertise you can "Discover the most authentic tradition of classic Fado in an intimate concert with renowned Porto artists."  It was highly recommended on the internet, and for good reason!  As their website states, 

"There are many ways to sing the Fado, but among our artists we cultivate a passion for the origins of this song, which was included in UNESCO’s lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. At Ideal Clube de Fado, we believe that each concert is a live act of creation, a unique experience that is renewed every day and drinks from the inexhaustible source of this strange way of life that is to be Portuguese."

There article here attempts to explain the difficulty people have in defining fado (and what fado is not). 

Porto, Portugal - And so it begins

 Blessedly, my travels to Portugal (by way of Philly and Madrid) were uneventful, sleepless, but uneventful.  My nascent Spanish does help in reading Portuguese (and some in listening comprehension), but does not help in figuring out how to pronounce things.  Portuguese is the 5th most spoken language in the world, granted, that's mostly because of Brazil, but it's still an impressive statistic for a language that doesn't come to mind when I think of languages most spoken around the world.  Oddly enough, the first Portuguese speakers I ever remember meeting was when I lived in Japan.  Anyway, back to Porto.  It is home to the second largest university in the country which was founded in 1911.  The country has both private and public schools (for primary, secondary, and university level).

I arrived at my hotel around 1pm, and my tour manager, Nelia, met me in the lobby - I must have been easy to spot because she asked right away if I was with Gate1 (maybe traveling alone does have its advantages at times).  I was relieved to know my room was ready and I could go relax and try to get a power nap (6am the previous day was a distant memory of when I'd last slept).  After gaining some energy I decided to walk to the market.  It was a fantastic spring afternoon with mid-60's weather, plenty of sunshine, and barely a cloud to be seen.

Casa da Musica

There were some lovely parks, the iconic Casa da Musica, stunning tile-fronted buildings on the Rue Alvares Carbal, and plenty of little shops.  I walked maybe 2k before I started feeling like I was getting blisters on my heels.  I had needed to stay awake, and it was lovely outside, so turning back despite not reaching my destination didn't bother me - I didn't want to start my tour with blisters anyway!  The walk did keep me awake and out of the room long enough that when I returned I was able to do some journaling before heading down to the tour orientation and welcome dinner.

Oddly enough, I'm the only solo traveler on this tour, normally there are a small handful of us.  Not a worry, I found a lovely group of 11 friends/family from Boston and they welcomed me to the open spot at their table.  We are 42 people total, and we did go around the room and give a brief introduction, but I couldn't hear everyone.  This tour is also comprised entirely of Americans (no Brits or Australians this time), although about 1/3 of those are first generation immigrants to the U.S.  We have Russians, Iranians, Chinese, and Sri Lankans which helps keep things interesting.  Dinner was a tasty meal of pumpkin soup, sea bass, cabbage, mashed potatoes, and a chocolate mouse torte for dessert.  By 9:30pm all of us where exhausted and everyone started to head off to bed.  

 

Next Stop: Zadar

 When we got up it was still cold and still raining, but the forecast for Zadar still said "low 70's and partly cloudy".  With optimism that we'd drive out of the rain, we headed south.  The scenery was lovely and after leaving the park we began to notice a plethora of little stands along the side of the road, in front of homes.  They were selling cheese and honey.  I finally decided to stop at one and buy my parents some honey.  A mom, her daughter, and her six-month old granddaughter were manning their small booth.  The daughter explained that some stands had sheep's milk cheese, but hers was from cows.  She then let me sample some of the honey options.  Since I'd never heard of "Pine Honey" before I decided to try that one.

We continued on and drove through several tunnels, one of which was over 2 miles long (good thing we weren't playing the hold-your-breath-in-a-tunnel game on that one!).  We made it to Hotel Kolovare with no issues and were once again able to check into our room early.  We stowed our stuff and started walking towards the Old Town.  We passed through the Land Gate and quickly decided gelato was in order. 

From there we wandered along past tons of tourist shops, cafés, and clothing boutiques.  The old Roman Forum, the largest in Croatia caught our interest, and the Church of St. Donatus was there as well.  We paid our 20 kunas to get in and see the inside - although not that much is left of the 9th Century church.  

The architecture of these old stone churches and buildings, the narrow stone pathways - we love it - a feast for the eyes.

We continued on to the water for a visit to the famous sea organ.  We enjoyed the somewhat random, but harmonic, sounds the Zadar Sea Organ on the city's waterfront.  It plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps.  By 3:30pm I decided we should get a late lunch (or early dinner, take your pick), so we wandered until we found a spot with food from the Dalmatian Coast that included people watching opportunities.  Skala Restaurant fit the bill perfectly and I enjoyed a tasty Dalmatian stew with gnocchi before we wandered back to our hotel.

We settled in by the pool for a bit, and since it is Sunday I listened to my church service back home on YouTube.  By 6:30pm we decided warmer clothes and a walk along the water were in order.  Too cloudy for an actual sunset, we still immensely enjoyed the views, and got some nice photos of the sun peaking through the clouds as it sunk below the horizon.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

 What a change in weather from yesterday!  Overcast skies and very cool, it only reached 53 degrees today!  We had a leisurely breakfast, extensive options compared with our last hotel, and sat talking while hoping the sky might clear.  By 10:30am we realized that was unlikely to happen and decided to start searching for warm layers to wear.  I had brought none (anticipating humid, 80-90 degree days), so the best I could manage was capri leggings and 2 long sleeve shirts - no poncho and no umbrella.

We rode the "Panoramic Vehicle" to Station 3 on the upper lakes where we got out to chat with the information booth personnel.  They suggested Hike H so that when we made it down to the boat dock we could decide to cross over that lake (and go back to the hotel) or take the long boat ride over to Hike F (which was the route I'd taken the day before).  Today's hike, despite the damp, chilly weather, was spectacular!  Less crowded and more waterfalls to be seen; a new stunning vista around every bend.  

I was cold the entire walk and the last 1/3 of our hike was through the rain.  Seeing how there was no other day for us to do the walk, we definitely made the best of it.  Cold and wet, my Aunt was done by the time we finished, no more walking for her today.  Since it was about 1:30pm we dried off, hopped in the car, and hit the road in search of food, which isn't as easy as it sounds when you're inside a National Park.  We stumbled upon Winnetou Pansion (Bistro Winnetou).  Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (one of the best-selling German writers of all time). In the 1960s several Winnetou movies were coproduced by German–Yugoslav producers and became part of their Pop Culture.  A warm hot chocolate, delicious grilled chicken and potatoes - they really hit the spot.  

It was still raining when we returned to the hotel, so we decided to try out the whirlpool.  It was large, but only had two jets; we were thankful it was warm enough that we could spend a long time in it without being too hot or too cold.  After exiting the whirlpool we watched TV and chatted in our room until we decided we needed another food run.  We ended up back at Bistro Vučnica for dinner, since we'd enjoyed it for lunch the day before.  Since my Aunt brought her Uno deck all the way to Croatia, we decided tonight was the night to play!  We enjoyed a few rounds while waiting for our food - they serve excellent pizza (perks of Croatia having Italian neighbors perhaps).