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!

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). 

Preparing for Spain

 As many of you know, I'm off to Spain today!  For a country that has been on my bucket list for the last 15 years you might be surprised I've not been there yet.  And all I can say is that I've been waiting for a tour to go on sale, and it's just never been as low as I wanted it to be!  Finally, after hearing over and over again on my tour of Portugal how much I would love Spain if I was enjoying Portugal (which I was enjoying), and after reading a fascinating book about Andalusia, I decided it was time.  Sale or no sale, it was time to book a trip to Spain.  The Gate1 Travel Single-Supplement sale came around last fall and when I saw that the fee (you have to pay extra to join tours when you're traveling alone, and they call it a "single supplement") for Spain was $1000 and that it was waived as part of the sale, I knew I had to take the leap (even if I paid full price for the tour).

 To prepare for the trip I've been re-reading the above-mentioned book, Ornament of the World.  The combination of things I learned in Portugal, and the things I learned about Jewish history from my tour of the POLIN museum in Poland, have certainly helped me keep the timeline and understand the context of the book better this second time around.  It's incredibly fascinating how the author ties together the history and how events impacted the religions and cultures of the area.

 

Also, for the first time I'm trying out an app called TimeShifter which I read about in How to Win at Travel. I'm hoping it works and helps to mitigate (even eliminate) my jet-lag and make the tour much more enjoyable for me.  That being said, it required that I be up at 3am this morning (after several days of earlier bedtimes and earlier wake-up times) and my flight doesn't leave until 5:30pm tonight!  The plus side to that is that I did the majority of my packing, cleaned my house, mowed my lawn, and still had time to write this post before heading out.

 Oh, and another first happened last night as I was checking in for my flight.  It wanted me to pay $75 to check my bag, which was a surprise because the last time I flew to Europe I only paid $40!  I did some searching and found out that the fee for checked bags to Europe is indeed $75 and now I had a dilemma.  I had planned to check a bag, but hadn't really packed anything yet, and was the extra pair of shoes worth $75 EACH WAY?  So, for this 15 day trip, I managed to pack in a carry-on.  Will my feet hate me when I have to wear the same pair of shoes every single day?  Maybe, but I'd rather spend my $150 on something else.  If only my 18-year-old self, packing for a semester abroad in Italy, could see me now!

My apologies for the teaser, as there's no way I'll end up blogging on the tour (even if I end up not having jet lag), but it's always good to have something to look forward to!  Ciao! 

Lisbon, Cascais, & Sintra

Former convent that houses Parliament

 Our tour began with a drive just up the hill from our hotel to King Edward VII's Park where we enjoyed the view of the hills of Lisbon and out to the Tagus River (Rio Tejo). In 1903, King Edward VII of England came to Portugal to commemorate, and reaffirm, the political alliance between the two countries. Prior to that visit the 64 acre park was called Parque da Liberdade (Liberty Park).  The huge statue (it's over 130ft tall) of  Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquês de Pombal sits in the middle of the roundabout.  He was a fascinating character and also the namesake of our hotel.

On All Saints Day (November ) in 1755, Lisbon experienced a devastating earthquake (Voltaire even wrote a poem about it).  "The total number of persons killed included those who perished by drowning and in fires that burned throughout Lisbon for about six days following the shock."  The Marquês de Pombal was a statesman, diplomat, and prime minister to King Joseph I, and following the disaster he took charge of the reconstruction.  Amazingly, in less than a year the city was partially rebuilt and with the world's first earthquake-resistant buildings!  He's also credited with creating the demarcated wine regions of Portugal (with the Douro Valley being the first in the world). 

Calçada portuguesa pavement on Avenida da Liberdade

Our next stop was the lovely Belém Tower from the 16th century, a fortification that was used as the beginning point and end point of the voyages of the Portuguese explorers.  It was also often used as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon.  The Knights Templar were very powerful and wealthy at that time, and they had a hand in the voyages and discoveries made.  You can see some of their insignias on the fortress (Templars cross, nautical knot, rope motif, etc.).

On to the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoverers), a stunning work that commemorates the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator (discoverer of the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde).  It stands 170ft tall and "is made up of a group of sculptures that represent the prow of a caravel (a small sailing ship constructed by the Portuguese to explore the Atlantic Ocean). Leading the ship is Prince Henry the Navigator and behind him are many other great Portuguese discoverers", including Vasco de Gama, Magellan, and Henry's mother.

A short drive to the Jerónimos Monastery, where we had to wait in a very long queue before granted entry.  Blessedly, our dear guide for the day, Maria, had plenty of information to pass along while we waited.  Under King Manuel I, the Portuguese explorers discovered the ocean route to India. "The monastery was built on an existing church dedicated to Santa Maria de Belém. Its purpose was to assist seafarers who passed the area and...[T]he church was inaugurated by King Manuel, with plans to expand the grounds into a monastery."  The architectural style used became known as Manueline, but, since it took about 100 years to build, you can notice aspects of several styles within the monastery.

The beautiful limestone façade includes a statue of Henry the Navigator above the twin front doors.  The main chapel has the tombs of King Manuel I, and his wife, Queen Maria, (because of the India trade route the King had elephants brought back to Portugal and their tombs rest on elephant statues); the church also is the final resting place of Vasco de Gama.

Amazingly, this church survived the 1755 earthquake, even with the large dome having no support columns!  The only items damaged were the statues inside the niche's on the wall; they fell out (breaking) and were never replaced.

From Belém we headed to the lovely Portuguese Riviera town of Cascais (pronounced kaash-kai-ss).  We stopped for lunch, and I ended up spending most of our free time at "The Palm Tree Beach House" restaurant for lunch, so thankfully the food was good!  It used to be a fishing village, and then the noble families started coming on the weekends.  Even Salazar had a home here during his reign.

Our next, and last stop on the tour for today was the mountain town of Sintra.  They're famous for their travesseriro and queijada de Sintra pastries.  I tried them both and prefer the travesseiro pastry (made of puff pastry and an almond and egg yolk crème-filling), but perhaps that's because I tried it from the bakery (Piriquita) that invented the treat back in the 1940's.  Queijada de Sintra have been around for centuries and are "prepared with a combination of queijo (cheese), eggs, milk, flour, and sugar". 

Our main reason for visiting was not, despite my introduction, for tasting pastries.  We had come to tour the spectacular National Palace of Sintra (technically it is now a series of royal palaces).  It was full of azulejos patterns I had never seen before, so that alone made it worth a visit.

There were lots of interesting stories and legends about the different rooms in the palace, including the Swan Room, the Magpie room, and the Sala dos Brasões.

We didn't have much time left over for exploring Sintra, but what I saw of the town was lovely.

Back in Lisbon, and off on my own, I headed to the oldest bookstore in the world.  I'll admit I had high hopes, but was rather disappointed with the Livraria Bertrand.  Had I realized it's now a nationwide bookstore chain I might have lowered my expectations a bit.  Either way, it was established in 1732 and is recognized with a Guinness World Record.

On my walk back to the hotel (I did detour and go to the bay before heading back towards the hotel) I found even more azulejos patterns (my obsession is full-blown at this point)!  I also saw the famous yellow funicular and stumbled upon good lookout point too.

References:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Lisbon-earthquake-of-1755

https://www.lisbon.net/monument-discoveries

https://www.jeronimosmonasterytickets.com/history/

https://www.tasteatlas.com/travesseiros  and https://www.tasteatlas.com/queijada

Lisbon's Countryside Towns

 Thursday was a tour of a few of the surrounding towns, with our first stop in the medieval town of  Óbidos (pronounced 'o-bee-dosh' by Nélia).  They formerly used windmills in this area to grind grain, so they are somewhat a symbol of the region, however, they must not sell well because they weren't to be found, in replica form, in most of the shops I visited.  I've been searching, since Porto, for a pair of dangly earrings shaped like tiny azulejos.  Unfortunately, it has been in vain thus far; every shop I've perused (in lightning fashion) has only a poor imitation of the tiles: a glazed dome over the tile pattern, partially obscuring the pattern so you'd never imagine it to be a tile from Portugal.  

Anyway, the town has been well restored, so the exterior of the homes there still appear as they may have in the 1500's, and the city wall is still incredibly well intact.  It was considered one of the Queen's towns for hundreds of years, so their taxes all went to her, and not to the King.  As such, many of the Óbidos festivals reflect that heritage.  Understandably, they have a huge Medieval festival each year (even the Portuguese attend), and they have a large chocolate festival.  In this area they sell and, I assume, make Ginja, a sour-cherry liquor which they serve in chocolate cups.  I popped my head into a few churches, but there was no real "tour" so we were free to wander.  I struck out for the walls of the city to catch the views of the surrounding landscape (while quickly checking the numerous shops for the aforementioned earrings).

Back on the bus we headed north to the city of Alcobaça (pronounced Al-koo-baas-sa) to visit their monestary, also known as Santa Maria de Alcobaça Church.  It's the first building in the country to be fully built in the Gothic style.  in addition, it's the largest church Portugal, with over 100 meters from the door to the alter.  Despite the Gothic inside, the exterior façade is in the Baroque style. 

Construction was begun in 1178 by Cistercian monks and the church was consecrated in 1252.  The other interesting aspect of the church is who was entombed there: King Pedro I and his lover, Inês de Castro.  The story, as told by Nélia and what I've read online have similar narrations, but the exact timeline is still fuzzy for me.  Either way, he was madly in love with her, claimed they had been married in secret (all before he was actually king), but his father, King Afonso, had her killed to prevent her family from influencing politics in Portugal and from becoming royalty (by extension) - the usual reasons for that time period, I guess.  Their sarcophaguses were incredibly ornate.  Sadly, many of the statues carved into them are now headless because of Napoleon's troops. 

They believed that the Portuguese buried their kings with jewels (they don't, even though they had incredible wealth), so when the troops found none inside the sarcophaguses they thought the monks had been clever and hidden the jewels inside the statues carved into the outside (wrong again).  The monastery was extensive and in it's heyday had at least 1,000 monks.  Although it was a bit austere, it was a beautiful church, though enjoyed mainly by the monks.  Since they didn't allow common-folk inside until the 18th century, that could explain its plain interior.

From there we headed east to Nazaré which was once known for their small, beautiful fishing boats used in the dangerous waters (there is a bad undertow).  
                                    

The women dry the catch out in the sun on the beach to preserve it for times when the men can't go out and fish.  

They still do some fishing today, not now the area is known for surfing -- especially the colossal waves out around the point that are stories-high.  The area by the beach is extremely touristy, but one or two streets in it all appeared very residential -- no shops, just laundry drying in the warm spring wind.

We got back on the bus for the hour-and-a-half ride back to Lisbon and then had about an hour before our farewell drink and dinner.  Because of the seat rotations on the bus I didn't get a chance to properly meet everyone on the tour, and within a few days most people stop wearing their name tags, so if you didn't catch a name by day 2 or 3 you'll have to ask.  Anyway, I finally met a couple from Ohio that it turns out used to vacation in Australia quite frequently 30 years ago.  Port Douglas and Palm Cove...lovely memories of those places, so it was almost as good as meeting someone from Western PA.  We did get a group photo before heading to dinner, so that was a really nice memento.  Dinner was tasty, but it was stifling hot in the restaurant that night.  I bookended my trip with the Boston crew, rounding out their numbers for one final time.  Oddly enough, it was the first time I could have sat elsewhere (there weren't exactly 42 seats saved), but my welcome dinner and every group dinner after had been with them, so it was only fitting.  Overall, we had such a lovely crew that I can honestly say I could have spent another week with them all.  Who knows, maybe we'll bump into each other on another Gate1 tour someday.