Thursday, Oct 17th, Sintra, Portugal

Greetings!

Today, we went to the last two places we'll see in Portugal - a palace in town on the plaza, and one on the top of our hill.  You're probably getting tired of seeing the most expensive old houses in the world, so I have some good news.  The second one would not allow photography inside the palace.   So you are spared seeing some of the best furniture, paintings, chandeliers, rugs, stairways, and ceilings we've ever seen.

But the first one only had this bizarre rule requiring you to wear backpacks on your front.  Weighed down with jackets and umbrellas (the weather report said rain), it was damn dangerous for an old fat man to be barely able to see his feet while descending long circular staircases.  But I did get to take photos.

Both palaces have had plenty of residents, the kind with more power than any current leaders.  Except for some in the Middle East and Central Asia, it's hard to imagine anything like these will ever be built again.  Hopefully, populist movements will prevail upon such government excess.  And private wealth will find less gaudy ways to show their power.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Thursday, Oct 17th, Sintra, Portugal.

Wednesday, Oct 16th, Sintra, Portugal

Greetings!

Many days on this trip, we've told ourselves that the town we're staying in is the picture-perfect castle on a mountainside, cobblestone-street, cafe on the corner, fountain in the plaza kind of town.

And then we find that the next place is even more perfect.  Well, we're running out of nights, and it's okay because we don't think it can get any better than the town of Sintra.

The town isn't on the top of the mountain because that's reserved for an even older abandoned I castle (the Moors built).  Sintra is just below it, and has three palaces, all of them beautifully designed, landscaped, and furnished.

The one we visited also had a couple of standout features.  First, it had an outstanding garden.  Pat was impressed, and it takes quite a bit to get her approval.  Second, near the top of the property, there is a huge pile of rocks. 

Inside the rocks, a descending circular staircase is carved into solid rock.  The hole in the ground is thirty feet across and 200 feet deep.  At the bottom is a tunnel which exits in front of a waterfall midway down the hillside on the property.

It started out as a vertical cavern in the mountain that the owner decided to expand and carve the staircase.  Now, it's almost as popular as the palace.

We're staying in the deluxe suite in a large three-story house just below the square.  The streets are almost impossible to drive, and it took enlisting the main receptionist to help us drive out car from outside the town to near our front door.  It will stay parked there until Friday morning when we drive to the Lisbon airport for our flight home.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on:  Wednesday, Oct 16th, Sintra, Portugal.

Tuesday, Oct 16th, Obidos, Portugal

Greetings!

Before we see the hilltop, 2,500 year-old, 12th century wall-encircled Lusitano-Roman-Visigoth-Muslim-Spanish-and finally Portuguese town of Obidos, we decided to visit two sites some distance away.  The first (Bacalhoa Buddha Eden) has been called by our hosts "the most fascinating unknown local attraction".  The place itself says it's the "Largest Oriental garden in Europe".

You might remember back in 2001 when the Taliban in Afghanistan blew up two large Buddha statues at Bamyan.  A Portuguese businessman  and art collector  named Jose Berardo decided to respond by creating a 75-hectare landscape covered with large and small Buddhas, and an equally enormous collection of sculptured animals.  The collection, and layout, can be seen on foot or by train circulating throughout the hilly estate.  It has to be seen to be believed.

Beginning tomorrow, the second to last event on the World Surfing League's circuit of world surfing championships will be held at Peniche, Portugal - not far from here at a popular coastal beach promintory.  We drove there to check out the surf, and the location where it will all happen.  This is the same group which held the world longboard championships we visited on Long Island in New York shortly before we left on this trip.  They held a championship in France two weeks ago, and will finish their season in Hawaii in mid-November.

Like Navare yesterday, the waves were small today.  We stopped by the Banana Beach Surf Cafe a little way down the beach from the judging stand, and had lunch in the sun.  Sure hope the surf gets bigger by the finals next week.

We ended the day at our hometown, Obidos.  It contains all of the ingredients of the classic Iberian fortified town whose walls and castles have come to tell the stories of 800 years of struggle by the residents of Portugal to define themselves.  It felt very good to walk the streets and enjoy a beer surrounded by 300 year-old Sycamore trees beneath the castle towers.

To see all the photos taken today, click on: Tuesday, Oct 16th, Obidos, Portugal.

Monday, Oct 14th, Obidos, Portugal

Greetings!

Old buildings have stories which illuminate the dominant forces and events of the past which shaped the people of an area.  Today, we examined two church/monasteries (Batalha and Alcobaca), both built by Portuguese Kings to commemorate battles (over the Moors at Aljubarotta in 1147, and the Spanish at Santarem in 1385), and to house the development of great writings and later great burial tributes.  Their existence for six-hundred years guided the script of an empire, and stored the remains of centuries of actions.

After lunch, we drove south along the coastal towns until we got to Nazare, and to a beach where the largest waves in the world have been ridden.  Beginning this month, a worldwide watch is out for a special contest to surf the biggest by being pulled into the face of the wave by a jetski.  Today, the shorebreak was hardly worth suiting up.  But the daring will arrive when the storms churn up the Atlantic in a few months.

We ended the day packing into our bed and breakfast in Obidos, and taking our host's advice (Thanks Wes and for Anne)  for a perfect dinner at O Melro just down the block.  It seemed like the whole town was there to enjoy great food, wine, and to watch the Portuguese national football (soccer) team lose to the team from Ukraine (2-1).

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Monday, Oct 14th, Obidos, Portugal.

Sunday, Oct 13th, Porto, Portugal

Greetings!

There's a typhoon in Asia, and it's raining almost everywhere else on Earth today.  From Great Britain to China, Iceland to South Africa, all over South America, India to Australia.  A cold front is blanketing Idaho to Minnesota, and the East coast is flooding all the way to Florida.  The only dry, hot, and windy spot on the planet today seems to be California.

We're wet here too.  Except for a short time out to walk to an art museum, we've been inside reading or catching up on a restless night last night.  Early this morning, we bailed on a train trip to to Douro Valley region where we were planning on visiting some farms where port wine is grown.  It was going to end up being an all-around wet experience.

So if you're wondering what these two photos in the post are, here's the answer.  The top one is a duct-taped knight on a horse with lots of modern day objects, and the bottom is the front half of a wooden paddling vessel brought back from a voyage to Japan in the late 1700s.

To see the few other photos taken today, click on: Sunday, Oct 13th, Porto, Portugal.

Saturday, Oct 12th, Porto, Portugal

Greetings!

Our goals today were to do some port tasting, and to ride the river tram out to the beach.  Both involved a huge hike from where we were staying (top of the hill overlooking the river) down to the river, across a narrow bridge, up along the water's edge to the port sellers caves, back and over the bridge and up the other side to the start of the tram, and then back up the hill home.

Pat's using her walking stick, so steps are harder.  My use of Google Maps is still improving for one way roads, and really not very good for the walking feature.

Along the way, we watched people.  That was what today was all about.  Saturday travel days bring out residents more than any other day, and their immersion into our lives changes our experience.  Seeing them discover their country is illuminating.  It adds so much to helping us see the social dimension, so important to understanding culture.

We tasted the port, and learned much about the main port in Portugal.  We bailed on the tram, and took a taxi for the last hill.  We're paying attention to our own capabilities, and making every day as productive as possible


To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Saturday, Oct 12th, Porta, Portugal.

Friday, Oct 11th, Porto, Portugal

Greetings!

With a hundred miles to drive today, we decided to instruct Google Maps to avoid toll roads and freeways.  We used it to guide us along the back roads between Coimbra and Porta, trying to stay as close to the coast as possible.  Beach towns with well-maintained roads aren't plentiful in most countries, and especially in Portugal.  The country does an excellent job between the major cities, but country roads are narrow, varied in maintenance, and not well understood by Google Maps.  It can get you lost, and give you confusing directions.  Today provided us with lots of evidence of that.

Arriving in Porto earlier than we expected, we parked near our studio apartment, and found a small Vietnamese restaurant just down the street.  We highly recommend Viet View, for their food and for how much they welcomed us to their city as we waited to unload our car.

Before stocking up at a streetside grocery for three-day breakfasts and some lunch emergencies, we took a walk down to the university and the train station.  The day after ttomorrow, we're planning on taking the train out to where Portugal makes its port wine.  Tomorrow, we'll try to explore more of the central area of the city by tram and foot.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Friday, Oct 11th, Porto, Portugal.

Thursday, Oct 10th, Coimbra, Portugal

Greetings!

What comes to your mind when I say "great university"?  I'll bet not one of you thought about the University of Coimbra?  Why are we nominating it to that class?

After spending all day wandering through many of the department buildings, museums, and it's very impressive library, I've chosen three criteria.  First, it's one of the oldest continually operating universities in the world (established in 1290).  Many great early scholars walked these hallways, and their work is presented well and understood by the visitor.

Wednesday, Oct 9th, Cotimbra, Portugal

Greetings!

Before we drove all day to get to our next place to stay (Cotimbra), we went to our scheduled winery tour at Quinta la Plansel.  Founded by a true pioneer in Portugal's wine industry, and built up by his daughter and granddaughters, this is a stop not to be missed.  Portugal owes much to Jorge Bohm, and to a ship taking him from Germany to Brazil that broke down in Lisbon sixty years ago.

His love of the soil, and his willingness to pursue the folly of single grape wines (especially from the northern regions) resulted in the broadening of the industry, and his family's premier place in European enology.  We bought some of their best to be drink over the next week, and will look into their distributor in Bend, Oregon to buy some when we get home.

By the way, we've been to a lot of wine tours and tastings.  Kudos to the young staffer (whose name we should have gotten) for her excellent presentation.  This winery is in good hands all around.

After resting a bit at our guest house, we headed back out to find the Roman city built between the 1st and 4th century AD being excavated nearby.  It's the most extensive site on the Iberian Peninsula, and the set of baths, mosaics,and gardens in the massive private houses (35,000 square feet, 20 rooms) are architecturally unbelievable.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Wednesday, Oct 9th, Cotimbra, Portugal.

Tuesday, Oct 8th, Evora, Portugal

Greetings!

There was a moment today when life felt pretty good.  We had just visited a 7,000 year-old stone structure utilizing dozens of individual granite  rocks weighing 40 tons each.  Seeing it is one of those experiences which changes your perspective on human history and human capabilities like few others can do.

We were following a lead to what might be another such site, passing a large section of burnt-red cork trees, and making lunch plans to visit a local winery, when I looked over at Pat and understood how much fulfilling our life is.  Ruins, wine, great food, friends, GPS, interesting homes, plenty of money, and not a lot of personal worries.

Many years ago, Pat and I traveled to very close to here from Spain.  We were looking at some of the same kinds of sites and cork trees, and we probably ended up in eastern Portugal.  Today felt like a touch to not only Iberia's past, but to ours too.

Later on, we found another cromlech, all gorgeous and waiting for us.  Like the residents long ago, we were in awe of its power.  Walking stone to stone, gathering in the many thousands of others who felt it's spirits, and throwing out our own hopes to the builders and creators for good lives to follow.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Tuesday, Oct 8th, Evora, Portugal.

Monday, Oct 7th, Evora, Portugal

Greetings!

Today, we drove east, out where the cork trees grow.  Out where three rivers flow, and where 7,000 years ago the Celtic tribes learned to sow the ground with wheat and barley.  The sun and moon and the earth were alive,  and controlled everything.  And all raised stones in tribute to them.

On the way into Evora, we stopped to visit a large standing stone (menhir) and a nearby stone circle (Almendres Cromlech).  We plan on returning to the area tomorrow, but we wanted to get a glimpse of what we'd see.  We were really glad we did, as the memories of a trip long ago to Spain and France came flowing back to us.  The places we hiked to can take you to another world.

Checking into our beautiful two-story apartment, built inside an old Roman aqueduct, we walked through the walled city to the central plaza.  A tall Roman-columned ruin stands across from a large 16th century church and convent.

At the end of a long walking day, we enjoyed a large Sangria in the square and planned our travels tomorrow.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Monday, Oct 7th, Evora, Portugal.

Sunday, Oct 6th, Lisbon, Portugal

Greetings!

Having agreed to use a taxi to return to our mountain-high with many steps and winding street Lisbon home, we decided to hike down to the base of our hill and explore the Lisbon bus system today.

Our goal goal was the Museo Nacionale Azulejos.  It is dedicated to displaying and describing the uniquely Portuguese tradition which produced tiles and tableaus displayed on walls in the facades of homes and churches.  The Moors took the techniques and designs from the Persians, and eventually the Catholics used them to herald religious themes.

However, looking through my photographs taken in the museum, I only found one (of a stairway) which hardly shows the work's beauty, complexity, or usefulness.  Instead, I was fascinated with the huge collection of paintings being displayed in the museum (previously a convent).  Many of the Azulejos were drawn from the subjects of the paintings.

Heading home after a great lunch at the museum, we walked back to a large square we saw from the bus on the way here.  We decided we had energy for that distance, and it could save a little on the taxi fare.  Terriero do Paco (Yard of the Palace) was the site of a royal palace, built from 250 years of Indian spice and Brazilian gold brought back from 1498 to 1755 by the Portuguese shipping trade.  The palace, and most of the city were destroyed in the great earthquake, tsunami, and fire of 1755.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Sunday, Oct 6th, Lisbon, Portugal.

Saturday, Oct 5th, Lisbon, Portugal

Greetings!

Don't come to Lisbon's popular southside neighborhoods if you're not prepared to walk the hills.  The streets are too narrow to drive easily, and they are filled with busses, taxis, and residents who have gated off many of the high streets for their parking.

If you haven't discovered yet, we like old buildings.  And they tend to be on the tops of hills.  Sometimes, they are clustered together, so we get a break, but Lisbon seems to have plenty of hilly old churches, fortresses, monasteries, and other architecturally-significant structures spaced high up.  We're thinking of adding taxis to our toolkit.

Those of us who love in the San Francisco Bay Area are more aware of earthquakes than most Americans.  We're waiting for the big one, with vivid memories of the power of our 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire.  Lisbon had an even larger earthquake in 1755 that leveled buildings as far away as Morocco and France.  We visited one in town today that has become a center for the study of architecture and the history of Portugal.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Saturday, Oct 5th, Lisbon, Portugal.

Friday, Oct 4th, Lisbon, Portugal

Greetings!

A short flight from Casablanca is Lisbon, Portugal.  With tall Catholic church steeples on every skyline, and red tiled roofs on white-washed housing walls, it can't be mistaken for Marrakech.

There is a very popular neighborhood in the hills above the port on the southern edge of Lisbon called Largo das Porta's do Sol.  Tucked deep down a long flight of stairs, past a garage where our car was driven into an elevator container which placed it somewhere underground (and spit out a card for us to use to retrieve it), is our apartment.

In the hills far above, we used the waning hours of today to watch the sun set from the walls of the Castle.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Friday, Oct 4th, Lisbon, Portugal.

Thursday, Oct 3rd, Casablanca, Morocco

Greetings!

Last full day in Morocco was memorable for a visit to two famous places: the Hassan II Mosque and Rick's Cafe.

With the opening in May of this year of the Great Mosque of Algeria, there is some dispute as to which mosque is the largest in Africa, but clearly this city's major tourist feature is huge.

It's 200 meter mineret towers over everything, and the capacity of the square and prayer hall is staggering.  Built by the sea (as the Koran dictates), it's titanium walls and retractable ceiling are very impressive (and expensive).

Next, we walked through Casablanca's old Medina, and found fish and meat butchers for everything you can imagine.  We tried to ignore the horses, and learned the names and looks of lots of fish.

After lunch at a garden restaurant near the Medina wall, we headed back to le Casablanca Hotel for a few hours free time.  Planning to consume the wine we bought long ago, but haven't been able to consume before dinner tonight, a fellow traveler and I decided to try to get into the bar at Rick's Cafe.

Three-day advance reservations are required for a table, but walk-ins are allowed at 6:30 to the bar.  Michael and I made full use of their generosity to wonder upstairs and down to take some photos.  We raised a glass of beer to the memory of a friend of mine, and to the adventure we were finishing.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Thursday, Oct 3rd, Casablanca, Morocco.