Portugal, Week 7

COIMBRA - pronounced "cweem..bra"

One of the oldest universities in Europe

Pics of graduation outfits and students in black capes studying human animation. Brazil didn't have a university in the 18th century and so their brightest students came to Coimbra.

Coimbra is a university town, with the buildings situated on the highest point in the city. It's impossible to climb straight up the hill and so you zigzag your way through narrow passways and streets. They even have an elevator on one side of the cliff to take you halfway up. I think all students and faculty members must be in very good physical shape in order to make it to the lectures on time!

On Tuesday, we toured the Zooilogical Museum and the Physics and Chemistry exhibit on university grounds. The building was built by the Jusuits in 1700's.   We had a private tour with a graduate of the university studying for his doctorate. He even took us to the cafeteria that was busy and full of students. We had a great lunch and even better conversation with Miguel, who is off to Rome tomorrow for 4 days. He and his companions booked tickets in November for a return flight..Lisbon to Rome for 60€, less than $100cdn. What a great deal!

Items made from cork, umbrellas, shoes and even dresses. Wonder how you get a wine stain out!?

Brazil's voice of Ash Ketchum

Sharing our accommodation was an actor and voice actor (dubs Pokemon and other movies into Portuguese). He entertained us with a onesided conversation with Pikachu! Lots of fun. Our hostess just returned from 2 months in Brazil and was leaving 3 days later to her native Prauge, where she is applying for a job back in Portugal in Madeira. There is very little opportunity for young people here and a large number are leaving Portugal to find work. 

The Botanical Garden was created in 1772. 

I can only I magine how breathtaking it will look in full bloom.

Daily work-out regiment implemented to fight off effects of custard tart intake.

TOMAR, the castle was conquered in 1129, original build date is unknown. It was reconstructed in 1171 and put in trust of Knights Templar.  It is the best representation of the influence of Templar Knights in Portugal. The castle was fed water by an 18km aqueduct that has 180 arches. Pretty

impressive technology.

We left Tomar on the 13th. We were up bright and early, well not bright, it was still dark. I plugged in the kettle for coffee and the power went out. Because there are very few windows in the 15th century home, almost every room was pitch black. Thank goodness for iPhone flash lights! So we left the house, without a cup of coffee, breakfast or a shower. Then when we got to the bus station, the driver couldn't find the keys to start the bus. But we finally got on the road, waiting for 1 more insident as everything comes in 3's. It was our lucky day! Smooth sailing to Nazare, next weeks' news.

THE END

Portugal, Porto, Braga, Douro Valley Week 6

I Porto simply amazing. Our 8 day home away from home is a large 1 bedroom apartment situated 200 metres from City Hall and the hub of the historic section. The city has many pedestrian parks and streets to keep you safe from zooming cars. It can't go unnoticed the respect of drivers and pedestrians. Oh so civilized.

Walking along Douro River in Porto, there is no shortage of cafes and bars. 

A GOOD WINE IN EVERY PORT

Our travels north into Pinhao located in the Douro valley, unveiled the largest manufacturer of port wines in the world. This farm consisting of 1,200 acres purchases 80% of its overall grape requirements from other growers in this region. These vineyards are on steep terraced in course sand and granite with poor yields but result in an bolder, muscular taste (more like a heavy hitting cab).

Alentejo is in the southern wine producing area with flat sprawling farms. The reds are a soft, delicious, fruity variety that are easy to enjoy. Sue, historically a white winer, loved these affordable wines.

A collection of wines in the grocery stores. Come on Ontatio! It's a great idea!

Cork Oak is the national tree of Portugal. They supply 50% of the worlds cork. Stores sell almost everything made from cork, note book covers, coasters, belts even shoes.

Braga, city of Religous Tourism

Farricocos walk barefooted through the streets during Easter week, with noisy rattles and torches of lit pine cones, ordering all sinners to get to church and repent and ask for forgiveness. This tradition is carried on only in Braga you say! Notice the statues in the window, some with large noisemakers and others carrying pots for fire. 

Espresso served anywhere

Lello Bookstore in Porto, where JKRowlings sat and had her Cafe, reputably getting her inspiration for Harry Potter novels. She taught English in Porto for 10 years and the uniforms from Hogwart are designed after a local school's.

There are so many parks we enjoyed. Here are collages that captured just a few.

Porto Train Station where we arrived and departed a total of 6 times for our various 1 day excursions, leaving this morning for our 4 days in Coimbra. History in the making!

Portugal, Week 5

We got a little behind with this weeks post. Enjoy

I'm 

Last few days in Lagos. We've really lucked out on the weather. Walked the beach in our bare feet, kicking the sand trying to unearth Aztec coins from Spanish ships wrecked off the coast. Unfortunately for us, we'll have to continue paying with our deflated Canadian dollar.

No gold aboard this boat, but maybe there's a good price for plastic crates.
Anyone need a book shelf for your school dorm?

No shortage of expensive toys, and familiar to most marinas, no one aboard.

Major gate into historic Lagos where we stayed.

On Thursday we headed to Evora and hit all the major museums, cathedrals and historic landmarks. One interesting collection was made up of over 6,200 pieces of ceramic, fabric, wood and clay sculptures depicting the artist's unique impression of a nativity scene. Some were quite comical with baby Jesus and a soother, and from Russa a matryoshka starting with Joseph and ending with a little lamb. These are pics of 4 favourites but each one was beautiful.

Chapel of Bones is made from human remains

The story behind this chapel is that the church needed more land so they dug up the cemetery and used the bones inside the chapel showing that after we die we really are all the same. If you zoom in on the arches you can see they are edged with skulls....spooky!!

Selfies are never a good idea!

Walking around Evora

Black and whites by photographer, Adam's Apple

Wine was distilled in these clay pots in Roman times. Some wineries are going to try using this method again, may be just a marketing ploy!?

All aboard! We're now heading to Porto for 8 nights. It's a 5-1/2 hour train ride with an hour stopover once again in Lisbon. More to follow.

Portugal, Week 4

We caught the bus out of Seville loading at platform 13. Yes indeed, we thought this might be a forewarning of grave danger ahead. lol 

Low and behold our accommodation in Lagos was something of a disaster and our first unfortunate experience with Airbnb bookings. As picture indicates the outside of the building was under some major renovation. As a result our unit was very dusty, smelled of paint and even worse the scaffolding, netting and local labour force were right outside our window (making it uncomfortable to walk around in ones undies). Lucky for us we had met a lady at the arrivals area of the bus station in Lagos who had given glowing reviews of a great apartment where they had stayed; fortune smiled as this provided us an alternative location so desperately needed. 

View from our kitchen window

We are in historic Lagos, toured the museum and  Church of Santo Antonio rebuilt in the early 18th century, with gilded carvings covering the altar and sidewalls. No pics allowed, but as with most amazing views, impossible to capture with a camera.

Can you name the big eyed fish?

Start of our walk along cliffs surrounding the city

Although it looks like I'm on the beach, we are actually hundreds of feet above the ocean.

Interesting rock formations and grottoes.

In the far far distance, beyond the cliffs is the southwest tip of Europe, Cabo Sao Vincent, early Portuguese called "O Fim do Mundo" (the end of the world). From Cape St. Vincent you can see the cliff tops in Morocco. We didn't hike that far, just content to know it was so close.

The coastline has many beaches, small and private....but look at the steps, easy going down!!

We started the day in 8c temperature. We've been travelling in multiple layers to accommodate the changing weather so we were very happy to gradually remove 3 layers throughout the afternoon. Who can complain about 25c!

This week concludes on what appears to be the arrival of an early summer and as they say at Camp Granada...

"Wait a minute, its stopped raining. Guys are swimming, gals are sailing

Playing baseball, gee that's bettah.  Muddah, Faddah kindly disregard this letter!"

Portugal to Spain, 2 days into Week 4

We felt Spain deserved it's own mini blog.

Seville Spain was only a 4-1/2 hour bus ride from Tavira so we went on a 2 day adventure to explore this historic city. What a mistake! As the kids would say "we didn't like it.......we LOVED it". A week or even a month wouldn't be enough time to immerse oneself into the culture, beauty and upbeat vibe of Seville. ( would like to give that a try)  Greek myth has it that Hercules discovered the city over 3000 years ago. Lonely Planet said it best, "modern Seville has the ability to adapt and etch fresh new brush strokes onto an ancient canvas".

Our apartment bordered on Alameda de Hercules, a residential park surrounded by bars, pubs, restaurants, bakeries, everything to seduce our already over indulged gastronomic cravings.

With tourist map in hand, we headed south down narrow streets and walkways. The sights, sounds and overall experience would be impossible to describe so here are some pictures of a few sights. And yes brother Don, we visited a "🎶Barber of Seville,  Figaro Figaro Figaro 🎶".

Patio of our host who loves his Cacti!

Pedestrian parks were throughout the city

A romantic way to view the historic area

Going to the palace "to see the queen"!

I'd like to say we went shopping in this 5 floor department store, but nope, just on the way to the "bano" and saw a whole section of Flamenco costumes. Ole! 💃

Caught the 6:30am train, sun rise here 8:08. It was raining but we were still sorry to be leaving. Now on to the seaside town of Lagos, Portugal and completion of Week 4.