Month: December 2017

As we wind down this chapter of our adventure, we have two final stops – six days in Lisbon and four in Madeira. I must say that being able to unpack and stay in one place for more than 2-3 days is a pleasure.

LISBON is a beautiful city, built on 7 hills so there is a lot of up and down walking.  Many of the streets are just stairs!
  a la MC Escher…
The center of the city was leveled by an earthquake in 1755. When it was rebuilt, city planners created lovely squares and buildings,

and straight, wide streets that gleam! Today, they are sumptuously decorated for Christmas.

We are staying in the Bairro Alto neighborhood with easy access, on foot or by public transportation, to all of the rest of the city.  One of the most charming modes of transport are the old trams.

But, along with the charm come some disadvantages.  Because the trams run on fixed tracks, if there happens to be a delivery truck stopped ahead, the driver must wait until the truck moves on before s/he can take the tram forward.  One night, our driver encountered a car that had parked very close to the track – so close that the driver didn’t feel she could pass without scraping the car. After sounding her bell repeatedly, and several passengers trying to physically move the car (no luck…), she gave up and called the police.  We all got off and caught the next bus to come by.

We took a day trip to SINTRA by train. The Lisboa-Rossio train station was as pretty as some of the palaces we were headed out to see.

In Sintra, a 40 minute train ride away, we took in three primary sights. The Palácio Nacional in the center of the old town, which has impressive stone work and two massive conical chimneys, over the kitchen, on the outside

and lots of intricate tile work on the inside.

The Quinta da Regaleira consists of a palace

and extensive gardens.

Lastly, on top of a mountain is the Pena Palace, an enormous structure evidencing a lot of Moorish influence.

The mountaintop perch provided a pretty, late afternoon view of Sintra.

Everyone talks about how beautiful Sintra is, and they are certainly right.  But I have to say that, even in low season, it is almost cloying in its focus on tourism. When we got off the train we were met by forty or fifty people aggressively trying to sell us a tour of some kind.  It was rather off-putting and put me in a rather negative frame of mind as we started.  But once, we found our own rhythm there, we could appreciate the palaces and gardens.  We made a midday stop at Palacio de Seteais, once a palace but now a hotel, where we stayed with the Wine & Food Society 15 years ago.  It was nice to wander around and then to have a Caipirinha on the terrace.


Fado is a music genre that is unique to Portugal. Variations exist in different regions of the country.  We decided that we needed to experience this at least once while in the country. The recommended ‘Fado House’ near where we were staying – Sr Vinho – turned out to be a good choice.  Dinner is included and is served in between sets.  The food was typical Portuguese fare – I had green cabbage soup and grilled octopus; Rick had seafood soup and grilled cod. The music consists of mournful tunes and lyrics, sung by women with earthy alto voices or men with rich baritones.  They are accompanied by guitarists (there were 3 at our show), at least one of which plays the Portuguese 12-string guitar that looks like a large mandolin (played by the fellow on the left in this picture…). The music is haunting and lovely.

Something I love about Portugal is the sidewalks.  They are made of small (roughly 2″x 2″) blocks of glazed black and/or white stone that are fitted into place by craftsmen who somehow fit the pieces into a bed of sand and make it level and lovely.  We encountered this fellow working on a new sidewalk.

First he digs a little, and then he places the piece,

and taps it into place with his hammer.  When he is finished with a section, he will pour more sand over the whole section and use a broom to push it into the spaces between the blocks.  So much prettier that a concrete slab!

BELEM is almost a suburb of Lisbon – 30 minutes by tram. The reasons to visit include the magnificent Monasterio Jerónimos. We arrived early and had the place virtually to ourselves for about 45 minutes.

There we saw a most interesting exhibition showing, on three parallel rows, the history of the world, the history of Portugal, and the history of the monastery (i.e. religion in Portugal) from the early 1400s until 2010.  So many of the historical events with which we’ve become more familiar during our travels were put in clear context. We found it fascinating.
Our next two stops exhibited modes of transport, The Royal Coach Museum

and the Maritime Museum, filled with models of ships used during the heyday of Portugal’s ‘discovery era’ through to more recent days of the Portuguese navy.

In the car, during our >4000km drive (October-December), we have been listening to an audio book – James Clavell’s Shogun. It is set in Japan in 1600, when many European nations were building empires, and Portugal was the most powerful among them in Asia. The map below shows just how far Portugal’s influence stretched…

Of course, we had to indulge in Belem’s most famous pastry before heading back to Lisbon. Pastéis de Belem are little custard tarts that, when serve warm, are wonderful!  Add to that a cup of rich hot chocolate and we didn’t need lunch.

While in Lisbon, we took advantage of two Airbnb Experiences. First was a wonderful dinner of traditional foods and wines hosted by an expert in the
wines of Portugal.       
And, on our last night, we attended an informal concert in an interesting venue, a ‘palace’ that had little furniture except wine crates for seats. The music was traditional Portuguese, including a little Fado, and we enjoyed it.

Final stop was MADEIRA.  We flew from Lisbon to Funchal and immediately gained 10 degrees in temperature!  We relished this brief time to wear short-sleeved shirts and shorts before coming back to winter in the US.
The town of Funchal has more Christmas lights than any place we have been in the last two years…and we’ve seen a LOT of towns dressed up for the holiday!

The place is a wonderland at night AND its warm enough to walk around and enjoy it!
This photo is my favorite – taken from inside a huge lighted ‘tree’ looking up!

Of course, we had to learn about the local wine. So we took a tour of Blandy’s.  We were taken to the private cellar where some of the oldest vintage Madeiras are stored.

and we finished with a taste.  We’ve determined that our preference is for the medium dry.
Madeira island is very mountainous.  Taking a cable car to the top of the mountain nearest Funchal – Monte – provided a great view of some of the town

and a chance to visit the Botanical Gardens, filled with tropical plants

but with only a few flowers at this time of year.
      

Rick and I have struck a bargain on this adventure – he drives and I cook.  It plays to our strengths, but I sometimes tire of staying home at night.  We turned in the car in Lisbon, and I haven’t cooked dinner since!  Our kitchen in Lisbon consisted of 2 burners and no oven, and there were many fine restaurants from which to choose within a walk or a bus ride, so eating out was a no-brainer there.  In Madeira, though the kitchen is a bit better equipped, we have found several wonderful restaurants.  Our favorite – Armazém Do Sal – in a former salt warehouse, was so good that we ate there twice in four days! They have live music every night and the staff was the among the happiest bunch that we’ve encountered.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you!! We will be back in the USA tomorrow through New Years (east and west coasts). More posts in January…

In the Spring of 2002, we came to Portugal with the Baltimore Wine & Food Society. We have fond memories of that trip and of the friends with whom we traveled.  We are revisiting a few of the places that were part of that trip and adding a couple more.

Our first stop was PORTO, home of the famous Port wine.  I never before appreciated the topography of this city.  On the banks of the Duoro River, it rises steeply from the water on both banks (although the other side is technically not Porto, but Gaia). Several of the highest bridges I’ve ever seen link the two sides.
The old city, Ribeira-the riverfront up to the Cathedral – is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which requires facades to be preserved. This keeps the character of the city even though it presents something of a financial burden to those who are redeveloping the lovely old buildings.
The riverfront is colorful and lively,

lined with cafes from which you can watch the busy river traffic…mostly tourist boats like the one we took for an hour-long tour of the 6 closest bridges. The boats that used to carry barrels of Port from the vineyards to the facilities in Gaia where they are aged have long ago been replaced by trucks…

The São Bento railway station in Porto is a showpiece of handprinted tiles.  The blue and white scenes on the lower walls depict important historical events, while the colored tiles above trace the development of transportation up to the time of the railroad.

We had a wonderful tour and tasting at Taylor Fladgate where we learned more about Port, and enjoyed trying several varieties.
The view of the Ponte Dom Luis I from the funicular on our last night was spectacular!

Next stop was COIMBRA, the home of Portugal’s largest University, set high on the hill above the river.

The University students all seem to be musicians (even though music education is not offered), no matter their course of study.  We encountered a group of Pharmacy students (you can tell by the purple ribbons they are sporting) entertaining on the street, with their characteristic black cape spread out to receive donations.

The Law School, with its beautiful Library (no photos allowed) and chapel is housed in the former Palace.

We drove out of town to the Buçaco Forest, a 250-acre tract planted with over 700 species of trees, many of which are exotic. It was begun by monks in the 16th century and preserved after that by the kings and then the local government. We reflected that this would be a most enjoyable place to explore on foot in warmer weather…

November 29 gave us a lovely sunset

followed by a celebratory dinner for our 15th anniversary (I forgot to take a picture of this cake provided by the restaurant until after I’d tasted it!).

The churches we’ve encountered in Portugal are different than in other countries. Many were built to double as fortresses, so there is little stained glass; the main altars are heavily gilded and look like wedding cakes, meant to represent ‘a stairway to heaven.’ But the best parts are the walls covered in hand-painted tiles.

From Coimbra, we drove south, bypassing Lisbon (for now) to the Algarve, on the southern coast of Portugal.  We are staying in FARO, which we chose because we thought it would be a good base for exploring the region.  We arrived on a Thursday, only to find that Friday was a bank holiday.  They take these holidays seriously here…so nothing was open, including churches! But we did walk around the old town.

Faro’s sidewalks are one of its most notable features. Each street in the pedestrian area of downtown sports a different pattern.

There are a number of beachy tourist spots along the coast that seem to cater to British visitors…telltale signs are “English Breakfast” and lots of loud conversations in the cafés. We visited ALBUFEIRA and LAGOS.  The white-washed buildings rising up the cliffs reminded us of Greece.

We met an old salt on the beach and admired his sand sculpture

before taking the escalator(!) to the upper town in Albufeira.
The marina in Lagos in the afternoon light was pretty.
We explored as much of the coast as we could, and what a dramatic coastline!

We learned that Henry the Navigator founded a school of navigation in SAGRES in the 15th century to train Portuguese sailors who went on to ‘discover’ (and colonize) much of Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Here we visited a fort built in the 16th century. Walking out to the headland on which it is situated provided great views of the coast where we saw fishermen with long poles and longer lines fishing from atop the cliffs.

A 6km drive further, in Cabo de São Vicente, is a lighthouse that sits on the southwestern promontory in the North Atlantic and guides ships with its powerful beam that has a range of 95 kilometers!

Stay tuned for more from Lisbon and Madeira before we head back to the States for Christmas.