EXPLORING PORTUGAL

 November 21, 2022 Lisbon to Porto, Portugal

We took the train from the Santa Apolonia station in Lisbon to the Campanha station in Porto. The trip took about three hours. It rained most of the way and, as is usually the case, the train tracks did not pass through the most scenic areas. In stark contrast to the taxi drivers in Lisbon who wouldn’t help an 83 year old woman transport her bags to the train station, a very helpful taxi driver whisked our bags into his car and told us a little about Porto on the short drive to our AirBnB.

The apartment we rented was on a very narrow, cobblestone street. The building itself was ancient with exposed beams, low ceilings, and half timbered walls in the stairwell. Our apartment had been tastefully renovated and there was even a comfortable mattress. It took us awhile to work out the internet, since my phone didn’t work and I couldn’t get to the AirBnB app to get the instructions without internet. Fortunately, I had left the app on that message and was able to read it once I realized that.

The weather was icky outside, but we walked far enough to buy a 48-hour pass on the hop-on-hop-off bus. Our ticket included a river cruise and cost us 30 euros for two days. After the outrageous tour prices on the ship, this seemed like a steal. We stopped and got a pizza for dinner. We were impressed with their system for paying the bill. They gave each table a card with a number on it. When we were ready to pay, we just took the card to the cashier and they rang us up. No trying to make eye contact with a busy waiter to get the check.

November 22, 2022 Porto, Portugal

The Church & Museum of Sao Francisco

It was nasty, cold, and rainy when we got up, so we didn’t hurry. We decided to just ride the bus around
the city and stay dry. Our first stop, however, was right across the street from the church and museum of Sao Francisco. We ducked into the museum rather than wait for the bus in the rain. The church was begun in the 1300s, but its baroque interior was completed in the 18^th century. Photographs were not allowed, but 450 lbs of gold adorned the interior. Most famous, was the large carving of the Tree of Jesse. The main altar was undergoing restoration. It was interesting to watch the video about how they had restored the painting behind the altar. They were cleaning and possibly regilding the carvings on the altar piece when we visited.

The catacombs served as the burial place for important citizens. Most burials seemed to have been made in the 18^th century, but there were still a few empty spots. Beneath the floor, was the ossuary where the bones of the monks were tossed unceremoniously. There was a little window in the floor where you could see the piles of human bones.

Eventually, we got on the red line and rode it through the city to the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, the city’s premier art museum. We got rather damp walking from the bus to the museum, but it was dry, inside.

The first exhibit we saw was a film by Rivane Neuenschwander about protests against deforestation in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The papier mache costumes worn by the protesters were works of art in themselves. The artist had also created a series of figures reminiscent of those costumes.

Agustina Bessa-Luis Sculpture

The next exhibit was a written exhibition of works by Agustina Bessa-Luis, who seemed to have an opinion on every subject. The walls were covered with her prose in Portuguese and English, but there were also some more traditional works of sculpture and photography.

Perhaps the most interesting exhibit was a retrospective series of photographs by Cindy Sherman, an American artist who specialized in self-portraits. Some of them emulated famous paintings and others were simply meant to shock the viewer. She was certainly a master of disguise.

We grabbed a snack and tea in the cafe at the museum, but had to hurry through our meal because we didn’t want to miss the next bus. As it was, the bus was late and we stood in the rain for nearly half an hour. We were soaked and my fingers were getting numb.

Rainy Day on the Douro River

The bus finally came and we rode it the rest of the way around the new section of Porto and past the Atlantic coast where the storm had kicked up some dramatic waves. I was quite glad we weren’t out there in a ship. We reached the mouth of the Douro River and then turned back towards the old section of Porto. We got off near our apartment and went inside to put on dry clothes and get warm.

By 19:00, it had stopped raining and we went out to look for dinner. We ate at a restaurant at the foot of our street that offered a different menu, but turned out to be owned by the same company as the pizzeria we had visited the night before. A Portuguese friend had told me that I had to try a francesinha, so I ordered one. A francesinha is a sandwich on white bread, soaked in a tomato sauce, and covered with melted cheese. Inside, is ham, a Salisbury steak, and a grilled Portuguese sausage. It was delicious. I very nearly ate the whole thing. Mary Nell had vegetable soup and lasagne. It was good to eat a hot meal after freezing all day.

The Stock Exchange

After dinner, we took advantage of the break in the rain to stroll around the city center a bit. We finally got to take a few photographs. We stopped into a convenience store to buy a few items for breakfast and then returned to our warm and dry apartment for a glass of wine.

Downtown Porto

Our Bus Stop

November 23, 2022 Porto, Portugal

Finally, we got a day without rain. The blue bus line didn’t start running until 10:00 and wouldn’t have reached our neighborhood until even later. I had gotten it into my head that maybe we ought to rent a car for our trip to the Algarve and wanted to get some quotes. The car rental places were on the other side of where the bus route began, so we decided to walk there, stopping to visit some of the sights along the way. It seemed to be uphill the whole way.

Sao Bento Station

The first point of interest was the Sao Bento train station. This is the central train station for Porto that serves the regional lines. It is large and the interior is decorated with detailed scenes in blue and white tiles, dating to the early 20^th century. From Sao Bento, we continued uphill, past the large, indoor marketplace and on along a busy shopping street that stretched for nearly a kilometer.

Steps Up to the Cathedral

We visited three car rental companies before finally making a reservation with Europcar. Five days of car rental with full coverage and unlimited mileage cost us a little under $400. The car we rented was a Renault, Captur, a mid-sized car with a manual transmission. Once we got the car squared away, we walked back down the hill to the cathedral where we were due to meet the bus. Mary Nell was pooped after walking three kilometers, so I left her at the bus stop and took a quick jaunt around the cathedral grounds. There was an impressive view over Porto from the cathedral square on top of the hill. The cathedral, itself, was dirty and somewhat eerie looking. I elected not to pay to see the inside.

The Cathedral in Porto

The Cathedral Square in Porto

We boarded the 11:20 blue line bus. It was supposed to have traveled around the old town, but the construction of a new metro line had made a mess of traffic, so the bus company was requiring riders to transfer to the red line to visit old town. The blue line went straight across the bridge over the Douro River to Vila Nova de Gaia, a town that originally sprang up because Porto charged a tax on port wine. Most of the big port lodges are located in Gaia. It was a little early in the day for drinking port, but port tasting had been my primary reason for wanting to visit Porto, so we got off the bus at Quinta da Boeira, a port lodge that offered tastings to Hop On - Hop Off bus customers.

Quinta de Boeira Port Lodge

Quinta da Boeira offered a nice tour. They started with an exhibit of ship models showing the evolution of trading and naval vessels. Then we strolled through one building where port was aging in casks. They had a couple of the huge vats used to age ruby port that we could climb inside. White and tawny port are aged in barrels, like other wines.

Ship Model at Quinta de Boeira

Barrels of Port, Aging

Port was “discovered” when someone got the bright idea to add brandy to wine to prevent its spoiling while being shipped to the new world. People developed a taste for the fortified wine and port was born. Today, grape spirits are added to the wine to stop the fermentation process, resulting in a product with a higher alcohol content that still retains some of the sugars that would normally have been consumed during the fermentation process.

White Port

We tasted a ten-year old white port and a 7-year-old tawny port. The white port was drier and lighter. White ports are made from white grapes, while the tawny and ruby ports are made from red grapes. All ports are blends, made from grapes grown further up the Douro River Valley. We really liked the white port, so I bought a bottle for us to enjoy during the rest of our trip.

Modern Vila Novo de Gaia

The blue line circled around through modern Gaia before crossing back over the bridge. It looked like it was going to make a loop through the old town following a route different from that shown on the literature, but the bus suffered a blowout shortly after we passed the cathedral. We all thought it was a gunshot, at first, and people on the street screamed. The bus pulled over at the next stop and we transferred to the red line to take us back to our neighborhood.

The Maria Pia Bridge

It was still early, so we walked down to the riverfront and checked in for the 14:00 cruise on the Douro River, which had been included in our ticket. There are six bridges spanning the Douro River in Porto. The oldest of these is the Maria Pia Bridge, an iron railway bridge built in 1877 and designed by Gustave Eiffel. The Dom Luis Bridge was built nine years later. It is a double deck bridge of similar design as the Maria Pia Bridge and may have been designed by a student of Eiffel. There are also four modern, concrete bridges carrying automobile and modern railway traffic. Today, the iron bridges carry only light rail and pedestrian traffic.

A Rabelo Boat on the Douro River

The river cruise starts out upstream, turning around after passing under the last bridge and then continuing past the sights of Porto and the port lodges of Gaia, downstream to the Atlantic Ocean. The boats used for the cruises are rabelo boats, the traditional form of boat used on the Douro River.

Porto from the Water

Looking Towards the Atlantic

The Gaia Side of the River

We were a little hungry after our cruise, so we stopped at McDonald’s for a cheeseburger and fries. We ate outside where a young man with a tethered Harris hawk named Lucifer was employed to scare away the pigeons. After our late lunch, we went back to our apartment to drink a glass of wine and rest.

We ate dinner in a Portuguese restaurant located next door to our building. We started with shrimp croquettes that the owner brought to our table, unbidden, but included on our bill. They were tasty. I had salmon and Mary Nell had cod. The food was good, but heavy. We couldn’t eat it all. We were glad to crawl upstairs and go to bed early.

November 24, 2022 Porto to Albufeira, Portugal

I had intended to walk back up to the car rental place, but we awoke to more rain. We elected to call an Uber. Our driver was super helpful with loading our voluminous luggage into his car which completely blocked our street. He delivered us to the Europcar office and then unloaded all the luggage again. Uber wouldn’t let me give him a large enough tip.

Our car was waiting for us and, after a necessary delay for paperwork, I set off to drive a strange stick shift car across a busy city. It took me a short while to get the hang of the car and I stalled it several times. Fortunately, it was easy to restart. A few people honked at me, but there were no great disasters and I managed to find my way to the highway.

It rained all day. We drove south towards Lisbon, climbing over a range of hills through oak and pine trees. About lunchtime, we reached the sanctuary of Fatima. I pulled off the highway to show Mary Nell the vast plaza and basilica constructed where the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in the early 20^th century. Pilgrims cross this immense space on their knees. We were there on a rainy Thursday, however, and the place was nearly empty. I got a parking space just off the plaza. After I got out of the car, I realized that the driver’s side wheels were on the (very low) sidewalk. I got back into the car to move it and discovered that I couldn’t get it into reverse. Each time I tried, it rolled a little further forward until I was nearly touching the car in front of me. I had to leave it there and hope the car in front of me would move. I then tried to pay for parking, but the machine was broken. We left our illegally parked car and went to see the sights.

The Sanctuary at Fatima

The Basilica at Fatima

It was only raining a little bit as we headed across the plaza and climbed the long staircase to the basilica. The church was built in the mid-twentieth century and is very spare compared to the baroque churches we had been visiting. The stained glass was quite modern and each window depicts a scene from the visitations of Mary. This theme gave the church a strikingly feminine vibe. Each of the stations of the cross had a matching, gilt image in relief. I found the church restful, perhaps because everyone was directed to maintain silence. The pilgrims lit their candles and left their offerings at a shrine to the left of the plaza where the original visitation took place. The vast plaza fills with pilgrims on the 12^th and 13^th of May and October, the dates when the visitations occurred.

Stained Glass at Fatima

Image from a Station of the Cross

Pilgrims' Shrine at Fatima

Mary Nell was hungry and the car in front of us was still there, so we went in search of an open restaurant. We could only find one and it was the sort of place where you would normally order a full meal. We weren’t very hungry. Mary Nell got soup and I just ordered some bread and cheese. By the time we returned to the car, the car in front of us had been replaced by a tiny Fiat. The driver was still in the car and, after looking at how I was parked, quickly moved forward enough for me to get out of the space. I thanked our Lady of Fatima for her intervention and got out of Dodge before I got a parking ticket.

After taking the time to eat, we now found ourselves an hour behind schedule. I was supposed to meet our AirBnB host at 16:00, so we had two hours to make a three hour drive. Fortunately, the rain had slacked and I was able to make better time. We finally arrived in Albufeira at 16:30. Our host had been watching the World Cup game in a bar in front of the apartment and wasn’t at all disturbed by our tardiness. We had a little trouble locating the place, but I found him, right away, as he had just stepped out to look for us.

Our View in Albufeira

Our Living Room in Albufeira

Our AirBnB was located on the main strip in Albufeira. The apartment faced the rear of the complex. It was probably noisy during the high season, but was quiet enough in November. Albufeira is the tourist hub of the Algarve. The strip is a cross between Puerto Vallarta and Las Vegas. Bars compete with gaudy neon signs and blasting music. Fortunately, most of them were closed for the season.

The Strip in Albufeira

We settled in and then went for a walk. It was Thanksgiving and we wanted to eat a nice dinner. None of the nice restaurants were open. We settled for chicken curry and fish and chips in a sports bar, watching the World Cup game.

November 25, 2022 Albufeira, Portugal

Nice Day at the Beach

We had been traveling for seven weeks and we were tired. It was finally a beautiful, sunny day and we didn’t want to do anything. We decided to take a rest day. I did some laundry and we didn’t move from the apartment until mid-afternoon when we walked down to the beach, took a few pictures, and ate an English breakfast in a bar overlooking the ocean. Then we walked home and didn’t move, again, until it was time for the England vs. USA game at 19:00. 

Praia D'Ouro in Albufeira

Restaurant Where We Ate Breakfast

 

We had planned to watch the World Cup game in the Irish pub, but found it closed. We ended up in a Portuguese pub that looked cozy. Many of the bars were open air and we found the nights too chilly for our tastes.We ordered drinks and watched the game. It ended in a 0-0 tie. Nothing happened. I paid for our drinks and was pleasantly surprised that a pint of beer and a white wine only cost 5.50 euros. I got some butter chicken and naan from a takeaway place on our way home and we went back to the apartment and retired.

November 26, 2022 Albufeira and Faro, Portugal

Our goal for the day was to find a DHL office to ship some of our belongings home. Mary Nell’s bag had been overweight to begin with and she had done a lot of shopping. I hadn’t bought anything, but was concerned that my carry on would be overweight for the flight from Lisbon to London where they are very picky about luggage. I wanted to mail some of my summer clothes home so that I could put some of the items from my backpack into my suitcase. The only DHL office that wasn’t closed on Saturday was in a suburb of Faro. We had intended to visit Faro, anyway, so we set off to find the office.

My phone hadn’t worked since we left Mexico but, for some reason, the GPS magically started working as we left Albufeira. It was a good thing because the location we sought turned out to be a supermarket in a tiny village on the side of a hill. The streets were very narrow. For two days, I had been parking on hills because I couldn’t get the car into reverse. Finally, after I stopped to consult my GPS, I discovered that I had to pull the shifter UP to get it into reverse. This was a good thing because I had to parallel park in front of the supermarket when we found it. Unfortunately, the location was only good for receiving DHL packages. We would have to wait until Monday when the main office opened to send anything.

Igreja do Carmo Interior

Igreja do Carmo

My GPS continued to work and we found our way off the hillside and down to the harbor in Faro where I found a place to leave the car. We first walked up to the Igreja do Carmo and paid a euro (senior discount) to visit the early 18^th century church which has been described as “baroque run wild.” Brazilian gold leaf covered most of the interior. It was very shiny.

In stark contrast to the sumptuous church, our admission price also included a visit to the Chapel of Bones, the walls of which are lined with skulls and large bones taken from the friars’ cemetery. It was a little creepy, but a great design.

Chapel of the Bones

Chapel of the Bones Detail

Narrow Streets of Faro

The Arco da Vila

We ate another English breakfast in a snack bar in Faro and then walked through the Arco da Vila and into the old city. We wound through narrow streets into the cathedral square and then around the corner to the Municipal Museum. The museum was housed in a defunct convent in serious need of restoration. The lower floor featured mostly Roman artifacts, including a tile mosaic floor depicting Neptune. The upper floor featured old paintings and an interesting exhibit of paintings and drawings by Joaquim Viegas, a Portuguese painter who later became a scenographer.

Stork Nesting in the Middle
of a Roundabout in Faro

Cathedral Square in Faro

By the time we finished with the museum, we barely had time to walk back through the old town and along the waterfront to where I had parked the car before our time ran out. We had considered going to the Maritime Museum, but decided we would rather go home and rest. I followed the signs for Albufeira instead of listening to my GPS, so ended up skipping the toll road and driving through all the little coastal towns between Faro and Albufeira. They were all much alike and not particularly interesting. Real estate prices were low and the weather good, so the towns didn’t need to be exciting to attract inhabitants. The beaches were pretty, but the land was scrubby and dry looking. We could have been in California.

We got back in time to watch most of the France vs. Denmark game. I ran out before the next game to buy another naan to eat with my leftover butter chicken and then we settled down to watch Mexico lose to Argentina. I caught up on my writing and then called it a day.

November 27, 2022 Albufeira, Portugal

Old Albufeira

The weather forecast had been for rain in the afternoon, so we set off in the morning to explore Albufeira’s old town. Albufeira had been inhabited since the stone age and was colonized first by the Romans, then by the Visigoths, and later by the Moors before the Christians took it back in 1139. The Portuguese and Spanish fought over it for awhile and all of these groups built fortifications. Unfortunately, virtually all of that history was destroyed by an earthquake that devastated most of Portugal in 1755. The epicenter was in the Algarve. While 15,000 people died in Lisbon, alone, Albufeira was flattened. The oldest buildings in Albufeira date from the 18^th century.

Albufeira Beach

Pescadores Beach

We drove along the coast and parked in a parking garage adjacent to the viewpoint at Pau da Bandeira. From the viewpoint, we could see both Albufeira Beach and Pescadores (Fisherman’s) Beach. A convenient escalator took us down to the level of the plaza. It was sunny and warm and not swarming with tourists on Sunday morning in the off season. We walked up the hill along the former battlements to the site of the old castle. There, we found a few churches and the Archaeological Museum. The small museum usually only costs one euro, but it was free on Sundays. There were the usual stone columns left over from pre-earthquake buildings and a nice photographic exhibit by Joao Antonio Fazenda, upstairs, showing images of the Algarve over the years. We were especially taken with one photograph of waves breaking on Rocha Beach in the moonlight that was so geometric that it suggested stone streets sparkling in the rain.

Escalator to the Plaza

Sculptures in the Plaza

Renovated Castle Gate

Photo from the Museum

Alley in Albufeira

We wandered around the old town, peering up narrow alleys. All of the streets ran down to the cliffs from the top of the bowl that contained the city. There were no cross streets. We did our best to avoid steps and steep hills, but ended up negotiating plenty of both. Stunning ocean views greeted us everywhere we turned. The rain never materialized and it grew warm in the sun. We stopped and basked on park benches and then finally ate grilled cheese sandwiches in a cafe off the plaza. I had an afogada (coffee with ice cream.) We were grateful for the escalator which took us back up to our car.

We left in the early afternoon and contemplated driving to another town. As we had already done our share of walking for the day, we opted to go home for a nap and World Cup soccer on TV. Belgium lost to Morocco and Canada lost to Croatia. My record for supporting teams was abysmal.

Evening saw us stepping out to get some dinner and watch the Spain vs. Germany game. We were rooting for Spain. There are a lot of pubs in Albufeira, but few serve food. One of the few that does is the Bulldog Bar, a sort of British pub that has about four tables and is usually full. This night we got lucky. We got a table and ordered chicken wings and fries (chips among the English speaking in Portugal.) There was a table full of tipsy Germans behind us. A bulldog figurine was being passed around for good luck. The Germans were sure that petting the bulldog was good luck for them. Eventually, it made its way to our table. Mary Nell complied and stroked it for the last five minutes of the game, which ended in a tie. Apparently, that was all the Germans had hoped for. They insisted on paying our bill. It was a fun outing.

November 28, 2022 Albufeira to Lisbon, Portugal

Our Rental Car

We got up early, thinking we were going to go to DHL and ship excess baggage home before leaving for Lisbon. Unfortunately, it dawned on me that this was not going to work, as we would need manifests with values and would end up paying duty on items originally purchased in Mexico, if not losing things in customs, forever. We decided it would be cheaper to send everything home with Mary Nell and just pay for the extra bag.

We left the apartment about 9:30 and started driving towards Lisbon. We couldn’t check into our apartment in Lisbon until 15:00, so we decided to take the slower, free, road and see more of the countryside. Navigating was a problem because my phone didn’t always work, despite my having downloaded the route and Mary Nell’s had an alarming habit of cutting out just as we reached intersections.

View from the Overlook in Ourique

We drove through groves of olive, pine, oak, and eucalyptus trees. It got greener as we went north. We stopped at a viewpoint on top of a hill overlooking Ourique, where the Portuguese defeated the Moors in 1139, returning Portugal to Christian control. There was a nice park on the top of the hill and we could see a long way. A huge solar array glistened in the distance.

Roadside Restaurant Where We Ate

We kept driving until about noon when we stopped for lunch at a rustic roadside restaurant. No one there spoke English and my Portuguese was pretty limited, but we managed to order soup and bread. Everywhere we went, the restaurants seemed to serve the same vegetable soup. Mary Nell was living on it. We got slices of tasty flan for dessert and then continued on towards Lisbon.

The April the 25th Bridge

Our navigation cut out as we neared Lisbon and I had to get on the toll road. This led across the bridge that is a twin to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was weird to be driving across a familiar span in such a foreign place. Navigation cut in and out and, suddenly, we popped out of a tunnel right in front of the rental car agency. I had to drive around the block in order to get close enough to stop. It was a relief to turn in the car and not have to worry about driving or parking in Lisbon.

The listing for the apartment we booked didn’t mention that it had no street access until after we had reserved it. The owner gave us an address to give to Uber, but that was not the 100 yards with a few steps mentioned in his email, but rather three blocks uphill, including two long flights of stairs. We had a lot of luggage. I had to drag it up the hill in stages and it seemed to take an hour. Seriously, it took at least half an hour and we were exhausted by the time we arrived. I didn’t have the energy to do anything but watch soccer on TV for the rest of the day.

November 29, 2022 Lisbon, Portugal

We knew that rain was coming, so we wanted to make the most of our one day of sunshine. The ticket office for the tour buses didn’t open until 9:00, but we got up early and had coffee and pastry in a cafe near our apartment. The “croissants” in Portugal would have scandalized a French person. They were cakey, not flaky, but the custard filling was nice. After we ate, we hired a tuk-tuk to drive us to the city center where the Grayline office was.

Mary Nell with the Tuk-Tuk Driver

After having had an indifferent experience with another tour company’s buses in Porto, we wanted to try the Grayline hop-on-hop-off buses. We also wanted to book a tour to Sintra. We accomplished both missions and then set off on the red line, which covered the main tourist attractions of Lisbon along the waterfront. We were happy with the Grayline bus. Unlike the other buses, they stopped at every stop, the narration was understandable, and they told you the number of the stop.

We got off the bus at the San Jeronimo Monastery, a huge, ornately carved complex from the 16^th century that now houses a number of museums. We toured the monastery, itself, and the attached church of Santa Maria. The carved stone of the monastery was astounding. Money from the spice trade had paid for the fine construction. Remarkably, it somehow survived the earthquake of 1755 with very little damage. The huge refectory was completely covered in decorative tiles. Tombs of famous Portuguese authors were housed within the monastery.

Mary Nell at the San Jeronimo Monastery

San Jeronimo Cloister

The Refectory

Detail of Refectory Tile

Santa Maria Altar

The church wasn’t dripping in gold like some we had seen, but the stonework equaled that of the monastery. The stained glass was also exceptional. Vasco de Gama was entombed in the church. St. Anthony, the patron saint of Lisbon, had his own gold-encrusted chapel.

Tomb of Vasco de Gama

Stained Glass from Santa Maria

St. Anthony's Chapel

Monument to the Discoveries

To avoid wasting time waiting for the bus, we walked to the Monument to the Discoveries, a modern sculpture in the shape of a caravel, displaying figures of all the historical figures who contributed to Portugal’s successful explorations. The monument projects over the Tagus River and is surrounded by a large square with a tile mosaic showing a compass with all of Portugal’s routes of discovery featured in the center. The whole installation is quite impressive.

Monument Right Side Detail

Monument Left Side Detail

Tile Map in the Plaza

We continued along the waterfront to the Tower of Belem, another 16^th century masterpiece of stonework jutting out into the river. It was originally built as a fortress to protect Lisbon from attacks from the sea. Tickets were not available on site, so we were unable to go inside. Instead, we got soup for lunch and waited for the Lisboat, a tour boat that cruises back and forth along the Tagus River through Lisbon.

The Tower of Belem

The weather stayed fine and we got to see another perspective of the monuments, as well as admiring the April the 25^th Bridge. The bridge, which appears to be a copy of the Golden Gate Bridge, is actually much newer and plainer, but was built by the same company. The bridge was originally named the Salazar Bridge, after the dictator who ruled Portugal for 40 years, but was renamed for the day that Portugal was freed from his control. It was unsettling to see such a familiar bridge in such a different setting.

Monument to the Discoveries from the Water

Tower of Belem from the Water

The April the 25th Bridge

The Cristo Rey

The far bank of the Tagus was very industrial, with tanker ports and an oil refinery. On top of a hill, stand the Cristo Rey, a huge statue of Jesus erected in thanks for Portugal’s not being victimized by WWII.

The cruise offered us great views of Lisbon, including the massive Placa do Comercio, the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT), and the former naval arsenal with its blue-painted buildings.

The Placa do Comercio

Former Power Station, Now Part of Museum

Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT)

Naval Arsenal

Lisbon Marina

We got back on the bus and took it to the stop nearest our apartment, which still left us with a kilometer to walk along the waterfront. After a rest and a little snort of port, we went out for dinner at a fado restaurant where we listened to three different fadistas sing for us. It was a very full day.

November 30, 2022 Lisbon, Portugal

The day promised to be rainy. We had breakfast in a nice restaurant near our apartment that served excellent pancakes and then set off to see as much of Lisbon as we could before the rain set in.

View Over Lisbon

We picked up the green line near the Fado Museum and rode it through steep and narrow streets in our neighborhood to the top of the hill. Supposedly, there was a castle up there, but it wasn’t visible from the street and we weren’t up for climbing around in the imminent rain. We passed some nice overlooks, but couldn’t take pictures from the bus.

We switched from the green (Castle) line to the blue (Oriente) line at the ferry terminal and spent the next two hours riding around the eastern part of Lisbon, past the aquarium, modern Calatrava designed train station, and the airport. The rain set in with a vengeance and it became difficult to see anything. Ultimately, we decided to get off at the Corte Ingles, as unimaginably humongous department store. We figured we could get a hot drink and buy Mary Nell a suitcase to transport all of her purchases. We had managed to navigate all over Portugal, but got lost in that store. Eventually, we tripped over the shoe department and I was thrilled to discover every type of running shoe imaginable for sale there. As good running shoes in my size are not available in Mexico, I took the opportunity to buy a pair to replace my very tired shoes.

Calatrava Designed the Train Station to Look Like Palms

Waiting in the Rain

Eventually, we found the luggage department and Mary Nell selected a suitcase. We never did get our hot drinks, as everyone else had the same idea and the cafes were full. Instead, we stood outside in the rain for half an hour, waiting for the bus. We got on the first bus that came along, which didn’t go to our neighborhood. We had to change buses at the terminus to take the green line back to the Fado Museum.

It was still raining, so we stopped in the cafe with the scandalous croissants and had hot drinks and little custard tarts. Once we got warm, it was a short walk up the hill to our apartment. After a quick, restorative snort of port, we set out to find a pizza. Mary Nell had been curious about what was uphill from us and she got to find out. Several flights of stairs later, we arrived at one of the overlooks we had passed on the green line. The rain had stopped and the view of the buildings lit at night was magical.

View Over Lisbon at Night

After several false starts, we located the pizza restaurant and were disappointed to discover that it had no indoor tables and no TV on which to watch the soccer game. We got the pizza to go, but ended up having a good time with the young, Brazilian men who worked there. They spoke no English, but I managed to speak enough Portuguese to communicate that we were from Mexico. It turned out they were big fans of the Mexican band, Mana, so they put on some of their music and sang along until the pizza was ready. We stomped down the hill, ate our pizza, and watched Poland lose to Argentina. This was dispiriting because it meant that, even though Mexico won its match with Saudi Arabia, they did not qualify to advance to the quarter finals in the World Cup.

I spent the rest of the evening working on my blog.

December 1, 2022 Cascais and Sintra, Portugal

Placa do Comercio Arch

We had booked a tour to Cascais and Sintra for the day, but had to walk a kilometer or so to the Placa do Comercio where the bus fetched us. It was cold, but the rain had stopped. We finally got to see the plaza at our leisure, instead of zooming by on a bus or boat.

The first bus took us to the Grayline office where we boarded a larger bus and set off on our tour. We drove out of Lisbon and up the coast to Cascais. The coast was spectacular and dotted with fortresses that had been built to repel invaders seeking to attack Lisbon from the sea.

Fishing Boats in Cascais

Cobblestones in Cascais

Shopping Street in Cascais

Cascais had been the setting for a couple of James Bond movies, such as Casino Royale. They must have filmed the interiors there because the exterior of the casino was tacky and unimpressive. Most of Cascais was pretty modern. Billed as a fishing village, it looked more like a modern tourist center. They did have a cute little downtown area fronting on the marina where there were a few fishing boats. We ate breakfast (actual FLAKY custard filled croissants) there and admired the artistic cobblestone sidewalks reminiscent of Rio de Janeiro. The Portuguese must have imported that style to all of their colonies, as we had also seen it in the Azores.

We made a quick stop at a collapsed sea cave know as the Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell.) Legend has it that a powerful wizard wanted to marry the most beautiful woman in Cascais. As he was old and ugly, she wouldn't have him. He said that if she wouldn't marry him, she wouldn't marry anyone and he imprisoned her in a tower out in the ocean with a soldier to guard her. She and the soldier fell in love and attempted to escape but, when they reached the shore, the wizard cast a spell and collapsed the cliffs, killing them both. Boca do Inferno is supposedly the spot where the cliffs collapsed.

Boca da Inferno

The Lighthouse at Cabo da Roca

Our next stop was the lighthouse at Cabo da Roca. This is the westernmost point of the European continent. We spent a few minutes there, taking pictures and admiring the rocky coast. All the way up the coast, large waves had crashed into the shore. At Praia do Guincho, surfers were taking advantage of the big surf.

Surf at Praia do Guincho

Attempted Selfie at Cabo da Roca

We arrived at the town of Sintra just in time for lunch. We had declined the set meal with the group and instead had tomato soup and naan in an Indian restaurant. That left us with 45 minutes to wander around Sintra, taking in the Christmas tree on the terrace of the National Palace and the colorful buildings sprawling up the hill. We shopped a bit on a steep, cobblestone street. I bought a pair of thick wool socks to use as slippers in England.

Christmas Tree at the National Palace

Colorful Building in Sintra

Shopping in Sintra

After our lunch break, we re-boarded the bus and drove up to the top of the mountain where the Pena Palace was located. I had been to Sintra in 2003 and assumed I would be visiting the same palace I had seen then. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my previous visit had been to the National Palace, so the Pena Palace was new to me. From the front gate of the palace, our entire tour group stuffed into one palace tram to take us further up the hill the palace, itself.

The Fabulous Pena Palace

Pena Palace Tower

Pena Palace Cloister

Pena Palace Onion Dome

The Pena Palace was built in the 19^th century by King Consort Ferdinand II on the site of the former Hieronymite monastery of Our Lady of Pena. The remote and somewhat inaccessible site originally boasted a 12^th century chapel. The chapel fell into disrepair and was forgotten until the 15^th century when King Manuel I built the monastery there. Like many things in Portugal, the monastery was mostly destroyed by the 1755 earthquake. The site was abandoned until King Ferdinand II started construction of the Pena Palace in 1840.

The palace was the fancy of the “artist king.” It was centered around the restored cloister of the original monastery. During his lifetime, the cloister was filled with objects of art that the king had collected. Like Neuschwanstein in Germany, it is a Romanticist castle featuring elements of medeival, Romanesque Revival, and Neo-Manueline architecture. The exterior is painted in yellow and red: yellow for the public areas of the castle and red for the private areas. Parts of it were faced with Portuguese tile. Construction on the castle continued until the king’s death in 1885.

Pena Palace Monster

Portugal was proud of its accomplishments during the age of discovery. Prior to the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, and Vasco de Gama, some people believed that ships that never returned had sailed off the edge of the earth or been consumed by monsters. A representation of one such monster looms over the entrance to the palace, vanquished by the Portuguese sailors.

Light Bearer ( 1 of 4)

The palace was intimate in scale. Most of the rooms were not overly large. The Manueline stonework was intricate and the carved, wooden furniture was fascinating. The large drawing room featured four wooden figures in Indian costumes, each holding a large candelabra. The rooms were furnished as they had been during the reign of the last kings of Portugal. Ferdinand’s son and grandson were assassinated in the Placa do Comercio in 1908 and the younger son who inherited the throne died of a respiratory infection in 1910, ending the Portuguese monarchy.

Intricately Carved Cabinet

We came back to Lisbon straight from the palace, but it was Portuguese Independence Day and the bus was not allowed to drive through the city (or so they said) because of the celebrations. They let us off at the Grayline office in the Marques do Pombal Square. We thought we’d get a taxi, but ended up walking all the way to Placa Restauradores because there were no taxi stands and the traffic on the laterals was the reverse of that on the main avenue. We thought we’d get dinner, first, but didn’t find a restaurant we could afford until we got to Restauradores. The shops and restaurants lining the Avenida da Liberdade were very high end.

Mary Nell drank a glass of port while I had a ham and cheese baguette for dinner and then we finally got a taxi to take us home. I had told the taxi driver to take us to the Fado Museum, because we didn’t have a street address and it was the nearest landmark. He was puzzled when I told him to let us off at the bottom of a dark alley. We made one last climb up the hill and set about packing for the following morning’s early departure.

December 2, 2022 Lisbon, Portugal

I had a 7:30 flight from Lisbon to Madrid and Mary Nell’s flight was scheduled to leave at 9:00. As we were sharing a taxi, I had scheduled an Uber to pick us up at 5:00. Between us, we had three large suitcases, an equally large carryon, a backpack and a mandolin. It took me twenty minutes to haul all the luggage down the stairs in stages. We finished the process right at 5:00 and found our driver waiting for us.

The airport is right in Lisbon, so it didn’t take too long to get there. We didn’t know which terminal we needed, so we got out at terminal one, which turned out to be the right one, although it took some research to determine that. The airport was very odd. Instead of the usual long counter with all the different airlines, the check-in counters for all the airlines other than TAP, the Portuguese national airline, were upstairs in three different halls. One of the lifts was broken and the other not really responding to the buttons, so there was a long queue and it took some time to get our luggage upstairs. After all that, it turned out that my flight had been delayed for an hour and a half and the check-in counter wouldn’t even open until 7:00. Mary Nell was flying Air Canada and they had earlier flights, so she was able to check in. There was nowhere to sit it the check-in area, so we said goodbye and Mary Nell went to her gate.

The Air Europa counter finally opened at 7:00 and I checked my bag. My gate was not due to be announced for another hour, so I got a latte and a muffin at Starbucks and sat down to wait. By the time the gate was announced, it was so far away that no one was there when they started boarding. The boarding process was ridiculous, anyway, since they just packed us all onto the same bus. Once we were on the bus, we drove across the tarmac for at least ten minutes before we came to where the plane was stationed. The plane was very empty and I had a row to myself all the way to Madrid.

Line for the Burger King at the Madrid Airport

I had a long layover in Madrid. Once again, my gate wasn’t announced until the last minute. I went to the general area and, after sitting for an hour or so, decided to go get some lunch. Not a big fan of Spanish food, I decided to go to Burger King. The line was tremendous. I waited a half an hour before I could place my order, but was served quickly. After lunch, I went back to wait for my gate announcement. There was a family with five or six children who were allowed to run around the airport like wild Indians. Unfortunately, that same family was seated all around me on the plane. As soon as we arrived in London, every one of them got up and stood in the aisle, trapping everyone else in the vicinity in their seats. It took me all the way to passport control before I could finally get past them and make headway towards my destination.