This morning we arrived in Portimao, Portugal, our
last stop before the tour ends in Lisbon.
Needless to say, our guide Rita was very happy to be back in her home
country. Portimao is located on the
Algarve and is known for its sailing culture.
The Algarve is the southernmost region of continental Portugal, and with
its beautiful coastline and beaches it is a very popular European resort
area. In addition to tourism, food
production, which includes fish and other seafood, fruit, oranges, carob beans,
figs and almonds, is also economically important in the region. Before I continue, I want to include the “The
Legend of Algarve” to highlight how the almond tree came to be so important to
this entire region.
The
Legend of Algarve
Once
upon a time, when the Algarve was ruled by the Moors and was known as Al Garb,
a young Prince by the name of Ibn-Almuncim ruled from the capital in
Silves. He met Gilda, a Nordic Princess,
and they fell madly in love with each other; they married immediately and lived
in Silves.
As
time went by Gilda began to pine, she missed seeing snow in winter. Gilda yearned for the snow covered fields of
her homeland. Her prince was saddened to
see his beautiful wife pining away and tried everything in his power to make
her happy, but still her heart ached.
One
day, while riding through the countryside, the Prince hit upon a grand
plan. He would transform the Al Garb
into a winter wonderland. He ordered
thousands of almond trees to be planted from the walls of the palace down into the
countryside as far as the eye could see.
When
the time was right and the almond trees were in full bloom, the Prince strode
into Gilda’s chambers where she lay pining and ordered all the windows to be
opened. Taking his fair Princess by the
hand, he led her to the open windows. As
she looked out at the beautiful scene before her, she was amazed to see that
the fields below were covered in what looked like snow. Bewildered, she saw a veritable winter
wonderland before her very eyes. For
miles and miles in every direction, the beautiful trees looked frosty and the
ground was carpeted in almond blossoms.
Gilda
recovered from her decline immediately and from that time on, every winter, she
looked upon the “snow covered” fields and never pined for her homeland
again. And so the Prince and the
Princess lived happily ever after.
On this stop we were supposed to visit Sagres, the
southwestern tip of Portugal, which in the 15th-16th
centuries was once thought to be the closest land to the edge of the
earth. It was here that Prince Henry the
Navigator built his Navigator’s school to train the early Portuguese explorers
of Portugal’s Age of Discovery, and the point from which these explorers set
sail into the unknown in their quests to discover new lands and sea
routes. Unfortunately, all that remains
of this site is an old fort and it is currently undergoing renovations, so the
trip to Sagres was cancelled.
Instead we traveled to Lagos, a town with a maritime
history both celebrated and controversial.
While Lagos was important to Henry the Navigator during the 15th-
and 16th-century Age of Discovery, it was also once the heart of the
European slave trade. As with most
cities that we visited on this trip, Lagos has been occupied by many different
cultures over its 2000 year history – the Celtics, the Carthusians, the Romans,
the Moors, until 1249 when it became part of Portugal. The city, as well as the coastal areas of the
Algarve, was heavily damaged by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and resulting
tsunami.
When we arrived in Lagos, Rita took us on a short
walk through the local fish market where the locals would buy the fish they
needed for their dinners. We stopped at
one stall where Rita talked to a husband and wife who were vendors there. The husband had worked many years as a tile
layer in creating the sidewalks around Lagos.
He would first go to the quarry where he would cut the stone into tiles,
and then he would lay them in a pattern to create the sidewalks. His hands were all callused and
disfigured. When he retired he was
eligible for a €520/month pension from the government. His wife however did not work the required
number of years to get a pension (the requirement is 40 years), so after his
first retirement they started working at the fish market to earn an additional
income. They are now in their mid-70’s
and have been married 45 years. You
could tell just by looking at them that they had had a hard life, but they were
very content and happy with their life.
We then went upstairs above the fish market (as much
as we like seafood, the smells of these markets can really get to you) where
they had a local craft and homemade food market. The most prevalent food item was of course
the almonds. Rita bought some and we all
shared in another one of our little discoveries.
After lunch at a local restaurant, we met our local
guide who took us on a walking tour of the center of Lagos. She pointed out the building where the slave
market was held. Today it is just an
abandoned building. We then visited the
Church of Santo Antonio which houses an eclectic collection of archaeological
finds from prehistoric times in addition to Roman mosaics, Moorish oil-lamps
and pottery, and military artefacts.
There was one small area that included exhibits from life in the
Algarve, especially the fishing industry.
At the conclusion of the walking tour, our buses
took us to Ponta da Piedade, a promontory just west of the town of Lagos that
has stunning views of a landscape of caves, grottoes and sea arches that nature
has sculpted from the cliffs over thousands of years. It was the highlight of the day! Back on the bus, Rita had another little
surprise for us. She bought us some
almond fondant candies that were shaped like little animals and fruits. They were really delicious. On the drive back to our boat, we passed a
field with trees atop which storks had built their nests.
Back on the ship, we just had time to change and
gather for the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail Hour. It was amazing how quickly the time
went. But first we had to get through
the night. In his farewell speech, the
Captain said that it would be rough sailing for the next 3 ½ hours – until we
reached the point where we would turn north and go up the coast to Lisbon. Unfortunately, we had set sail immediately
after the last bus returned, and by the cocktail hour we were rocking and
rolling. I tried to make it to dinner,
but I didn’t even make it to the appetizer course. I needed to struggle back to the cabin and
just lie down. I didn’t feel so bad when
I learned that Rita also had to leave and go back to her room. But just like the Captain had said, in 3 ½
hours we stopped rolling front to back (you could feel the big thump when the
front of the ship went over a large wave and came down on the other side). The rest of the evening there was just a
gentle rocking back and forth which was bearable. I was finally able to get undressed and
managed to get a little sleep. It was a
good thing because we were unable to pack that last night, so we had to get up
early to pack – suitcases had to be outside our rooms by 7 AM.
We had arrived in Lisbon about 7 AM, and after
breakfast we left the ship about 9:30 and took a bus tour of Lisbon. I won’t spend a lot of time on Lisbon as the
places they took us to were the same places we had already seen – the Age of
Discoveries Monument, the Belem Tower, and the Jeronimos Monastery. Rita did have one more little discovery for
us. While we were touring the church at
the Monastery, she went to the Casa Pasteis de Belem where she bought the
traditional custard tarts that this shop is famous for. The original recipe for these tarts was
created by nuns who lived at the Jeronimos Monastery in 1837. They then sold the recipe to the Casa Pasteis
de Belem who has kept the recipe a secret.
According to Rita, there are four separate parts to the recipe and four
separate workers who work on only one part of the recipe. Therefore, no one who works at the Casa knows
the complete recipe. We had tried to buy
this pastry when we were first in Lisbon, but the line at the Casa was so long
that we gave up. The Casa sells over
10,000 cakes a day (with the record day being 55,000 sold). When we finished touring the church at the
Monastery, Rita was waiting for us at the Monastery’s café with these
tarts. She gave us each one and bought
us a Portuguese coffee to go with it. The
tarts are outstanding, but the coffee is much too strong for me. We are really going to miss these “little
discoveries” when we get back home.
Our bus tour dropped us of at
the Praça do Comércio (also known as
Terreiro do Paço), the square at the edge of the waterfront. This was
where ships used to dock and sell their goods.
It was the site of Portugal’s royal palace for 200 pre-earthquake
years. After the quake/tsunami/fire, the
king fled and lived out his life in a wooden palace in the Belem district that
is now home to the President of Portugal.
Today the Praca do Comercio is lined with cafes, shops, and a wine
tasting store. We had lunch at the Beer
Museum located in the square. They have
a small museum upstairs dedicated to Portuguese beer and a restaurant
downstairs. I had the codfish cake (when
in Rome …) and it was very, very good. I
was really surprised as it was made from dried cod, a main stay in Portuguese
family cooking.
After lunch, Bill and I went to
our hotel to rest. We had already done
the walking tour that Rita was doing with the rest of the group. And I needed some time to shower and rest up
for our dinner. We had a lovely farewell
dinner at a newly renovated restaurant on the waterfront. It was a happy occasion, but it was sad to
say goodbye to the friends we had made on the trip. Unlike a few couples who had a 2 AM wake-up
call for their flights back to the States, our flight did not leave until
10:30, so we did not have to leave the hotel until 8AM.
The trip was over and by 5 PM
the next day we were back in Denver. We
really enjoyed our time in Lisbon. It is
a wonderful city and we would like very much to go back for another visit. You really need about a week to see Lisbon
and its surrounding areas. We also
enjoyed Seville and Gibraltar, but Casablanca and Tangier were big
disappointments. The one thing we really
like about OAT/Grand Circle is the quality of their program
directors/guides. Rita was
outstanding. Her knowledge of the entire
region that we visited was vast and she was always smiling and ready to
help. And we loved her little “discoveries.” She was very engaging and willing to talk to
strangers so that we might learn a little more about the culture of the area we
were visiting.
