Portugal
Part 2: Porto/Oporto
In Part 1, we left Faro in the Algarve for Oporto in the north. This flight with Ryanair is quick and efficient, but you can also make this journey by rail which takes around six hours. Many people hire cars because the highways connecting major cities in Portugal are excellent. Whereas in the Algarve, I stayed at a hostel and a type of home-stay, in the north, there are so many Airbnbs to choose from, that this seemed the best option so I booked one near Trindade station from which I could easily walk downtown.
The city’s central square is overlooked by Porto’s town hall and other imposing architecture that combines a masculine solidity with more feminine, decorative details in a Neoclassical style. Grey granite dominates, even underfoot in the sett cobblestones used to pave the streets. It’s a majestic city centre, brimming with character that hints of power. The architecture embodies solidity and endurance, reminding the nation of the colonial trading power a once-wealthy Portugal wielded when it controlled the high seas.
Images: Porto’s majestic architecture; Trindade Metro, a good location for Airbnbs
In the side streets, grey granite gives way to a smorgasbord of colourful tile-clad terrace buildings. On the upper levels, decorative wrought-iron balustrades function more to prevent people from falling through the floor-to-ceiling windows; they’re too narrow to be balconies. Structurally, the buildings are similar, but in the variety of their tiled cladding, each is unique. Azulejo tiles are used everywhere, in cladding as well as to illustrate biblical or historical events displayed in interiors as well as on exteriors façades. It’s said that no other nation on earth uses tiles as much as Portugal.
Images: Downtown Porto: tiled church (Capela das Almas) and terrace houses, romantic evenings beside the river, life-sized statues attached to a department store; an Iberian organ; alfresco dining; a Gothic cathedral
Closer to the river the air becomes damp and the lanes narrow while the variety of souvenir stores increases with their wares extending into the lanes on small tables. If not a gift store, then it’s a restaurant; the city has hundreds of each. The river Douro divides the city and has offered trade and maritime advantages for millennia. Various watercraft carry passengers to and from the opposite bank where the famous port wine manufacturers such as the Caves Cálem line the shore. Port, named after this city, is a fortified wine which means that brandy is added to stabilize and stop the fermentation of exported wine during its long sea voyage. Port was born almost by accident when manufacturers discovered that the fortified wine was superior in taste. The grapes are shipped down the river from the Douro Valley which was selected as the world’s first formally demarcated wine-growing region in 1757. True port, they say, can only come from Oporto as the exact climatic conditions for growing the specialised grapes (freezing winters – followed by scorching summers) do not occur anywhere else.
The view up and down the river in the evening is spectacular with the rectangular shapes of autumn-toned apartments lit up on one bank contrasting against the curves of lovely bridges that span a river that’s alive with ferries, water taxis and romantic gondolas. As the sun sinks beneath the horizon, many keen shutterbugs head to the riverbank awaiting that magical moment when bridges, spires and Renaissance domes stand silhouetted against a darkening sky; a beautiful sight – as though created solely for photographers.
Images: Apartments in back lanes, Porto’s iconic trams, a ‘leaning’ tiled church, azulejo tile designs; the famous Café Majestic in the pedestrian mall
Of Oporto’s many wonderful restaurants and cafés, the Café Guarany, on the Avenida dos Aliados, and the Café Majestic, located on the city’s famous pedestrian shopping mall, the Rua de Santa Catarina, are worth a mention. At the former – one of Porto’s older and more prestigious dining venues, established in 1933 – it’s immediately obvious why Portuguese cooking is so well-known for its exceptional blending of herbs and spices. I can taste paprika, garlic, pepper, and a background hint of bay leaf. Around the cubed beef are carrots, potatoes, green peppers, sweet potato, and onions in a tomato base. It’s mouth-wateringly delicious. The Café Majestic’s splendid interior décor is visible from the outside, but the line of tourists is long; it’s mentioned in every tourist brochure. Inside, the dark wood panelling and furniture are charming with rich Art Deco detail. Gilded frames on several broad mirrors reflect fancy light shades and plaster-relief features on the ceilings and walls. It’s like stepping into another era. The café employs handsome, upbeat waiters with shiny black shoes and calf-length white aprons with matching napkins thrown over their left forearm, ready to decant a glass of wine or pour guests their coffee. My cake and aromatic coffee are excellent, the pastry’s rich but not overly sweet, and the coffee is intense without bitterness. I’d return to Portugal for the food, port and coffee alone.
Images: Busy bank of the Douro river, the intriguing “Cubo” fountain; terrace apartments atop inviting restaurants; river cruise under one of the city’s famous bridges (this one shares construction features with the Eiffel Tower).
A highlight on Porto’s main pedestrian mall are the horizontally mounted, life-sized statues attached to the vertical wall of a department store. Their gravity-defying impact on passers-by forms a perfect right angle; horizontal statues facing down at vertical people staring up. Statues, monuments, and sculptures abound throughout the city. Further along, a church (Capela das Almas) captures the imagination. It’s almost entirely covered with blue and white tiles portraying biblical scenes. It’s stunning, both inside and out.
Strolling through the city, it’s not unusual to hear live street music coming from the Praça Ribeira, a lovely square that’s surrounded by a virtual museum of azulejo-clad townhouses that are interspersed with restaurants and galleries. Small bands set up near a remarkable fountain, the Fonte do Cubo. It’s an enormous cube set on an angle that looks like it’s suspended in space over a four-metre, irregular-shaped pool. Water jets aimed at its base conceal whatever is holding it in position. Appearing to be floating in air, it has intrigued onlookers bending and twisting, trying to unravel this conundrum that’s competing for attention with the rhythmic sounds of the band.
Late afternoon, a lazy boat ride offers an hour-long narrated cruises along the historic waterfront of this centuries-old city passing iconic tenements in pastel autumn shades and gliding under Oporto’s famous bridges. Evenings often end with a Fado performance in a small bar that might offer beer and ‘finger food’ like barbequed sausages. Many of the Fado singers are female, often middle-aged, accompanied by one or two guitarists. They sing their haunting melodies energetically and with passion, so that even when the lyrics aren’t understood, the emotion is. The songs convey sorrow, longing, love, and loss with occasional hints of anger, defiance and calls to action.
Covilhã
A hire car is required when driving east from Porto into Portugal’s mountain range. Once out of the more densely populated suburbs, the scenery becomes prettier by the minute along the narrow and winding road thanks to the many wildflowers that grow in summer along its verge. It’s a sparsely populated region, interspersed with rural towns such as Viseu; a good place to stop for lunch. English isn’t spoken as much inland, so charades are a fun way to order a meal at the restaurant I’d chosen. In the far corner, six grumpy elderly men – chewing the ends of their cigars – eye each other as they hunch over a serious game of cards with a small fortune piled on a table at the centre of their contest. Such glimpses into people’s everyday activity creates another level in the travel experience, like adding perspective and depth to a painting taking shape in your memory. Further along among the foothills of the Beira Alto, the mountain region offers several types of accommodation such as the hand built Airbnb stone cottage chosen for this road trip. One interior wall was part of the actual mountain.
Images: Views of northern Portugal on the way into the mountains; strange rock formations; the stone hut Airbnb at Covilhā; a storage ‘hut’ for corn cobs.
Medieval Belmonte & Serra da Estrela
The region also boasts some interesting smaller towns. Belmonte is an authentic medieval town with a thirteenth-century castle built on the high ground affording a 360-degree view of the countryside; necessary in the past for security but today serving only to offer its spectacular views. The town holds its annual medieval fair within the castle walls and if you’re lucky enough to be here when it’s on, you’ll find the castle courtyard filled with fascinating medieval stalls: candle makers, weavers, blacksmiths, dyers, cobblers, bakers, and tinsmiths. Medieval fairs a common throughout Europe because our connection to the past and to ancestors is seen by many as worth celebrating especially when surrounded by architecture dating back to that time. Belmonte is also famous because sons of this region became two of the most famous Portuguese maritime explorers of all time. The town is also renowned as a former sanctuary for the Crypto Jews that moved here to save themselves from the Inquisition which was originally launched in Spain and continued until 1820! Belmonte boasts an informative Jewish Museum that tells their story.
Images: Belmonte’s Medieval castle and its annual fair; Portugal’s highest peak, Torre, as the clouds roll in over decommissioned telescopes and sky lifts.
Torre, at almost two thousand metres, is the highest peak in Portugal’s Serra da Estrela mountain range. The winding road up the mountain passes incredible, almost-alien rock formations standing vertically against a backdrop of diagonally stratified grey slate precipices so sharp, they seem to slice the heavens. On the summit, there’s a building that resembles a ski chalet. One half of the large structure contains a farmers’ market selling locally produced handicrafts made from the wool of local sheep and goats, along with cheeses and smoked small goods from the same livestock; the odor of lanolin mixed with the aroma of smoked meats is no doubt ‘an acquired taste.’ Next to this building are several tall, out-of-commission telescopes, and a ski lift that’s soon lost in clouds that begin their daily roll over the mountaintop. It’s a captivating sight made even more mystical by the hundreds of cairns that fill the foreground. These calf-high piles of rocks are everywhere – silent, cartoon-like sentinels guarding the mountain and slowly disappearing as the low cloud rolls over the landscape. The late afternoon view from the ski chalet’s restaurant window slowly disappears in cloud until all that’s left is an opaque, snow-blizzard white.
Coimbra /queenbra/
That Coimbra was Portugal’s capital in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is evident from its many grand buildings that reflect this former status. Paved pedestrian malls are a feature of the lower terrain with cobblestones used for the steeper lanes. Almost everyone here wears joggers because it’s easy to lose your footing.
Coimbra is one of those places where you’ll soon discover that the collective Portuguese heart beats to a dizzying calendar of community festas in almost every corner of the country. As I arrived, the annual Onion Fair was in full swing with musicians and a dozen dancers in traditional farmers’ costumes performing on a dismountable stage. The square fronts a large tenth-century church that looks like a fortress. The lively performance had an audience of about a hundred all clapping and singing along. Such festas make quite an impression.
Images: Coimbra’s 10th century church; regal statue, annual Onion Fair, Baroque architecture, leaning apartments, paved streets; Roman aqueduct; magnificent door architraves; stunning Iberian organ; an evening stroll, view to the Mondego river over terracotta roofs.
The Universidade de Coimbra is well worth a visit not only because it’s one of the oldest universities in the world (founded in 1290 before moving here in 1308), but also because it boasts several architectural masterpieces. One of these is its Baroque Library which simply takes your breath away with its richly carved wooden features, gold leaf décor (sourced from its colonies), and its racks of thousands of ancient leather-bound and gold-embossed volumes of human thought that are still being studied by the university’s top scholars. It’s humbling to stand amid the knowledge contained in these volumes in which such great minds put pen to paper. It’s inspiring because it shows how much in the universe there is to be curious about, and it reassures because it connects the present to the past – an unbroken line of history and human endeavour of which we are all part.
The central square, the Pacos das Escolas, that offers an expansive view of distant hills over the terracotta-tiled roofs of Coimbra and the river below, is quietly watched over by King Joao III’s magnificent, larger-than-life statue. He looks just like Henry the Eighth! The stunning buildings surrounding this square were once part of a royal palace that the king signed over to the university, and it’s this architecture that inspired UNESCO to add the campus to its World Heritage list in 2013. However, the campus now extends beyond this site throughout the city to accommodate over twenty-three thousand, predominantly international, students. The university offers eight faculties and is ranked as number one in Portugal and third among the nine countries in which Portuguese is an official language.
Images: Universidade de Coimbra; King Joao III’s statue; impressive university library; Museu Misericordia; view from the bell tower.
The university also boasts one of the country’s most prominent museums for higher education and research, the Museu Misericordia (Holy House of Mercy) and a majestic Royal Palace (now a museum), built in the tenth century. It was first a fortress for the city’s governor during the Islamic occupation, and later became the residence of the nation’s first king, Afonso Henriques I, when Portugal became a kingdom in 1139. Although the decline of Islamic rule commenced around 1130, Moorish presence in Portugal didn’t end until about a hundred years later, when the Algarve was conquered in 1249 with the taking of the last Moorish stronghold in Faro. Interestingly, by becoming a kingdom as early as 1139, Portugal, as a sovereign nation, is several hundred years older than its neighbour, Spain, which didn’t gain that status until 1479.
Roman Museum at Conimbriga
Coimbra to Lisbon is only a two-hour drive along a relatively traffic-free highway, so if there’s time, a visit to Portugal’s largest open-air Roman Museum at Conimbriga is worthwhile. It features the excavation of an entire Roman town built between the second and third centuries CE (Common Era, or AD). However, the Iberian Peninsula came under Roman rule much earlier, around 219 BCE (Before the Common Era, or BC). Within two hundred years of arrival, Rome ruled large swathes of Europe as far north as Britain. The Romans brought wheat, olives, and vineyards; built roads; and organised people into functioning societies with a social order that transformed how people saw themselves and how they interacted with each other. The area thrived for hundreds of years until 476 CE. However, their most significant legacy was arguably the Latin language which is the basis of the Romance languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French and Romanian. Portuguese is still spoken in many former colonies, and has official language status in nine nations scattered throughout the world. In fact, about 260 million people worldwide speak Portuguese, making it the sixth most spoken language in the world.
Images: Excavation of an entire Roman town; remarkably preserved tiled floors; a sketch of how the buildings would have looked in their heyday.
Vibrant Lisbon/Lisboa
Portugal’s use of alternative energy is evident from the many wind turbines one passes on the road between Conimbriga and Lisbon. Gradually, the rural landscape becomes more urban and the large city of Lisbon takes shape in the distance, an omen for the nightmare awaiting those who arrive unaware of the many narrow streets that cater for trams and leave little room for cars. As parking is difficult, it’s best to return a hire car before exploring Lisbon. My Airbnb is in Graça, just north of the better-known neighbourhood of Alfama. These are the older areas of Lisbon, full or character and ambience. They’re a delight to stroll around and are only a fifteen-minute walk from the town center. Watching Lisbon come alive in the evening from the balcony of the apartment, inspires a walk down to Baixa, the city centre. The narrow streets with their tiled building façades, the iconic Lisbon trams rattling past, and the upbeat atmosphere are contagious. One feels the city’s pulse and it’s exciting. In the evening, there are people everywhere all out for a stroll between restaurants and bars, some of which have terraces that offer magnificent views over terracotta rooftops to the sea beyond.
Images: Views from Sāo Jorge; me taking a 2-minute break, downtown Lisbon; trams on narrow streets; a peak into a lovely church; the back streets of Lisbon.
Not far from Graça, is the Moorish fortress, São Jorge. A climb to the top of its battlements, rewards you with a spectacular view of Lisbon. The fortress walls are softened by green palms and oleander, and among hibiscus bushes in full pink bloom, colourful peacocks forage for food. It’s a gorgeous combination. São Jorge stands on a site that’s been important for over three thousand years. Long before the Moors built this fortress, Julius Caesar was here way back in 50 BCE when he established Lisbon as Rome’s eastern capital. In more recent history, the site gained significance because the taking of this fortress was what turned the tide that drove the Moors out of Portugal and finally out of the Iberian Peninsula. Whether their expulsion was a loss or gain is still debated, but few dispute the loss of scientific, mathematical, engineering and architectural knowledge, nor the loss of education and religious tolerance; all areas in which the Moors excelled. Is it mere coincidence that Europe’s ‘dark ages’ and the Inquisition (1184) accompanied their expulsion?
Lisbon’s tile museum is a ‘must’ for those interested in ceramic art. As well as tiles, the museum includes exquisitely carved antique furniture and a simply extraordinary chapel, with gold-framed images hugging every square inch of its ceiling and walls. Although tile art was first brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors and used predominantly in Spain, King Manuel’s promotion of their application in an architectural style called Manueline or Portuguese Gothic from 1503 onwards was responsible for their spread throughout the nation. Over time, the hand-painted decoration of tiles changed from the purely geometric and floral Moorish style to more detailed portraits of people, animals, and landscapes. Tiles became a feature again during the rebuilding of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake. Prime Minister Sebastian Pombal was given the job of rebuilding the city in what became known as the Pombaline style. The most significant increase in the use of tiles, however, was during the past two hundred years.
Images: 1-6 at the tile museum; interior of a church in the suburb called Graça.
Liberation and Resistance: a homage to courage
Staying in the older part of town, you’re close to the streets on which the iconic trams rattle past. They seem to draw you into Lisbon’s vibe, but they are often overcrowded so you tend to spend a lot of time on foot. As in all major cities of the world, Lisbon boasts many museums and on my way to the Praça do Comércio beside the Tagus River which is said to be the one of the largest town squares in Europe, I discover the Museum of Resistance, Liberation, and Democracy, dedicated to the memory of the fight against Salazar’s right-wing and church-sanctioned dictatorship. Under his iron rule, whilst prime minister from 1932 to 1968, he was aided by a pervasive, secret police department. I’d seen the movie Night Train to Lisbon with Jeremy Irons and this museum focuses on those same years when the cruel ‘Butcher of Lisbon’ caused such grief torturing and executing thousands. Images of the deceased share wall space with photographs of the dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar. The exhibition honours the courage and sacrifice of the men and women of the Resistance and recounts the terrible hardships people faced under decades of dictatorship. Their impassioned struggle is conveyed through memorabilia and photographs. The walls are covered with texts about workers’ strikes and the students at the forefront of this struggle. A text displayed above the stairwell was written in 2014 by the playwright and former resistance activist Mário de Carvalho. His words leave a haunting and lasting impression:
“Fear impregnated the whole social relationship; fear of being arrested, fear of losing one’s job, fear of social ostracism, fear of persecution and of isolation, fear of calumny, fear of falling into disfavor or of infringement. Fear of hierarchical superiors, fear of police, fear of the bureaucrat, fear of one’s neighbors – fear engendered more fear. It was suffocating for the majority. There were people, however, who prospered and felt comfortable amid other’s misfortune. There still are. And they are still the same.”
It sent chills down my spine to realise that I was already an adult when the Portuguese were still being subjected to this. Democratic freedom is a relatively recent phenomenon on the Iberian Peninisula.
Images: Salazar and his government; portrait of a resistance hero constructed from photographs of victims; clandestine communication device used by the resistance.
After Salazar’s death, his government continued until the Carnation Revolution of 1974, which was driven in part by problems resulting from the Portuguese Colonial Wars of 1960–1970, during which millions were killed. As the nation lost most of its colonies, over one million refugees flooded into Portugal to escape these war zones. This stressed the economy and put pressure on the government. Most territories established formal independence in 1975, and a democratic government was established in Portugal in 1976. Since then, life for most Portuguese has continued to improve. In 1986, both Portugal and Spain joined the EU. For a while, aid from the EU made Portugal one of the fastest-growing nations in Europe. Noteworthy is that Portugal was both the ‘first’ great European colonial world power and the ‘last’ to hold such status – ending when China took over the governance of Macau in 1999.
At another museum called The Story of Lisbon near the riverbank beside the Praça do Comércio, I learn that Portugal’s expanding maritime exploration in the fifteenth century soon faced conflict with Spain. Under the supervision of the Vatican, the two nations were encouraged to sign the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. This essentially divided the world in half between two Catholic nations. Spain could take all newly discovered lands in one direction, Portugal in the other. At that time, no other nation in the world was a significant competitor, not even England. It seems incomprehensible from today’s perspective that the rights of indigenous peoples in this division of the world were completely ignored.
Images: Riding Lisbon’s iconic trams; entrance to the famous pedestrian mall; an evening of Fado music at one of Lisbon’s many charming bars serving BBQ sausages and beer.
Passionate Fado
They say that ‘the Lisbon experience’ is incomplete without visiting a Casa de Fado. There are many to choose from and I select a small venue with subdued lighting where an older woman sings to the accompaniment of two young male guitarists. It’s a moving and soulful sound with lyrics about love and loss, struggle, and survival. Given the country’s history, it’s no wonder that people have produced such music as a way of expressing their existential angst and the yearnings of their soul – while they enjoy their grilled sausages and chilled beer.
Mid-evening, there’s little competition for the trams so I finally manage to ride one home. Some streets are so narrow that I could touch the pedestrians and almost reach the walls of buildings as we squeeze past. Rattling along from side to side, this tram was in the hands of a driver who slammed on the brakes and accelerated as though driving a roller coaster.
On my last day, I visited the Museu da Marioneta housed in the Convent of Bernardas. The museum includes marionette puppets and examples of Russian dolls, Asian theatre masks like those used in Japanese Noh and Kabuki performances, and Indonesian shadow puppets. There are over four thousand pieces on display from thirty countries, some dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They’re all behind glass display units—some lined up in rows, while others are positioned in theatrical scenes with spotlights focused on them as though they’re in mid-performance. The history of puppetry is explained, and workshops are offered. At the sight of one puppet, I feel goosebumps form on my skin. I’m stunned to discover that it’s the actual puppet used in the original German television production of ‘Faust’ that had terrified me as a five-year-old. After so many decades, that this memory should still produce such an emotional response catches me by surprise, making me long for sunshine and open space.
The locals enjoy their green space, and none is bigger that the Eduardo VII Parque. There’s a huge commemorative monument at the far end, and to one side, an extraordinary building in white and lemon yellow with impressive panels of blue-and-white azulejo tiles. It reminds me of a very delicately iced cake. My phone’s capacity for internet research ever at the ready tells me that it’s the Pavilhão Carlos Lopes building. Its segments were shipped to Rio de Janeiro in 1922 for that city’s international exhibition. Then in 1932, it was dismantled and erected here where it stands, in all its lemon-meringue glory as a major events venue.
Beyond this area is another park, the Jardim Amália Rodrigues, with a large shallow pool in which an older man is playing with his granddaughter. Locals in their business attire are enjoying lunch at an inviting restaurant beside the pool . Tourists don’t seem to spend much time in this modern banking and business precinct. Even if they stay at one of the expensive international hotels here, they spend their time elsewhere. The area is surrounded by tree-lined streets with more modern, upmarket apartment blocks – an elegant residential precinct in stark contrast to the charming and centuries-old town centre.
Images: Away from the charming Old Town, Lisbon is more open and green with water features and statues surrounded by more modern apartment buildings, international hotels and banks; the lemon-meringue Pavilhão Carlos Lopes building.
Jardim de Estrela and the Basilica da Estrela
At another beautifully forested park, there’s quite a bit of picnicking going on as food is shared around, but not everyone’s awake. Some benches support lone bodies, stretched out and fast asleep; it’s siesta time. Among locals, one gets a real ‘feel’ for the relaxed Portuguese vibe. Near a duckpond, a large green wrought-iron bandstand, with a plaque dating its construction to 1884, stands proudly in the dappled light just crying out for a brass band. This is the Jardim de Estrela facing the Basilica da Estrela, a church considered to be one of the finest and most ornate in all of Portugal. Queen Mary envisaged its Rococo design while keeping a promise made to God that if she could finally bear an heir to the throne, she would build the finest cathedral ever seen. She soon gave birth to a son. However, the complexity of the marble carving, in pink and black, laid in geometric patterns in the interior, plus the sheer size and intricacy of the project caused it to take longer than expected. Her son, Prince José, died of smallpox aged twenty-seven, two years before the church was completed. His mother went into mourning until she died twenty-eight years later. Looking back at the basilica from the tram stop, I think of the tragically disappointed figure of Queen Mary interred in a tomb deep inside her church—a sad story for such a beautiful structure.
Images: Lovely shaded Jardim de Estrela, the impressive Basilica da Estrela; the majestic sardine store at Lisbon’s airport.
Portugal doesn’t seem to let you leave without extracting a promise from your heart to return, and coaxing some cash from you for a tin or two of beautifully packaged sardines from the bright-red exclusive sardine store at Lisbon airport.
Portugal fulfills intangible desires such as being surrounded by history and a culture that includes delicious cuisine, music, wine, and stunning architecture along with easy access to the visual and performing arts. Add to that a genuinely friendly and welcoming population and you have an irresistible combination that speaks to all five senses. The nation also scores high on meeting more tangible needs. The cost of living is comparatively low, the market produce is fresh, and the tap water is safe. Healthcare is excellent, so too internet access. Although power and fuel are pricey, the main roads are first-class and public transport between cities is easy to arrange. The experience highlighted how self-knowledge plays a vital role in defining the aspects of the natural, built, and social environment, as well as the climatic conditions, that are essential to one’s well-being. All the cities and landscapes I visited were visually stunning and exciting to explore, but the Algarve stands out for me because of its warm climate, pace and vibe that allow a traveller the time and the space to attend to whatever aspect of one’s inner self needs healing, readjustment or growth. As the cab dropped me at the airport, I heard a voice inside my head mimicking Arnie Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back!”
