A bit more on Portugal

The first two photos were made in Rossi square in central Lisboa looking north and south, respectively, from the central area of the square. The point of interest in these is the pattern of the paving stones in this very large praça or square which creates a perception of undulation in what is a completely flat surface. This kind of decorative pattern in walking areas is common in most towns we visited. For example, the third photo is a pedestrian only street in Loule which passes by a collection of shops.

The patterns are created using small rocks, about 2 to 2.5 inch (larger in areas that allow cars to drive or park) rough cut cubes, which are still put in place by hand. The rocks are placed on a base of sand like material (it may be limestone screenings or some equivalent) and then workmen sit in a squatting position for hours positioning and "tapping" these rocks into place with a small hammer. Think of the person hours of labour to install the pattern in Rossi square! For more about this process see posting from 2008

I mentioned in an earlier post that Lisboa is very hilly and this plus lots of very narrow streets makes for challenging traffic movement, including public transit, much of which is electrically driven trams. These are not cable cars though there is at least one cable driven "funicular" railway in the central area of Lisboa.

The fourth photo is the old classic tram 28, one of several that wind their way up to the Castle, down steep inclines and through very narrow streets. In some places the street is so narrow that there is one way traffic only so only one set of rails - in these areas there are traffic lights specifically for the trams to allow the northbound tram to use the one way set of tracks while the southbound waits its turn. The fifth photo is one of these old style trams coming down from the castle area - not sure if you can appreciate it, but this is quite a steep incline.

Lisboa has more modern trams as well but continues to run the old classic street cars to preserve some of the historical aura.

Last post from Portugal in 2010

Well, seems like we just arrived and here we are, Saturday, (posted on Monday) with only three more full days before we leave - and a good part of the third day will be spent trying to figure out if we have room for the stuff we brought plus all that we accumulated in the last 4 weeks. Also, what to do with the remnants of food.

We have had a great time and still a bit left to enjoy. Today was a high overcast day but warm - in the low to mid 20's C, so shorts and T shirt weather. Ruth and I walked to old town on the beach, picked up a few last minute gifts then to Sir Harry's (first photo) for orange juice and a beer. On the way home we stopped for a bit to watch a sailboat "race" - not an exiting race as there was not much wind - but it was fun to watch.

Down to the beach again around 5 for a short walk at high tide - the sail boaters were still at it - I took a couple of photos - one not bad, considering the distance to the boats from the beach, is included.

I also spent part of the day taking and putting together some photos of a house, just around the corner from us, that I really like the look of - turns out it is for rent! Wish I had noticed earlier as I would have liked to see the inside. (the third photo is a collection of photos of the house). Casa Alegre means (roughly translated) house/home of bliss or cheer or brightness

Tonight (Saturday) we went with Jean and John to a concert by the "Orquestra do Algarve" in the Municipal Centre - started at 9:30pm - a bit later than I would like. We have been to these Municipal events before - they are free and sometimes very good and this one did not disappoint. The orquestra, formed in 2002 and supported by a large number of communities across the Algarve as well as the Ministry of Culture, has about 30 "chairs" (I think that is the correct term). We all agreed that the concert was excellent - Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, a composition by Joly Braga Santos and a couple of encores - the second was a rendition of "Singing in the Rain" - a lively and appropriate ending for a community that has had a record amount of rain this winter!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we are going for an afternoon of patio music and food at Johnny Hooper's Saxophone Bistro (see photo in an earlier posting this year). The food and the music were good last year, so hope for a repeat this year. (Here we are on Sunday with drinks and waiting for the food - fourth photo).

I know I have posted a lot of sunset and sunrise photos on the beach but, like it or not, here is another - the fifth photo is a wide angle view of the ocean, beach and old town taken looking west at sunrise a few of days ago - posted as kind of a farewell to Albufeira and Portugal for this year.

Azulejos - more than you wanted to know

To see a larger version, click on any of the images.

As with chimney pots, the Portuguese adopted the use of painted, decorative glazed ceramic tiles, which they call azulejos, from the Moors who apparently adapted their versions from the Phoenicians.

I recently started to look more carefully at the ubiquitous colourful and decorative ceramic tiles first in the Algarve and then in Lisboa.

The Moorish tiles tended to be geometric in design - for religious reasons figurative formats were not used by the Moors. These geometric patterned tiles are integral to the beauty of places like the Real Alcazar in Sevilla and the Alhambra in Granada in Spain.

It seems that the Portuguese liked the Moorish tiles so much that they tiled virtually everything that doesn't move, or so the Lonely Planet book proposes. Not surprisingly, the Portuguese adapted the Moorish hand painted tile images to their own liking, creating patterns that reflected and portrayed their own culture both religious and secular. The azulejos were extremely popular and the demand high. In the 17th century, blue and white Delft tiles from the Netherlands began to appear on walls in Portugal but Portuguese tile makers responded to this challenge with increasingly creative works of tile art which appear in churches and other major buildings in Lisboa and virtually everywhere in Portugal.

By the end of the 18th century industrial scale manufacturing apparently began to affect quality and with extensive rebuilding following the devastating earthquake of 1755 demand increased dramatically contributing further to diminishing quality.

In the 19th century, however, new art forms contributed to a resurgence of beautiful azulejos art in in places like the Lisbon metro, shops, restaurants and residential buildings - many by Raphael Bordalo Pinheiro (maybe his brother was also a tile painter as the street just outside our home base is named after Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro - a painter).

It is refreshing to see colourful azulejos everywhere, not only in the paving of buildings but on things as small as street names, house addresses and names of peoples' homes. And the street signs, for example, are not only attractive but when the street is named after someone the sign includes a word or two about why the person deserves recognition; for example Pintor (painter), Romancista, Escritor (both the latter two mean writer), Poeta, Cantor (singer), Dramaturgo (dramatist, playwrite), Navegador (navigator or sailor), Escola Mestre, (school master), etc. I found one street named after someone who was identified as a writer, poet and politician.

The first photo collage is a collection of street name signs - I have picked a few named after folks whose roles were identified. In the larger two, I have cut out from the sign the bit that identifies the person's career that is too small to read and pasted it onto the photo. In the smaller photos I did the same but pasted the enlarged bit below the photo.

The second is a collection of names of houses/homes and the third is similar collection of front or entry of the house/home to which the names in photo 2 belong. I especially like the Casa do Avô which means house/home of the grandfather.

The fourth is a collection of a few larger bits of tile art on the sides of several houses within a few blocks around our home base. The title I have put on this collage, "Algarve - Unmistakable Nooks in Portugal" is a rough translation of the inscription on the piece in the lower left hand corner of this collage. The sign in the lower right hand corner means beware of the dog.

The last is a poorly put together collage just to show some of the use of tiles to decorate surfaces on stairs, around doors, etc. The upper left is a close up photo of the tiles which are part of a wall (photo just below) - the wall is around a house on a corner near our place. The upper right is an outdoor stairway in a building also near us (there are lots of these around) and the bottom left is a beautifully decorated wall and "banister" of a public stairway in old town Albufeira. Finally the bottom right is a doorway of a house I like a lot which is along a walk way overlooking the ocean, also in old town Albufeira.

Well, more than you ever wanted to know about azulejos!

More beach

As usual, to see a larger image of any of these, click on the photo.

I know I said that the next post would be about azulejos (tiles), but that one is not yet finished and since I had to go in to the internet cafe today for other reasons I decided to post these beach photos which I like. I will likely finish the post about the tiles tonight so may post them tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday.

Beach photos are also very relevant as I spend a fair amount of time sitting and walking, listening to the water and watching there - I find it especially relaxing in the early morning with no one else around, watching the sun come up (see photos 1 and 2 - well in photo 2 the sun was defeated by the cloud), and there have been more of those mornings in the last week or more.

But the evening sun often provides a quiet time and some very nice light (see photos 3 and 4)

One morning when I was at the beach around 6:45 am, Jean's sister, Ev, was on her way into old town via the beach - it was near low tide and no one else had walked on the sand so it was a nice opportunity to follow her footprints.

Preparing these photos for the web by reducing the resolution always blunts the colour so these photos look better before they are modified. Sorry about that.

Eclectic collection of photos - Lisboa

As usual, to see a larger image, click on any photo.

When Ruth and I were leaving the Alfama found a small "overlook" and when we went to the railing and looked down there was another expansive deck area with what seemed an unusual collection of seating possibilities - a bunch of white tables and chairs (photo) next to a line up of four black sofas (photo). We didn't go down to see what the sofas were made of but it must have something substantial as they were clearly well exposed to the elements.

The next photo is taken from the castle looking down on one of the two main plazas, Plaça da Figueira; our hotel is just out of the photo in the lower right hand corner and the walkway right middle leads to the second of the two plazas, which you cannot see, named after Dom Pedro IV but referred to as Rossio. This Plaça was in the past apparently the site of animal markets, fairs and bullfights (the latter no longer take place on Portugal). This photo also gives some idea about how high the Castle/Fort is.

The fourth photo was taken on train on the way to Lisboa from Albufeira.

The last photo is an interesting building which houses production and sales of decorative ceramic tile (azulejos). If you look closely you can see that the entire front of the building is decorated with art completely done with ceramic tiles. This photo is the introduction to the next blog which will be about azulejos which are as prevalent and interesting as chimney pots!

Gare do Oriente - Lisbon

The railway station (Gare do Oriente) is a stunning modern ribbed "Death Star" structure (not sure what that means) designed by an acclaimed Spanish architect. For a view of this interesting structure from a distance check out this link. It apparently replaces the attractive but much smaller old station in downtown Lisboa (see photo of the old station).

We arrived earlier enough so John and I could take some photos of the place. Shortly after we began taking pictures we were approached by a security guard (we had apparently been observed on the security monitors taking pictures so it seems they take security quite seriously) and told that we had to stop taking photos unless we had a permit to take photographs around the station. Since we didn't, we had to stop. They did not confiscate our cameras though, so we have some photos to show, which fall far short of doing justice to this beautiful structure.

The train trip home was uneventful until we got to the station in Albufeira at 9:35 p.m. and found it closed! and there were no taxis (it is about a 15 minute taxi ride from the station to our place, so not really walking distance at 9:35 at night with luggage in tow.) After a few minutes of anxiety we were saved by a young Portuguese man who had called a taxi for himself and when it came he allowed us to take it; the taxi driver called another one for him. Thanks to that Portuguese fellow we arrived home in good spirits.

Monument and Tower of Belêm

On Thursday, our last day in Lisboa, Ruth and I set out mid morning to find a Portuguese tile designing and display store and walked for an hour or more without finding it. There was a lot of construction in the area where it is supposed to be so it was a bit disorienting. We had to be back by noon to check out of the hotel so we returned to the hotel without finding the place.

We were interested in the tile place because there is a long history in Portugal of tile production and use for decorating everything from floors to entire buildings (see second photo). John told us how to find another tile place where they design, paint and sell tiles so we did get there later in the day. I tried taking some photos of some of the tile patterns but was unable to get reasonable reproduction so have not included anything here - though we did buy a small tile - not a traditional pattern, but it was designed and painted there.

In the afternoon we went with Ev, Jean's sister, to the town of Belêm, about a 15 minute taxi ride west of downtown Lisbon. Belêm is the home of the huge sculpture Padrao dos descobrimentos, erected in 1960, 500 years after the death of Henry the Navigator, to celebrate Portuguese explorers and featuring Henry at the prow of the "ship" flanked by other famous Portuguese men, and the Tower of Belem, a World Heritage site, built about 500 years ago as part of the defense system to keep would be intruders from entering the city of Lisboa via the Rio Teja which is the entry to the harbour. The tower no longer serves that function. A couple of photos of the Tower and the monument included.

There are several other major places of interest in that same area including the enormous UNESCO World Heritage site, dos jerónimos completed, at huge expense, in 1541 and populated by the monks of the Order of St. Jerome, protector of sailors. There is also a maritime museum, an archeology museum and a carriage museum. Unfortunately, time didn't permit us to visit any of these as we had to return to Lisboa to get taxis to get us to the train station which is at least 20 minutes by taxi from our hotel in the center of the city. For more on the railway station, see the next blog.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - I had my small camera when we were in Belem and it is not easy to control light etc.

The Alfama

Wednesday, our second day in Lisboa, Ruth and I explored the Alfama area - the old part of the city which was once an upper class Moorish residential area and one of the oldest part of the city. It was one of the areas most spared in the earthquake of 1755 which destroyed much of the city and ended an era of extreme Portuguese prosperity and global influence launched by da Gama's discovery of a passage to India and sustained later by the discovery of gold in Brazil, then a Portuguese South American colony.

The Alfama is a web of extremely narrow streets, maybe better called walkways, that wind up and down and around with some small open areas, occasional areas overlooking the expanse of the Rio Tejo and Lisboa's excellent harbour. There are lots of stairs and of course the quaint, to us, homes of those who live in the Alfama.

Exploring the Alfama is physically demanding so after over two hours climbing and descending hills and stairs we worked our way back to the Rossio Praca (plaza or square) and had an outdoor lunch at a small Loja de cafe.

In the afternoon, after a rest and nap we strolled around the main city squares (or Pracas), took some photos and visited the information shop and the Fnac (a store that sells english language books among other things including a multitude electronics, music, movies and almost anything you would like to buy).

Had snacks in late afternoon and then off on an adventure to a Fado (Portuguese folk music and singing) restaurant in the Bairro Alto - another maze of very narrow streets, steep hills and harrowing taxi rides through place you would not believe a car could go, and at speeds that strongly encourage the use of seat belts. The taxi driver left us at the wrong place so we had to negotiate our way through the maze to find the restaurant with the help of some local Portuguese women.

The Fado performance was entertaining, the food expensive and uninspiring and the taxi ride home even more interesting than the one that took us to the restaurant.

A few photos of the Alfama and one of one of the 4 Fado singers.

More Lisboa castle/fort

The Castle of São Jorge (Portuguese: Castelo de São Jorge) occupies a commanding position overlooking the city of Lisbon and the broad Rio Tejo beyond. The strongly-fortified citadel dates from medieval times, is located atop the highest hill in the historic center of the city. The castle is one of the main historical and touristic sites of Lisbon.

The castle's footprint is roughly square in shape, and it was originally encircled by a wall, to form a citadel.

The medieval castle is located toward the northwest corner of the citadel, at its highest point. Hypothetically, during a siege, if attackers managed to enter the citadel, the castle was the last stronghold, the last place available to take refuge. It is rectangular in shape, and it has a total of ten towers. A wall with a tower and a connecting door (first photo - you can see the outer wall through the arch doorway which is under the tower) divides the castle courtyard into halves. A series of stairways allow one to reach the walkway atop the wall and the towers (second photo - it was through a window in that tower that I took one of the photos shown in the previous blog) from which there are magnificent views of Lisbon.

Apart from its main walls, the castle is protected, on its southern and eastern sides, by a barbican (barbacã), a low wall that prevented siege engines from approaching the main castle walls. The northern and western sides of the castle were naturally protected by the steep hillside sloping downward from the castle's foundations. The castle is also partially encircled by a moat, now dry. The main entrance is fronted by a stone bridge across the moat. On the west side, there is a long curtain wall extending downhill, ending at a tower (the Torre de Couraça) (see photo 3 in the previous post - you can't see the tower but on the right side of the photo you can see the wall and steps going down to the tower). This tower served to control the valley below, and it could also be used to escape, in case the castle was taken by enemies.

The last photo is of one of the guards, asleep on the job.

Lisboa

We took the "fast train" from Albufeira to Lisboa yesterday - left at 7:19 am and arrived at about 10 am to a sunny but surprisingly cold morning. The temperature on arrival was 8 degrees C! Fortunately, it warmed considerably later. We had lunch comfortably at an outdoor cafeteria.

The train ride was excellent - smooth, comfortable and it was quite fast reaching 250 to 260 Km/hour at times. (For non metric folks that's around 160 miles/hour)

After we got settled in our room and had a bit of lunch, Ruth and I walked up to the 1100 year old castle/fortress on one of Lisboa's seven hills (more about Lisboa itself in the next post). As you can see from some of the photos, it is a fair climb from the level of our hotel to the top of the fort.

This fort was built by the Moors in the 11th century when they "ruled" much of the Iberian peninsula, including most of Portugal. The Christians captured the fort sometime in the 12th century during the period when the Moors were gradually being driven out of this region after living here for over 400 years.

As usual, the Moors were very creative in their buildings (see 2009 postings on the Alhambra in Granada and the Mosque in Cordoba). In addition to the obvious strategy of building the fort on a hill, they incorporated a number of strategies to make it difficult for intruders to get in - walls within walls, false entry ways, blind alleys, etc.

After the castle we made our way down, had a beer and snacks at an outdoor cafe and found the area called the Alfama, the old Jewish quarter of the city, which is where we will visit today.

A photo looking down on some steps we had just climbed (there were many of these as well as uphill grades), one of the main entry and some views of Lisboa from the castle. More to come.