Évora

Well, we had a wonderful day and a half in Évora including perfect sunny weather. So, here a bit about the city and what we did and saw.

Évora is a located in the Alentejo, a large agricultural region in the south of Portugal, immediately north of the Algarve which is our home area while we are in Portugal. As of 2004, the city had just under 42,000 inhabitants.

Évora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its well-preserved old town centre mostly enclosed by medieval walls and containing a large number of monuments dating from various historical periods, including a Roman Temple.

Its history dates back more than two millennia. It was known as Ebora by the Celts. In 57 BC the Romans conquered it and made it into a walled town. Julius Caesar called it Liberalitas Julia (Julian generosity). Vestiges from this period, including city walls, ruins of Roman baths baths and the monumental Corinthian temple still remain.

Above is an image of the top of the wall, a gate into the city and the wall extending on beyond the gate.

The city grew in importance because it lay at the junction of several important routes. Following the decline of the Roman Empire and a brief period under the Visigoths, the city was conquered by the Moors in 715. They called it Yaburah. The Moors, under whom the city prospered, were driven from Évora by Giraldo Sem Pavor (Giraldo the Fearless!) in 1165 and in 1166 it came under the rule of the Portuguese king Afonso I. It flourished as one of the most dynamic cities in the Kingdom of Portugal in the Middle Age during which time the citizenry constructed palaces, monuments and religious buildings in a variety of architectural styles (Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Renaissance, Baroque), including the cathedral, the Aqueduct and other sites we visited.

The medieval architecture along with a few remnants of the architectural contributions of the Moors and the picturesque labyrinth of squares and narrow streets of the old city are all part of the rich heritage of this city.
This is Praça do Giraldo (remember him? He is the one who drove the Moors from Évora) the centre of the city and it is here that secular and religious celebrations often took place. Now filled with cafes and shops, it was once a place of execution during the Inquisition, and it is here that we started our time in Évora with lunch.

This photo looks south from our outdoor lunch table toward the Church of Santo Antão, a renaissance style structure built, in accordance with the designs of the royal architects, in the 16th century on the site of a Roman triumphal arch demolished in 1570.

Our outdoor lunch place was under one of those umbrellas. The gothic looking building beyond the umbrellas is Estaus Palace built by King D. Duarte, also in the 16th century.

The walk ways in front of the shops on the east side of the Praça are covered as shown in the adjacent photo; these are quite neat and offer shelter from sun and rain.

We picked up our map and some guidance from the tourist information office and after lunch set off for the Évora cathedral which is only a 5 minute walk from the Praça. Of course, there are lots of small shops along the way, so it took more than 5 minutes.

And, when we got ourselves oriented, we realized the most of the places we wanted to see that day were very close to the Cathedral. That was a real plus.

I know, too many cathedrals, but this is what we did, and we found some of it interesting.

The cathedral, originally Romanesque was built between 1186 and 1204, was restored in the gothic style in the 14th century. It reminds me a bit of the Se, the large cathedral in Lisboa.

This photo shows, not very well I admit, the asymmetrical towers (one tower has a conical spire covered with coloured ceramic tiles while the other is surrounded by six turrets, each of which is a miniature copy of the tower itself - you'll see this a bit better later), and the entrance.

The twelve apostles in the entrance portal are apparently regarded as a masterpiece of Portuguese Gothic sculpture and one of the most important features of the Cathedral.

I am not sure, but I think one of the two closest to the entry is likely Peter. So far, I have not found anything on the web that provides information about who the two special apostles represent.

Before going into the cathedral we entered the cloisters and the first thing we saw was a brightly lighted drink machine! What a way to begin a tour of a medieval cathedral.

And I think my photos of the cloister walkways are better than the ones I have seen on the web, so I show one of mine here.

You can find lots of photos of the inside of this cathedral on line, so I show only one "standard" one and then a few I like.

Like this one of the ceiling of part of the nave.

And this view of the tower with all the miniature turrets - taken from inside the cloister walkway.

One more view of the turreted tower also taken from the cloister walk way.

Ruth found a spiral staircase leading from the cloister to its roof. The view from the roof was not that interesting but negotiating the small steps of the very narrow spiral staircase was. A couple of photos - one coming out at the top

and the other looking down as I prepared for the decent into the dark very narrow space.

Enough about the cathedral - more about other parts of Évora in the next blog or two.

Sunday once more

I usually give these missives some thought ahead of time but on this I am just making it up as I go.

Oh, just a reminder to click on photos to see a larger version.

I don't know what it is that makes me go down to the ocean at least twice every day - once before the sun is up and again in the evening before sunset. One thing, of course, is that the light is good for photos and, of course, I love sunrises like this one,

or this sunset. If you look closely you will see two people, young women, who decided it was a good time for a swim - so for some, a swim is a good reason to be here, though at this time of year the water is distinctly chilly, especially at this time of day.

Actually, this particular sunset was quite unusual with the hole in the cloud cover allowing the sunlight to slip partially through at intervals creating, I thought, interesting rays and,

in this photo, the opposite of a black hole, actually quite a "firey" looking hole.

But it is much more than all that. You can pretty much count on the ocean being there - an apparent permanence, which is somewhat reassuring - always there, rolling in and working away at the rocks and sand - constantly modifying them and leaving all manner of things behind; millions of shells, once living creatures, rocks and, unfortunately, our debris.

Watching and listening to the surf also provides a rhythm that is definitely meditative, but I can't provide a photo of that so I have couple of photos of those shells I mentioned above, brought in and left by the water. Also there are some patterns in the sand proving that the water had been there and receded, and a couple of large rocks that definitely are not permanent.

And, Darwin suggests that, a bit like those shells, we were kind of washed up and left on shore ourselves. If so, maybe that's the draw - it's home.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Light and shadows

Well, we are all set for our trip to Évora next Tuesday and Wednesday. We are looking forward to this trip which we will do on our own. By express bus it is about 3 hours from Albufeira. Hopefully, some stories and good photos when we return.

Remember to click on the photos to see a larger version - if you can use full screen that would give you an even better view.

When we are travelling the trip is both enjoyable and provides new stories and photos but when relaxing around Albufeira I like to have a small photography project or two to keep me out of trouble.

For example, in past years I have done the chimney pots, street signs, azulejos, etc, and sunsets and sunrises are always on the list. At the moment I am interested in learning more about light and shadows/silhouettes in photographs. Here are a few of my recent efforts.

Most of these were made right around our apartment on the way to or from the beach.

Except this one which is one of the houses across the street above us, about 3 minutes from our apartment.

Some will recognize these silhouettes as chimney pots that I have photographed previously.

Another perspective on one of the above chimney pots made in the morning on the way back from the beach.

This is similar to a photo I posted earlier - just a slightly different view made on a different day. Again, taken in the morning when the light is the best, I think.

A sunrise I know, but I like it as part of my light and shadows/silhouette photos.

There could be more of these in a later post, we'll see how it goes.

Gibraltar

On the day of our visit, the bus took us the short distance from Algeciras to the Gibraltar bus terminal where we transferred to the special 22 seater bus which took us on the "rock tour". These special buses were apparently built by Toyota specifically for this tour, and you soon learn why.

I don't know how many of you have been to this place, but I do know that coming here has certainly changed the way I think of Gibraltar. I thought it was just a big barren rock, but, as you will see it is neither barren nor just a rock. And the common saying, "solid as the rock of Gibraltar" does not stand up to scrutiny either. Yes, it is big and heavy and not easily moved, but it is not as solid as you might think. Also, contrary to what you might think, the rock of Gibraltar is not an island - it is connected by an isthmus to the mainland of Spain.

We were also told, however, that, though it is connected to the mainland by an isthmus, the rock is not attached to the underlying terra firma - that is, it is not the top of a mountain protruding above the water. Rather, it is a big limestone boulder resting on something below the water that IS attached to terra firma. So, perhaps not quite as solid as it might be.
This is a view, looking over a part of Gibraltar that was reclaimed from the ocean. As you can see, there is a sharp drop at the edge of this and most of the roads leading up the rock.
The view below looks across the water with Spain in the distance.

The British territory of Gibraltar has a population of about 30,000 people (plus 300 monkeys) and, though people live on the rock itself, much of the built up area including the airport runway, is situated on land reclaimed from the ocean. Where did they get the material for reclamation? Well, for strategic and simple transportation reasons, the British and Commonwealth military personnel carved out tunnels and huge spaces within the rock, apparently areas large enough to accommodate 5000 people inside during the second world war, and to consider using some of that space within the rock as a military hospital - though it seems the latter never happened. So, some of the hollowing out of the rock was done my man (see below for more about the caves created by natural forces), apparently using fairly basic methods. Some of this work, we were told, was carried out by driving large pieces of wood into crevices in the rock, then soaking the wood causing it to swell and split the rock!
The limestone removed in creating the tunnels and other spaces, was dumped into the ocean ultimately forming part of the mass which became the current "land" area around the rock.

Back to the rock tour - the drivers of these small buses have to be excellent and experienced to zip, as they do, through tunnels with barely inches to spare all round and to negotiate the narrow two way (one way by anyone else's standards) roads that lead up the sides of the rock always with a sharp drop on one side. (We went as high as about 1000 of the 1400 or so feet.) No one has ever driven off the edge, we were told.

First stop is to take photos at the place where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean - remember? - we did that on the African side. The Mosque on the left in this photo was commissioned by a someone of wealth and standing from, I think, Saudi Arabia.

Here we are looking from the south side of "Gib"; in this photo, toward the Atlantic,

and in this one toward the Mediterranean.
From here more hair raising driving to, first, the park with the Barbary Macaques (tail-less monkeys), with whom our driver claimed to have a special relationship, and so he does.

He said if you touch them they will bite - if you don't they won't. And they will not take cameras or glasses but will take women's handbags as they assume bags contain food. The monkeys are fed twice daily by park personnel, but they still like the goodies. Immediately after the bus stopped they were all over the bus and almost in the driver's lap.

The second reason for this stop and the most special treat is St. Michael's caves created, not by man, but by water dripping on this limestone rock.

Check it out in these photos. It is breathtaking - the only and most awesome "cathedral" we have visited and the best part of Gibraltar, in my view.

This is a cut section of a stalactite that fell - this cut surface is hard and polished, resembling marble.

This is an in cave auditorium where concerts and performances of all kinds are apparently held. It is said that the acoustics are excellent.

From this point, unfortunately, we have to leave this beautiful place.

From St Michael's we went to a couple more stops at overlooks then back to town and the shopping area.

How did she get here?

A view from a stop on our way down - overlooking the area and the Mediterranean.

This photo shows the road on which we came where it crosses the Gibraltar airport runway! - the only runway as far as I could tell. The car traffic is controlled by a traffic light!

Gibraltar has it's own currency, the Gibraltar £, related to the British £ but different. They also accept € (Euros). The prices are outrageously high. We had an small order of mediocre fish and chips, a coffee and hot chocolate - the price was €28.00 which is around $40 CDN! - for lunch. We bought nothing else.

Above is the gate to the Main street shopping area.

I took the adjacent photo as we were leaving. I think this is the wall that used to be the outer perimeter that kept the water at bay.

Leaving can tricky, apparently. To go through Spanish customs we had to take all of our stuff off the bus, including bags from the luggage area, and walk them through customs and immigration. We passed through easily but our guide warned that the Spanish border guards can be quite difficult. Then a tiring 5 or 6 hour bus trip home.

Tangier 2

After lunch we moved on to the vicinity of the Berber outdoor market en route to the medina (the old city), the souk and the bazaar, passing a small Mosque on the way. As mentioned in the earlier Tangier post religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution so, while it is predominantly a Muslim city with many Mosques, there are at least nine Synagogues and several Christian churches. We passed one large Mosque on the bus trip but, unfortunately, it was not otherwise part of the tour.

As mentioned, in centuries past Tangier was a Berber community and even today its population, we were told, is about 60% Berber. The Berbers are an agrarian and craft culture and their market is filled with produce and handicrafts of all kinds. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what, except what we can see in the photos, because we had to walk very quickly past their outdoor market area en route to the souk. In stopping to take these and a few other photos I was almost left behind. These photos were composed very quickly and most were made with a telephoto lens because it would not have been possible otherwise.

A few more photos made on our quick trip past the Berber market.

This table of bread is the first stall we saw when entering the souk. Once again, the passage through this amazing gathering of food was extremely fast so I was lucky to get these few photos. Beyond the bread stall is one displaying several kinds of olives (we were told that there are at least 20 different kinds of olives) and a range of other fruits and vegetables, similar to the stall in the photo below.

We were quickly led out of the souk past all manner of other interesting booths of food but with no time to find out what they were. The young man in this photo was the guide's colleague and the one responsible for keeping us from straying and getting lost, which he did effectively and gently but firmly.

It turned out that we were now on our way to the bazaar and to get there we had to pass through very narrow "streets" and keep saying "no" to no end of street vendors who were very much "in your face" persistently trying to sell you their particular items - jewellery, plates, leather purses, rugs, etc. Follow the Tilley hats, was one of the guide's suggestions.

All of this rush, it seems, was to get to the bazaar in time for an educational and sales presentation about carpets. The presentation was very informative, interesting and extremely well done, and clearly designed to encourage the purchase of a carpet or two.

And as you can see, the place was filled with a wide range of very tempting,very beautiful hand produced carpets, among other things which, unfortunately, you can't see. In the photo above the young man was attempting to demonstrate that the carpets are "fire proof".

This is a stack of some of these beautiful carpets.

And these are equally beautiful leather "poofs" or hollow leather balls that one fills with paper or styrofoam pellets to make a foot stool. We bought two, one medium size and one small.

Then we were off again through another set of narrow streets and the same group of street vendors to reach the spices and oils, etc. purported to make you look 5 years younger or provide that much sought after aphrodisiac. In this photo I am being scolded for taking it.

Here is the group once again listening to an interesting and very engaging presentation/sales pitch for the spices, powders and oils all credited with a range of attributes and powers. It was surprising to me how many sales were made.

Then we slipped out a side door in an effort to avoid the street vendors but without success. More narrow streets and the need to continue to say no.

We were folllowed all the way to the port where we finally did leave the salesmen behind. All of this was a lot of fun as long as you realize that this is their living. They were very persistent but in no way unpleasant or abusive.

From here it was onto the ferry/hydroplane and off on our 40 minute ride back to Algeciras.
Gibraltar next.