"Chimney Pots"

As always to see a larger image click on the photo.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the influence of the Moors on Portugal and much of the Iberian peninsula persists in large and small ways. One of the architectural remnants that I find both interesting and charming is the chimney pots which are ubiquitous on both old and new buildings and endlessly, though subtly, variable.

For the Moors, such chimney tops were apparently both functional and decorative while, in 21st century Portugal they appear to be predominantly a decorative link to another period in history.

I had been aware of the chimney pots around Albufeira and elsewhere but on our rather long winding and somewhat boring bus trip to Loule I began to look at the chimneys more carefully and became increasingly aware of the enormous variability in size, shape, colour and decorative designs.

Since these pots are so prevalent I think that they quickly slip into the background for most of us so I thought it might be interesting to photograph them and put the photos together to bring some attention to the both their variability and attractive decorative character.

The day after we returned from Loule I went out to photograph chimney pots and in about a two or three block area around our place I took close to 40 photos of about 25 or 30 unique chimney pots, some of which are included here. I have put more of the chimney pot photos on my Picasa albums, if interested, have a look at a slide show of some chimney pots in Albufeira!

More Loulé

Loule is a small, ancient town with lots of very narrow and winding streets and, in some areas, a lot of old deteriorating buildings. There is a small town square with a fountain to help tourists orient themselves and this square is adjacent to shopping areas and to newer wider avenues also with stores and restaurants.

It is said to be a centre for crafts, and while it may be, we saw little evidence of crafts in the street or in the market. Loule apparently is also home to two of the few remaining producers of copper cataplana pots (cataplana meals containing a variety of sea food and vegetables, are cooked and served in these beautiful copper pots) which we also did not see in the streets or market.

It was sunny and warm for about half our three hours there - the other half it rained, quite heavily at times, limiting our outdoor activity somewhat. We were lucky that we were under cover in the farmers' market during the heaviest rain.

The gypsy market is in Loule on Saturday and was well under way and crowded by the time our bus dropped us off. We did a quick tour of the market (not quickly enough as Ruth found time to buy something!) and managed to escape without spending too much money. We did see the woman from whom we purchased table cloths at the Albufeira gypsy market and she appeared to be in good form.

On the topic of deteriorating buildings, across from the gypsy market area near where the bus lets people off, there is an ancient very deteriorating church (can't recall it's name) which appears to be low down on the restoration list as it has not changed in the three years since I have been here. I think there is a photo of it in on of the 2009 postings.

Last year we visited the Moors' castle ruins and museum (see March 2009 posts) so didn't go this year.

Because of the rain, we did little other than visit the markets, stop for coffee and hot chocolate and stroll around a few streets on our way to the market and back to the bus.

Off to Lisboa on Tuesday morning at 7:18. We'll return on Thursday at 18:40. With luck I will be in touch from there.

Loulé and the Farmers' Market

Saturday we went, as planned, to the town of Loule, which is apparently one of the Algarve's (the Algarve is the most southern of Portugal's 11 provinces and spans the full width of Portugal from east to west.) largest inland towns with a population of about 20, 000. I think I included a short piece on Loule in a 2009 post so here just a short note. To orient, Loule is north and east of Albufeira where we are staying - about 45 minutes by bus. Its existence dates back to Roman times and it boasts restored Moorish castle ruins from the 14th or 15th century when the Moors ruled most of the Iberian peninsula, including much of what is now Portugal. Loule appears to be best known for its excellent farmers' market and its Carnaval, a Mardi Gras equivalent, which takes place just before lent. We missed it this year but were at the parade last year - there are several photos in blog posts from last year. It was great! Check out the blog post and photos from late February 2009.

Other notable events include an Easter Sunday festival, Nossa Senhora da Piedade (Our Lady of Piety), linked to ancient maternity rites which involves a ceremonial transport of a 16th century image of Senhora da Piedade from a chapel on a hilltop 2 Km north of Loule, into the town to the parish church. Two weeks later apparently a huge gathering of devotees line the steep route to the hilltop chapel to witness the return of Nossa Senhora to the chapel.

During the 500 or so years of the rule of the Moors they shaped the culture, agriculture and architecture of the Iberian peninsula. In spite of lingering ambivalence about the Moor's "occupation" among some, the legacy of the Moors remains prominent in architecture such as the Alhambra, large and elaborate mosques, the Real Alcazar in Spain to smaller reminders such as the above mentioned Moorish castle ruins in Loule and the unique and ubiquitous "chimney pots" on buildings in the Algarve and elsewhere in Portugal (a bit more about chimney pots in a later post). Agricultural products which we bought at the Loule market today and for which this area is famous, such as oranges, lemons, figs and almonds, were also introduced by the Moors. Even the recently refurbished Farmer's Market building in Loule has a Moorish touch (e.g. the arches and corner turret) as you can see in the first of the photos. Some of the market is inside the building (photo 2) but many stalls are in the streets on either side of the building (photos 3, 4 and 5).

More from Portugal with a few more photos.

I promise not to make the weather a theme of this blog, but just a bit more about weather. It was another stormy day Wednesday with high winds, intermittent rain and cool temperatures. The powerful effect of the wind on the ocean and ocean on land can be very impressive and make for some interesting photos. Photos one and two show the pier in old town during the heavy wind and seas - the third is the pier Thursday when the wind had abated, the skies were clearing and temperatures reached around 20 degrees Celsius. Extreme variability of the weather has been the pattern so far this year.

Jean's sister, Ev, arrived on Wednesday just in time for the beautiful day on Thursday. We walked to old town in the morning on the beach at low tide, sat in the sun at Sir Harry's Pub while enjoying coffee and/or fresh squeezed orange juice.

Variability of the weather continues - today is comfortably warm, overcast and quite dark at times though no rain yet. Ruth and I walked this morning, without getting wet, to a photography shop to get some prints of some of her photos for her to paint from.

We are off by bus tomorrow to the town of Loulé to go to the farmer's market to get fresh veggies and local honey, almonds and figs, among other things. Photos of the market in the next blog.

This afternoon or tomorrow John and I plan to go to to the train station to get the tickets for our train trip to Lisboa next Tuesday. We will be in Lisboa until Thursday. We have been there before on a tour so know a bit about it and are really looking forward to being there for 2 1/2 days on our own. More about it after we return.

Two documentary photos of places we frequent - number 4 is the front of our building - less interesting, I think, than the back - a bit of which in photo 5.

Third post from Portugal

Another brief note from Portugal with a few more photos.

Today is Wednesday, March 3. We have been here for 2 weeks - time seems to be moving along too quickly.

Went to the Albufeira Gypsy Market Monday (photo included) and bought a few things. Had an interesting interaction with a woman selling table cloths, of which we bought 2 after some fun "barganhando". Wish I had taken a photo of the woman and the game being played. In the end I think we got the table cloths for a reasonable price, part of which was the price of the entertainment.

The weather guessers are often quite wrong, but on occasion have been correct. On Sunday we did have a storm with heavy wind and rain which had been predicted. The sky looked a bit threatening when the four of us set out on our walk which ended at a pastry shop where we were having lunch when the storm began in earnest. Had to get a taxi home to avoid a real drenching.

Monday was excellent - sunny, warm and not windy. We made our way along the beach to old town at low tide (included is a photo of Ruth surveying things from the pier at the east end of oldtown) and had lunch on a patio in the sun overlooking the ocean.

Today Jean's sister, Ev, arrives and on Saturday we will all go to the town of Loule to the excellent farmer's market there. There will no doubt be photos from Loule which I will include in the next blog post.

Hard not to include more photos from time on the beach so there a few more in this post. An evening photo from a couple of days ago, one from the afternoon and one from Monday evening when light from sunset provided some interesting colour.

More from Portugal

Another brief note from Portugal with a few more photos.

I forgot to explain in the last post that the small "Supermercado" is not where we usually shop for our groceries - it is closer than the Modelo (the much larger super market) so we go there to pick up a few things like milk and juice. The bakery, however, is our main source of breads and yummy pastries - only a about 10 minutes from our home base.

The weather guessers continue to predict bad weather and, fortunately, they have been less than accurate. They predicted a big storm for today but, though it rained for a while this morning it has been dry and quite warm into the afternoon. We went for a long walk in rather windy but otherwise lovely mid morning - until about 1 pm.

We are beginning to rethink our plans - may not go to Evora after all. Ruth wants so continue practicing her drawing and painting so would prefer to stay in Albufeira. We will definitely go to Lisboa, though, March 9 to 11. Hotel reservations have been made and we will take the high speed train from Albufeira to Lisboa - they say it takes just over 2 hours so that should be interesting.

Had a couple of notes about the first post approving the documentary photos so have included a one more here - the 3 palms rotary at the end of the street adjacent to Club Oceano which is where we stay. The street to the left of the rotary leads to the bakery and the Modelo - the main supermarket in Albubeira - about a 15 minute walk from our place.

Next is a sunrise from our balcony followed by three beach shots - a couple of these have been seen by some in an email. The wind is with us again producing impressive spray. The last is tread impressions from the small tractor of the beach clean up crew.

First post from Albufeira - 2010

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

Well, we have been here for a week and the weather has definitely been better than expected from the forecasts. It has been cooler than it was last year but we have had sun virtually every day and showers most days but for the most part they have not lasted long. Most impressive has been the amount of wind which has been with us virtually every day - at times very strong. The force of the wind has made the waves, even at low tide, sufficiently high that we have only once been able to get to old town via the beach. But, while cooler than last year, temperatures have at times been quite warm - we had 17 and 18 degrees C couple of days last week and yesterday and today are much more like last year. Today is sunny and warm and the wind has abated - shorts and t shirt weather. I was on the beach this morning at 6:40 am for a lovely sunrise. One photo taken this morning included here.
We are planning a two day trip to a small town, Evora, in the province of Alentejo, just north and west of Albufeira possibly next week, then a three day trip to Lisboa in early March so there will be more of interest for the blog after those trips.
In previous blog posts I included some "documentary" photos of places we frequent in Albufeira - a few more included here, just to give you a glimpse of where we are.
The first photo is from the beach this morning. The next is Johnny Hoopers Saxophone Bistro (we had dinner and entertainment there last year) which is on the way to my internet cafe. The third is the bakery (Padaria - Pão da Aldeira) and the mini mercado (market - actually called "SuperMercado"!), which are in the next two photos.
The last is one of the happy tourists, on the way home from "the Strip" - a bunch of tourist trap shops, restaurants, wine shops and the Internet Cafe.