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.

"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.