Portugal has been a great introduction to Europe for me. We arrived in Lisbon which is a fairly large city that seems to be changing rapidly. Lisbon had the reputation of being "as close to a third world capital as you could find in Europe". The expo held there in 1998 along with the economic benefits from the European union seem to have really lifted the city. There is much restoration work being done along with a lot of new construction including an eight mile long bridge. We took several days exploring the cathedrals, castles and monuments around the older sections of the town and then took a day trip to Sintra on the coast north of Lisbon. Sintr is home to many beautiful palaces and ruins of an old moorish castle. From Lisbon we jumped on a train south for the Algarve (south coast) more specifically the small fishing village of Salema. The weather to this point had been unsettled but upon our arrival on the coast it settled into quite a thunder storm. In the morning we took a bus to the "end of the known world" at Sagres. This is where Henry the navigator trained sailors for Portugal's grand explorations. The weather cleared just long enough for us to take a nice walk around the farthest south western point of Europe. After a second stormy night in Salema we headed back north to the walled town of Evora. In Evora we enjoyed walking the narrow cobblestone streets and exploring the local monuments, including my first official Roman ruins. The weather broke and other than a brief afternoon shower that day it was sunshine the rest of our time in Portugal. After a night back in Lisbon we landed in the university town of Coimbra. The universty here was founded sometime about 700 years ago (only 670 years older than UCSD). As Rick (one of our guide book authors) assured us this was an incredibly easy town to be in. The atmosphere is very relaxed. We toured some of the old university buildings, more chapels and stumbled on a good sized market (Michele was psyched). We tore ourselves away from Coimbra after two nights and continued north to the seaside town of Vianna do Castelo. This small town is not yet on the tourist map but it should be. It has a great "old town" with comfortable lodging and the friendliest tourist info. office we encountered in Portugal. The building that houses the tourist office was spectacular with amazing stone work. There were enough interesting things in this town to keep us busy for two days after which we headed back south. Our final trip in Portugal was a scenic train ride along the Duoro river (which becomes the Duero in Spain). The ride was indeed scenic but we found ourselves stranded at the end of the line with no hoped for bus connection to the Spainish border. An expensive taxi ride got us back on track by dropping us in Vitar Formoso from which we walked across into Spain. It took a little while to get used to the people here, they are not unfriendly but they are much more stoic than we got used to in New Zealand. I was extremely impressed with the quality and quantity of stone work here. I don't remember seeing a concrete sidewalk in our two week stay. They are all mosaics of small white and black stone cubes. Very impressive! Spain is next stay tuned.
© 1998 michele_drew@hotmail.com
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