Introduction to Portugal

Yet another all-day tour! We'll certainly need the next sea day break from early alarms, but in the meantime we find the best way to get a feel for a new place is to see as much of it as possible. In this case our tour took us around Lisbon, along the coast to Estoril and into the hills to the town of Sintra.

The view from the ship

            

If this looks suspiciously like the Golden Gate Bridge, that's
because it was built by the same company. Its even
the same colour!

A replica of the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in
Rio de Janeiro

Lisbon is another of those cities that has been in existence for a very long time. In fact, the Phoenecians were the first to settle the area and create a seaport. The history of Portugal is pretty much the history of Lisbon, with many battles fought over the city and the surrounding area because of its strategic location at the mouth of the Tagus River.

That little island in the distance with the lighthouse marks
the meeting of the Tagus River and the Atlantic Ocean

  

What truly put Lisbon, and then Portugal, on the map was the work of Prince Henry, the third son of one of the kings of Portugal, who ultimately became known as Henry the Navigator. His interest in navigation, shipbuilding and cartography and his desire to have Portugal be the first country to send ships round trip to India led to many innovations, including ship design, navigational aids like the sextant, and improved map-making. His dream was realized, unfortunately a number of years after his death, when Vasco da Gama became the first to make that trip. There are many tributes to Henry and other explorers, but the nicest is this one at the riverside. It shows Henry leading the way for explorers to follow on a stylized ship.

Not to forget about the scaffolding! The cleaning
program wasn't quite finished so the scaffolding was
still up on one side.

A world map made of marble in the square by the monument

One of the older areas of Lisbon is called Belem. The Belem Tower is one of the more prominent features at the waterfront, along with a model of a small plane which was the first one to make a crossing from Lisbon to Buenos Aires in the early 1900s. It was an amazing feat for such a small plane and it had to land numerous times in the ocean to be refueled.

The Belem Tower

There was also once a small chapel here where sailors would go to pray before long sea voyages. It had been large enough to accommodate everyone when Lisbon was a relatively small port, but once da Gama had opened up the trade routes to India and more ships used the port, the chapel became rather small. The king of the time decided that they needed a larger one, so he had this built instead:

The Church and Monastery

Entrance to the Church. Henry the Navigator
is depicted in front of the window

The church is at one end of the building; the rest was built as a monastery. That part is now the Maritime Museum. Apparently the church and monastery were built entirely from the profits of the trade in spices, textiles and other products the traders brought from India, as the king was automatically entitled to 20% of the value.

One of the chapels - Brazilian wood covered
in 18 carat gold leaf

The interior. This church withstood the great
earthquake in the mid 1700s, probably
because it was built on sand and was able to shift

The crypt of Vasco da Gama

One of the very obvious remnants of Lisbon's history is the aqueduct. This doesn't date back to the time of the Romans, as far as we can recall from the tour guide, but it was used up until the 1960s to carry water from the hills into the city.

After our tour of the city, we drove along the coast to the town of Estoril. It was established by Portugal was Phillippa of Lancaster, an English princess. She found the coast at Estoril reminded her of her homeland more than Sintra did, so she decided to move the royal retreat from the hills to the coast. Ever since then, it has been the most popular place for people to get out of the city. It is a very nice area, with some beautiful, and expensive, houses along the seaside.

  

             

From Estoril, we turn inland toward Sintra. The 'mountains', more like high hills as the highest is only about 600 metres or 2,000 feet, are a ways inland, but apparently not so far that lookouts in the fortress above the town could not keep an eye on the ocean and the Tagus and give early warning of potential military attack. The town was also established as a royal retreat in the time before Phillippa, hence the fortress, and literally seems to be built into the hills. There doesn't seem to be a flat stretch of road anywhere. The roads are so narrow and twisted that any buses can only go to a certain spot to pick up and drop off, and are only allowed to stay for a few minutes at a time.

Once we arrived in Sintra, we had a buffet lunch at a local hotel and some time to wander about on our own. We did a little shopping.

The fortress

A lovely example of the Portuguese penchant
for cladding houses in ceramic tiles. Not only
is it beautiful, but it protects the building
from the weather.

Some of the houses in the hills above town

The Town Hall

One of the steep and narrow streets in
the middle of the old town

Looking down over the town

Since the Portuguese are famous for their painted ceramic tiles, we went looking for something that we could put into the kitchen. We came across a small ceramic shop that was owned by a mother and daughter. The mother was there and showed us into her studio where she was just painting a large multi-tile piece. The shop was just filled with gorgeous works, and we did find something that will go on display as soon as we get home.