Month: June 2017

We left our hotel bright and early -well, early anyway – to explore the back roads from Lisbon, heading south to the wine area of Alentejo, through the rolling hills. Our eventual destination was Évora, but we had many stops along the way.

Our first stop was to the tiny hamlet of Arraiolos, which has the unusual distinction of being the rug making capital of Portugal for centuries. In 1496 King Manuel decreed that all Muslims were expelled from the country unless they became Christians; Muslim rug making families therefore migrated to the south where they found a more tolerant community. They settled there and the whole family became involved in the rug making craft. We enjoyed a guided tour of the rug making museum in town and learned the history and saw rugs, new and old.

Our second stop was to a monte, a traditional wine making estate in the Alentejo region, which was huge: over 7,000 acres of property with many buildings and vineyards. The wealthy patriarch, Jose de Mello, (1927-2009) had many passions, including  saving horses by starting stud farms, breeding  and racing them. He started growing grapes in the 80s, and got some of his starter vines from Napa. He also had a large family, having produced eleven children, many of whom play a major roll in the running of the estate today. All of his children are involved in some way.

We walked through the vineyards and enjoyed the sights and smells of the herbs mingling among the vines. We had a tour of the winery, seeing the steel drums and oak barrels in the cellar. The production is very successful and they sell over two million bottles a day. They bottle a large variety of wines, though some of the grapes are purchased from other vintners.

Of course, such an event isn’t complete without a tasting. We were also given bread, cheese, and jelly to accompany the flavors of the three varietals we tasted:  a sauvignon blame, a rosé and a sirah.

After the tasting, we adjourned to a huge dining room and had lunch! We started off with chicken soup, then had duck rice with sausage, salad and a phyllo-filled jam dessert with strawberries.

Our last stop was a visit to a cork factory, where our guide Susana explained the process of extracting cork from tree trunks, then drying and stacking them.

The variety of products made from cork is amazing, from furniture to floors. We were guided to the showroom for the ultimate discount shopping experience. I didn’t see anyone  leave empty-handed.

Next stop: Évora, the white washed village which has gained recognition as a UNESCO National Heritage Site. Our home for the next two nights is the Pousada Dos Loios in Évora, a former monastery converted to a boutique hotel by the government and managed by Pestano corporation. We checked in late in the afternoon, with an hour to rest before we had a guest lecturer, Paolo, a university professor who discussed his experiences during the 70s, a turbulent period in the history of the country.

We had a delicious, elegant dinner served in the cloister of the hotel, with puréed vegetable soup, spinach and pork cheeks, with a gelled pineapple with chocolate ice cream for dessert. We took a stroll after dinner to explore the hotel grounds. We discovered that the pool is not heated, no surprise.

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As twilight turns dark,  we wander among the Roman ruins from the first century, reminding us of the past is always with us.

My internet conked out last night, so it is now tomorrow.  After breakfast, we will have a walking tour of Évora, a visit with university students, maybe some time poolside? It is supposed to be 95 degrees.  Tonight we have a cooking lesson. Oh, dear.these sisters were not brought up to cook!

More to come!

We’ve spent time in lovely Lisbon, examining its many areas and sites for the past two days.

The Alfama district is the city’s oldest and we strolled around the neighborhood Sunday morning  while all was quiet, and enjoyed the architecture and culture. As the city was waking, we intermingled with the people and watched the beginnings of a festival that was about to take place. There was also a bicycle race in the district that was about to begin. The locals were gathering to cheer the bicyclists on

One interesting note: on the walls of the district were portraits of the residents, some who have departed this earth and others who are still alive and working in the community. One remarkable example was the photo of a lady, Maria Luz,  who still runs the neighborhood laundry service, where clothes are still washed and scrubbed by hand using washboards. As we were looking in the shop, Maria  herself passed by in the street! Wow! What a moment. 

In the Belém district, we visited two important sites:

This is the church at the San Jerónimos Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The flamboyant architectural style  is called Manueline, after King Manuel I, and was built to celebrate Portugal’s seafaring past.

Also in Belém district, the Monument to the Discoveries has a dramatic location at the bustling waterfront along the Tagus river.

Sunday afternoon was spent in the charming  town of Sintra, in the mountains, a short distance away.  In the nineteenth century, this town was composed of the rich and famous – power brokers, mainly nobility- who built fantastic fairy tale palaces and castles in the forest to serve  retreats from the rigors of power. The fanciful form of architecture during this period, called Portuguese Romanticism,  rivaled the imagination and one could see the craziness of a King Ludwig or Gaudí with effects from Walt Disney. This was truly mind-boggling.

The biggest and most resplendent of all was the  Palace and Park of Pena, built by Dona Maria II, Queen of Portugal and her consort, Don Fernando II, known as the Artist-King. Dona Maria died in childbirth after having had eleven children ; Don Fernando remarried; his second wife, the Countess of Elda continued work on the structure and had a key role in the design of the palace’s interiors and gardens. The second couple remained childless. There had been a structure on the property since medieval times, the first being a twelfth century chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena. It is located on the very top of the hill.  Getting there required two busses, our tour bus and a park shuttle bus.

At the end of our visit, instead of taking the shuttle back to the ticket office, we strolled through the gardens, which ran from the top of the hill to the bottom, where our tour began. The park is composed of exotic plants from all over the world and there are vast expanses of gardens of varying types. Here are just a few photos of what was an overwhelming horticultural experience.

In the evening we had our experience listening to a fado singer and her group at a local restaurant serving traditional Portuguese cuisine.  Fado is a musical experience that is unique to the country, and the lyrics are very important. Taken from poetry, themes involve love and loss, but can also be expressions of hope and happiness. In all cases, these are very emotional songs, and the fado tradition has passed on for generations.

This is morning we left Lisbon for an artistic experience: tile making.  We learned how tiles are made and made our own, which will be finished for us and delivered to our hotel when we arrive in Madrid, at the conclusion of our trip. My sister did a bird tile  I did sort of a flower – not my best work. It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

 

Next came cheese making, held in the local cheese museum, where some of us were given the opportunity to participate in the process . Following that, we had a cheese tasting; cheeses aged for different periods of time were brought out, including those made by our trip mates.

We were also served a lovely lunch of pea soup, vegetables and turkey, followed by fruit and an egg yolk rolling cake.

At the end of the meal, I visited with the canines, who were soaking up a sunny day.

We returned to town for one more stroll through the waterfront, to visit this elevator built by a student of Gustavo Eiffel. We had free time in the late afternoon,  time to pack for our next location, as we go from Lisbon to Evora tomorrow.  We’re delighted that our new driver will be the husband of Susanna, our superlative  guide.

On to Evora, for more adventures and surprises!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things often seem easier in the planning stage than in the actual execution. Just jump on a plane and get there – oh, sure.

This is was our plane, a – dare I say it –  kickass one at that. It’s the Lufthansa Airbus 380, the world’s largest passenger jet, which flies from SFO to Frankfurt.  it is so huge that it can’t fit on many airport runways, but we’re lucky at SFO to have it as one of our traveling choices. Even in economy, there is that all-elusive legroom, and again, as Lady Luck would have it, my sister and I, seated across from each other, had an empty seat next to us.  We barely felt takeoff as we floated up in the air, and the whole flight was almost eerily quiet, with no jet engines hammering in our ears. The food was better-than-average, the liquor was fine, the staff was attentive and there was entertainment galore.  I finished my book and saw a wonderful German film called “Toni Erdrich” which I highly recommend. My sister saw three great films (including “La La Land” for the third time) and also finished reading her book.

What did we not do? SLEEP.

We were also just a bit late, so we had a little over an hour to get to our flight from Frankfurt to Lisbon.

Frankfurt airport is also huge and we scampered through passport control, an airbus – twice as we took the wrong one the first time – another passport control, a boarding pass control, and security.  I was stopped in security because it was thought I had a bottle in my carry-on.  I said no. The attendant rifled around, upset all my items, found nothing, nodded unsmilingly and left me to scoop all up my stuff and throw everything back in the carry-on.

Tick tock.

We made our flight to Lisbon with minutes to spare but with no chance for me to visit the restroom.

This flight was a step back in time as we trugged our way up the stairs ( front or back of the plane? I chose front) and realized we should have gone in the back of the plane -oops, sorry- as we ended up like fish swimming upstream, with almost disasterous results for me with an unfortunate encounter with a rather harsh burly male German passenger with a bad attitude who pushed me and my carry on out of the way using brute force – what ever happened to chivalry? It was not the welcome I’d hoped for. Fortunately, my seat mates were kind people, a mother and teenage son from Germany. I, however, was in the window seat, trying to figure out a way to use the bathroom before takeoff.

I didn’t have to worry.  We did not take off.  Oh, we did eventually, but first we waited for the crowd of busy weekenders’ planes to go before us, then the thunderstorm hit, so we couldn’t move for a while.  Tick tock. We sat an hour and a half.  At least I was able to use the restroom. What did we not do? SLEEP

The view of Lisbon from my window seat just before landing made it all worthwhile.

We collected our bags, found our driver, who took us to our hotel, where our guide and group leader was waiting, with the group, to take on on a city walking tour and dinner. Did we want to join them?

Of course. We can sleep at home.

It felt good to walk after being confined in those flying tubes for fifteen hours. We met our twelve fellow travel mates, all perky and anxious to see the city.

This tour is from Overseas Adventure Tours, and we will be visiting two cities – Lisbon and Madrid, and in between we’ll be visiting the back roads of Iberia. In fact, that’s the name of the tour.

We walked down the main thoroughfare, took the trolley to the upper part of the city,  and had dinner at a restaurant  the guide’s grandfather frequented.

By that time, everything was a bit hazy. The food was excellent and not heavy – Portuguese tapas.

I took a goodbye shot of the delightful café next door as we were wending our way to the bus and a ride back to the hotel.

We got back to our new hotel room, tried to organize ourselves a bit, and dropped into bed after midnight, when the realization hit that we will be on an all-day tour beginning with a 7:00 AM wake up call.

Oh, my..

i slept three and a half hours  I’m all perky, not able to sleep. This is called jet lag.

It is 5:24 AM Sunday Lisbon time and we have a big day ahead of us.

It all seemed so easy at home, reading the brochure, but have no fear, dear readers. We will survive. We will persevere.  We may even thrive.

Tune in for our next thrilling installment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frankfurt.