Tavira, Portugal

We skipped working on sunny Friday to take a day trip to Tavira, a town at the eastern end of the Algarve region. It has an unusual tourist attraction in the form of a 1931 water tower that has been converted into a camera obscura-type observatory. Mirrors and lenses at the top of the tank bring a 360° view down through a tiny opening and project it onto a very large white disc in the dark interior. Here you can see a real time view of the surrounding town with live commentary from Clive, the British owner. He was amusingly opinionated about history, politics, economic theory, religion, and which person currently in the sights of the lens was out for a smoking break despite having supposedly given up the habit.

We didn't have much luck visiting church interiors. According to Clive there are 21 churches in Tavira but only one priest, so they are closed most of the time. There are also six convents but no nuns (none nuns?). Such is the state of organized religion in Portugal. We also visited a garden within the ruins of a castle, an old market hall, and the remnants of the only gate surviving from Tavira's 16th-century walls. Apart from those few sights we had a fine time just wandering through the town and splurging on lunch at an excellent restaurant with a view terrace. We managed to navigate all our bus connections so it made for an excellent day trip.

Tavira straddles the Rio Gilão

Gardens within the castle ruins





Many of the rooftops show inspiration from the Asian colonies.





The presence of orange trees speaks to how nice the climate is here


More exterior tile; but it looks better on this one.


Turtles at a riverside water feature.


Pattern recognition: cactus swan head


Tavira

Estoi - Diversions, Excursions, and Naked Europeans

It isn't all work here. Our very first evening here we went with Lucia, Rolf, and a couple of their friends to a concert by an Arab-African group in the city of Loulé. Although we were tired after traveling all day we managed to stay awake and very much enjoyed the concert. The performance included dancing by a young woman who could somehow spin whirling dervish-like for a dizzying number of revolutions and afterward walk in a perfectly straight line off stage without staggering into the orchestra pit. She was also well practiced at rhythmically flinging her long black hair back and forth with brain scrambling intensity. The drummer offered his own visual accompaniment to the music by swinging the very long tassel to his hat in a circle with small movements of his neck. He was maybe a little too pleased with himself and his little hat trick but he was also a talented drummer.

Sunday was our day off, which Deborah took advantage of by....... doing more weeding. As I said, a strange woman. I on the other hand accepted Lucia and Wolfgang's invitation to join them on a hike in the countryside. Also joining us were a Portuguese couple, a Swiss man, and another German (I think) woman, all of whose names I have forgotten. We also had three dogs join our little international group. It was a pleasant walk on a beautiful day, but our planned 9km (5.4 mi) walk was cut short by a too daunting river crossing, which forced us to turn back.

That evening Wolfgang fired up his sauna and invited us and some friends over to take part. I declined but Deborah, who was suffering from a severe case of clogged nasal passages thought it might clear her head. After donning her bathing suit and entering the sauna she was somewhat surprised to find that everyone else was naked. The Europeans are of course much more relaxed about nudity than us prudish Americans. So Deborah did her best to carry on conversations without letting her eyes wander, but she may have seen more of our hosts and their friends than she expected.

Cork harvested from Cork Oak - a big product in Portugal, mostly used for wine corks.




Cork Oak with it's trunk stripped. It takes 9 years to grow back.


Pretty valley as seen from our hike.


Interesting plant life near the river we couldn't cross.


Wolfgang and Lucia's sauna - clothing optional.

Estoi, Portugal

We are now in the warm and sunny Algarve region of southern Portugal near the town of Estoi. We took another HelpX situation here to help our budget and learn from the experiences of more expats. In this case our hosts are Lucia and Wolfgang, two Germans who moved here 22 years ago. They are in their fifties with a 23-year old daughter, who is in Holland, and their 19-year old son Pascal, who lives at home while he attends school, but is seldom seen or heard. Also here is Rolf (or possibly Aulf), another German immigrant from 20 years back or so. He is a friendly stone mason with 30 years experience and is currently working on the paving stones around the pool. There are also two dogs, two cats, and several chickens. Everyone is quite nice (even the chickens) and their grasp of English is pretty good (except for the chickens); they probably understand about ¾ of what we say. When the conversation turns to German or Portuguese, however, we are quite lost.

This place is really a complex of buildings, terraces, pools, and gardens, all linked with paths of stone pavers. In addition to the main house there are two apartments which they rent out in the warmer months – roughly mid-March thru the end of September. We are staying in one of these; Rolf/Aulf is staying in the other. It's a good situation for us because we have our own space and some measure of independence, mostly just sharing a big meal with the whole group in the early afternoon. The work so far consists mostly of weeding, pruning, bush clearing, and other yardwork necessary to prepare the grounds for the arrival of guests. This is not my favorite type of activity. I pulled plenty of weeds as a teenager, and am willing to occasionally do so at my own house now, but as a 50-year old with a degree in engineering I really didn't expect to be pulling someone else's weeds anymore. But of course I did ask for this so shouldn't complain. Deborah, on the other hand, is having a great time. She actually enjoys this, and will sometimes put in more than the asked for 4-hours of daily labor. She is a strange woman.

Deborah also gave Lucia a haircut and is doing a bit of sewing, as well as helping out in the kitchen occasionally. I'm usually too annoyed at having to pull weeds to volunteer any additional assistance. We generally work from about 9am to 1pm and then break for lunch, after which the day is ours to do as we wish. Since we have no internet at the house, we have to walk into the town of Estoi, which is 2 or 3 km (1 ½ mi) down the road, to hang out at an internet cafe. It's a sometimes steep road going down into Estoi, and uphill coming back. But Deborah hasn't complained too much, having been trained on that incredibly steep dirt track leading to our house in Fiji last winter. At least this road is paved.

Lucia and Wolfgang's house



View to the south.


Terrace with compass emblem (Rolf/Aulf's handiwork)


One of the gardens (harboring much clover for us to remove)


The pool - Rolf/Aulf is currently working on the pavers.


View to the northeast from the road above; their house is on the right.



Funky stone steps.


Portuguese chickens.

Evora, Portugal

We stopped for a day in Évora on our way south to the Algarve region of Portugal. Évora is rich in history with an old town inside medieval walls, a Roman temple, the remains of an aqueduct, a Gothic cathedral, and loads of old churches, one of which has one of those ever-popular bone chapels. The town is beautiful and well-kept without all the graffiti and borderline squalor of Lisbon. It's a shame we only had half a day to explore this engaging city.

Evora



The cathedral tower.


The cathedral was closed so we never got inside. These guys were also waiting at the door.


The traditional gold trim color is said to ward off evil spirits. We didn't see any so it must work.


The Bone Chapel - full of decorating ideas for your home.


Are you taking notes Martha Stewart?







Floodlights on the Roman Temple

Lisbon, Portugal - Belem

A break in the weather gave us a very nice day trip to Belém, a district about 5 km (3 miles) west of central Lisbon, whose grand buildings did a better job of surviving the great 1755 earthquake. This is also where the current president of Portugal lives. Belém is the home of several sights including a cathedral, a monastery, a couple of museums, a monument commemorating the age of discovery, a river island tower and, perhaps most importantly, the pastry shop where the pastel de Belém are sold. These scrumptious little custard tarts, the recipe for which is a closely guarded secret, has had customers perpetually lining up out the door of the cafe since 1837. For us they made a fantastic dessert to follow a rather bland fish lunch at a nearby restaurant. Still warm from the oven, sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar... We each ate four. My friend Ray had these treats some years ago during a visit to Lisbon when he became dreadfully sick for two days. Pastel de Belém were the only thing he could keep down. He says they saved his life.

The National Coach Museum – formed in 1905 from the queen's collection of royal horse-drawn carriages.

Monastery of Jerónimos, dating to around 1500.

A very strange tree.

The Monastery Cloisters

More Monastery Cloisters

Still More Monastery Cloisters

Monument to the Discoveries, commemorating Portugal's maritime explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries. Mastermind Prince Henry the Navigator stands at the front.

The pavement in front of the monument is inlaid with a marble map showing the progressive achievements of the Portuguese explorers.

Belém Tower – built in 1520 to protect Lisbon's harbor. It used to sit mid-river but now the river bank has crept quite close.

Lisbon, Portugal - Shabby in Search of Chic

Another rainy day in Lisbon didn't stop us from taking what turned out to be a very interesting 3-hour walking tour of the historic downtown area. According to our guide, the Lisbon metropolitan area comprises one quarter of the country's population and half the economy. It's one of the oldest cities in Europe with early roots in Greek, Roman, Visigoth, and Moorish civilizations. But Lisbon's glory days were in the 15th and 16th centuries when the likes of Vasco da Gama were discovering new trade routes to Africa, India, China, and Brazil. Lisbon got rich and, as rich people tend to do, they built lots of fancy buildings to show everybody how rich they were. But as the easy money rolled in from their far-flung colonies, their traditional economy languished. Thus began a long slow decline marked by a period of rule under Spain (1580-1640), a devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami and fire that destroyed most of the city in 1755, Napoleonic invasions, and the gradual loss of its colonies. From 1926 to 1974 Portugal was ruled by the dictator Antonio Salazar and his successors until the demoralized military leaders sided with a popular movement to oust his regime in a virtually bloodless coup that came to be known as the Carnation Revolution. Portugal has been a democracy ever since.

Lisbon is not a beautiful city. Not by a long shot. There's a lot of graffiti, a lot of vacant buildings, a lot of peeling paint and crumbling plaster. This isn't old world patina; this isn't shabby chic; this is just shabby. Deborah says the whole city could use a good power washing. The other problem is that much of the architecture in the heart of downtown is uninteresting, having been put up quickly after the 1755 earthquake following a uniformly bland military protocol prescribing a certain building height and lining up all the windows like little soldiers. Some building owners tried to dress up their exteriors with tile (the Portuguese LOVE their tile) but many of the tile patterns have the look of old, dated wallpaper. The people here are nice enough, and we are enjoying ourselves, but our initial impression of Lisbon's aesthetic qualities is less than stellar. The following shots are my best attempts to make Lisbon look photogenic.

An elegant, albeit mostly empty, plaza


Lisbon is hilly. This funicular helps the weary up this hill.


View of the old town with the castle topping the hill in the distance.


The castle dates to Moorish times (11th century or so) but was remodeled to a more stereotypical form in the 1930s.


Another way up the hill: a 100+ year old elevator.


Like hilly San Francisco, Lisbon hangs onto its vintage trolleys.


Deep in the old Moorish quarter.


Exterior tile or ugly old wallpaper?


A rare glimpse of fresh paint.


Alien descending a staircase?