More Portugal

portugal colonial empire

For such a small country, Portugal certainly packs a punch.  As we have been travelling around we have been constantly impressed with the strong homeland connection that many Portuguese exhibit and our knowledge has been increasing organically as people have enthusiastically shared their country’s history with us.  Exploration, colonisation and political upheavals have characterised much of Portugal’s history.  Portugal was the pioneer of transoceanic navigation, discovering lands and sea routes formerly unknown to Europeans and during the 14, 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese explorers and colonists built an empire that extended to parts of Africa, the Far East and South America.  The extraction of resources from these conquered lands, which included precious metals,

spices, ivory, cotton, sugar and slaves, resulted in Portugal being one of the world’s major economic, political and cultural powers.  It was one of the longest-lived colonial empires in European history, lasting almost six centuries from the initial conquest of Ceuta, North Africa in 1415 to the transfer of Macau to China in 1999.  Unfortunately, despite its vast colonial assets, the 17th century saw the beginning of Portugal’s long, slow, economic decline, due in part to lack of domestic industrial infrastructure, competition from the Dutch, English and French over the scattered Portuguese trading posts and the rise of independence movements in its colonies.   Following the independence of its most valuable colony, Brazil, in 1822 and the intervention of the British in 1890 which halted expansion in Africa, the monarchy eventually collapsed in 1910 to be superceded by the First Portuguese Republic.  After a short, troubled period which included the First World War, a military coup emerged, the Estado Novo (New State), which established the Salazar Dictatorship over Portugal that lasted until 1974. 

carnation revolution

In 1974, left-leaning military officers overthrew the fascist government and ended Europe’s longest-surviving authoritarian regime.  Referred to as the Carnation Revolution it was an almost bloodless coup, signalled to start when Portugal’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest ‘E Depois do Adeus’ (And After the Farewell) was played on a Lisbon radio station just before midnight.  Tanks entered the centre of Lisbon in the early hours and just 24 hours later government ministers had surrendered.  During this period, people flooded the streets handing out red carnations to the soldiers who placed the flowers inside their guns and on their uniforms, a symbol of democracy. 

Portugal has long had problems due to mass emigration, only Ireland and New Zealand have a bigger percentage of their native-born citizens living abroad.  Internal migration has added to this leaving hundreds of rural villages almost deserted.  But, the last 20 years has seen immigrants from Brazil, Asia and Africa settle in the country and tourism is healthy, encouraged by many creative projects.  

arouca 516 suspension bridge

Just south of Porto, the Arouca 516 suspension bridge and surrounding 8km boardwalk is one example and certainly made an impression.  Lack of updates on Goggle had us turning up under the impression that we were about to cross the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world, having been completed in 2021 for the seemingly cheap cost of €2.3 million.  However, as we listened to the guide prior to crossing, we were a bit disappointed to find that we weren’t about to step on the longest bridge at all, as the Czech Republic had since been busy and constructed the Sky Bridge at 721 m long and Andorra had also got in on the act and built the Tibetan bridge of Canillo spanning 600 m.  Oh well, it was still mightily impressive, elevated 175m above the Paiva River.  The project also included construction of the Paiva Walkways, an uninterrupted boardwalk built on the banks of the river between Espiunca and Areinho.  The area that the walk passes through has a unique natural beauty that would otherwise be inaccessible and despite (or perhaps because of) the hundreds of steep steps has been an outstanding success.  Expecting visitor numbers to be around 300/day the project has seen around 3,000/day during the summer months and is a fine example of how Portugal is starting to invest money to different parts of the country to promote tourism. 

Leaving the north of Portugal we were soon back in the central Beiras region, a land of deep contrasts.  The Atlantic coastline with its white sandy beaches and lagoons, vineyards, pine forests and fortress towns.  And, not forgetting our old friend Mt. Torre, part of the Estrela Mountain Range, which is the source of Portugal’s longest river, the Mondego. 

codfish - a portuguese obsession

People that you talk to always tell of how fantastic Portugal is for seafood and it is definitely the only country we have been in so far where the pervading aroma of highly stacked codfish hits you as soon as you enter the supermarkets.  But, so far the only seafood that had been on offer was either octopus, shrimp, sardines or eels and it was definitely time to rectify this.  Sao Jacinto is a tiny town situated at the end of a peninsula that runs between the Aveiro Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean.  At last count its population was less than 1,000 but what it lacks in people it makes up for with fish.  A Peixaria is an unassuming restaurant that sits just back from the ferry terminal that has a long-standing reputation for fresh, locally caught fish.  We worked up an appetite beforehand by visiting the Sao Jacinto Dunes Nature Reserve.  As had been our experience of hiking in Portugal so far, we completed the 8km loop through pine forests and dunes without seeing a single soul.  The persistent drizzle also seemed to be keeping the birds away as, despite being a refuge and breeding ground for our feathered friends, we didn’t see any of them either.  With appetite suitable activated, we arrived at A Peixaria and couldn’t believe that it was almost full.  Up until that point we only seen two people all morning, now we knew why, they were all at the restaurant eating fish.  You know you are in for a good meal when a selection of whole fish are brought to your table for you to choose from.  There were no fillets or steaks, you just purchased a fish which was then cooked on the hot coal bbq out the back.  Served with a simple salad and a bottle of young vinho verde, it was finger-licking food at its best.

An extremely brief 15-minute ferry ride took us across the lagoon to Aveiro, the Venice of Portugal and once off the ferry we found ourselves stuck in the town’s one-way system trying to navigate our way through narrow streets and find somewhere to park Bob – rarely an easy task and one that is often fraught with frustration as we invariably also need to go to the loo.  Matters weren’t helped by the extensive construction that was going on in the centre, yet another sign of Portugal’s investment towards tourism.  We eventually managed to park in a small dead-end street which was possibly a restricted zone but getting a ticket was not too much of a concern (one of the advantages of world overlanding) and we figured the area was too small to get a tow-truck into which increased the odds of Bob being there when we returned.  Immediate business attended to we set about exploring. 

barcos moliceiro boat

What a different face of Portugal.  Named for the network of canals that run through the centre and the colourful barcos moliceiro boats that ply romantically minded tourists along them.  Joining a handful of multi-nationals and three huge huskies, we boarded and enjoyed gliding past rows of colourful houses and under pretty bridges adorned with fluttering ribbons.  The moliceiro did have a life before tourism though.  Traditionally, these long, narrow boats with their highly decorative artwork, were used for harvesting and transporting molico, a collective name for sea grasses which were used as agricultural fertilizer.  The ornamental artwork on the boats was varied, covering a wide range of themes, including what appeared to be Portugal’s version of the UK’s saucy seaside postcards, circa 1960s - “a ventinho abencoado” (the blessed wind), one such example.

obidos

ginja - cherry liqueur

Whether as a result of showing their bottom or not, how many women have ever received a town as a present?  Certainly not in this day and age, but no doubt things were done a little differently in 1282 when King Dinas gifted the town of Obidos to his new Queen Isabel on their wedding day.  Today, Obidos is probably the best example of a Portuguese walled town dominated by a medieval castle (turned luxury hotel) and filled with a labyrinth of pebble streets and white-washed houses.  Around 2,000 people live within the crenelated walls which were completely restored in the early 20th century making an ideal backdrop for the numerous festivals that take place throughout the year.  Our visit coincided with the Christmas festival when the entire village was lavishly decorated with fairy lights, garlands and a life-size nativity scene.  The local tipple Ginja de Obidos (cherry liqueur), originating from the region’s 17th-century monks, was offered in little chocolate cups and the occasional sprinkling of manufactured snow added even more charm.  The Icing on the cake, however, was the Harry Potter themed extravaganza which had been constructed in the castle grounds and included a quidditch ice rink, the Obidos express train, a Giant’s House, a herbology, potions lab, various magic shows and a selection of crystal and incense selling shops.  The infrastructure involved was staggering, particularly considering it was taking place in such a small hilltop village.

coimbra

Our next stop was Coimbra, an animated city that is scenically situation next to the Rio Mondego.  For more than a century it was Portugal’s medieval capital and it didn’t disappoint with its steeply stacked historic centre, cobbled lanes and monumental cathedral.  It was particularly atmospheric in the lead up to Christmas and we had a fun time exploring with the aid of the city’s scavenger hunt app which proved to be surprisingly competitive and often had us standing in the middle of the street heatedly discussing which buttons to press for the correct answers.  Obviously, the app wasn’t our primary reason for visiting, we had two objectives …..

coimbra university library

….. Coimbra University library is a Baroque architectural masterpiece, built in the early 1700’s, it is one of Portugal’s National Monuments, not surprising given the lavishly gilded interior, fresco adorned ceilings and exquisite mosaic floor tiles.  The collection of ancient books amounts to over 60,000 volumes encompassing subjects such as philosophy, theology, law, medicine and natural sciences.  The books themselves date back to 1150, the oldest in the collection being the Latin written Giant Bible.  Most of the books are in Latin and are meticulously kept in bookcases crafted from exotic woods such as Brazilian oak and Asian teak, those within reaching distance stored behind metal grills.  We entered the library through the prison – granted its own jurisdiction, the University had two tiny cells where law-breaking, book-taking students were held and subjected to corporal punishment, although it seems they were allowed out during the day to continue their studies.  As you would expect, the library is cool and dark but perhaps a little unexpected is the colony of common bats that live there.  Sleeping behind the bookshelves during the day, they emerge at night to feast on any insects that have found their way into the library.  There are small gaps around the huge front door which enable them to exit and re-enter at will and, rather curiously, it is not known whether they were intentionally housed there or whether they found their own way to one of the most beautiful libraries in the world.

fado

The other draw to Coimbra was to find out more about Fado, the song of the Portuguese soul, in particular, Coimbra Fado.  Although this music genre originated in Lisbon – typically sung by shawl-wearing women - it has a second home in Coimbra with a deep connection to the university students that study in Portugal’s oldest (1290) and esteemed place of learning.   What differentiates Coimbra Fado, is that it’s exclusively sung by male students wearing heavy black capes and accompanied by Portuguese and classic guitars.  Dating back to the 1800’s it became particularly important during the time of the Salazar Dictatorship when it was used as a form of intervention through ballads that expressed the students’ political opinions.  After a short briefing, introductory performance and nip of port at the Cultural Centre, we upgraded our experience to the A Capella bar, which we eventually found in a 14th-century chapel hidden down a narrow alley just behind the Monastery.  The various performances of this dream-like, nostalgic music were hypnotic but I think the highlight of the evening was being on the receiving end of the friendliness of the Portuguese around us who seemed delighted to chat away, keen to increase our knowledge of their beloved Fado.   

Portugal is fascinating and we are falling in love with this slow-paced, gentle country.