Cheers to wonderful Portugal!
The original plan was to spend 4 days in Nantes France, but protests and planned protests (scheduled for our third day in port) compelled the ship's captain to seek a more favorable place. Porto Portugal was selected. That excited me. I've never been to Portugal. We only had a few days of scrambling to figure out an itinerary for my first field class for my Intro to Geography class--which was all set for Nantes.
Monday September 15th was my birthday. I was awakened early by blasts of the fog horn as we neared the coast of Portugal. Soon I was up on the ninth deck watching the flog life and the sun rise.
Morning dew on the railing.
And at rest.
Crew and pilot at final stages of docking.
While waiting for my train to Lisbon I explored the neighborhood by the station.
Loved all the tile facades on these buildings.
On the train to Lisbon I ran into two other faculty. I mentioned my birthday, and they invited me to join them later that day for a birthday dinner. In the meantime I walked through town to my hotel.
The female form, then and now.
A memorial in front of a medical school for a doctor who saved many peoples' lives.
Walked instead of rode. One of these trolleys crashed a few weeks ago.
I had delicious grilled fresh octopus for dinner. We then walked around town enjoying the sights.
With a professor of Spanish and a professor of Leisure Studies.
Took this photo in honor of Will who found similar city signs for photo opps in Mexico.
Next morning I caught a bus to Belem (Portugues for Bethlehem). Prickly pear, citrus, tiled roofs and laundry drying in the heat. This must me the Mediterranean region.
Monument to fallen soldiers.
Belem fortress castle under restoration.
Exploration monument on the 500th anniversary of the sailing and conquest (of strategic Ceuta) by Henry the Navigator. Leading the parade of Portuguese explorers.
Monument to Henry the Navigator of his 500th anniversary.
His conquering of Ceuta and then explorations of the Atlantic and west coast of Africa was the beginning of the worldwide Portuguese colonization, backed by kings, queens and a host of sailors and scientists.
Bibel and sword, conversion and conquest, went hand in hand.
The age of exploration was well described and documented.
And navigated with increasingly improved instruments and maps.
One woman, the queen.
Historians and illustrators.
The Portuguese mostly focused on trading ports spread around Africa and Asia to as far away as Nagasaki. In the spice islands of Ambon and Ternate they brought Catholicism and many new words that were incorporated into Indonesian. Many of these words I learned as a modern-day missionary: gereja-church, mentega-butter, jendela-window, meja-table, garpu-fork, Natal-Christmas and Paska-Easter.
The face of the monument shows a sword as part of a cross. Such an interesting combination. The whole monument and large mosaic map and compass in the plaza left me in awe and in discomfort. The ability to ship build, outfit, and navigate to far flung places is truly impressive, but the accompanying and lasting violence and exploitation left much damage in its wake. I was present at the tail end of the Portugues colonial world. In November of 1975 while just a newly arrived missionary in Java, I learned that Portugal had finally pulled out of its half of Timor only to be supplanted by Indonesia moving its troops in, all in the guise of doing the will of the Timorese. After years of revolt and then a referendum, East Timor finally gained its Independen in 1999.
Plaza mosaics of some of the colonial holdings.
Henry the Navigator at the entrance to an impressive and comprehensive naval museum.
Earthen jugs used in transporting spices.
Pretty tasty. My first one was the best.
In 1775 Lisbon was mostly destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, compounded by all the candles lit for All Saints Day that turned homes and churches on fire. What followed was amazing urban development including this big plaza and wide streets in a grid pattern. Also the first attempts at earthquake monitoring and building more resilient buildings (something we later talked about back in my Geography of Hazards class)
Malaga Grand Cathedral.
An amazing Nativity/Creche
Lisbon castle
Fresh sardines and fresh lemonade for dinner.
Road the train back to Porto. The RR station has lovely blue and white tiled murals. As does a nearby Church.
That afternoon I visited three camera shops and camera repair shops hoping to figure out why my camera lens is on the fritz. I eventually learned that it was an electrical issue that would require more than one day to fix. Dang. This is not good.. Most of my photos will now be I-phone.
Walked all along the Douro River. and had pizza for dinner before taking an Uber back to the distant dock.
This bridge was designed by Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower.
Boats used historically to ship wine barrels down the river.
Next morning my 20 geography students and another twenty from the illustration class loaded up in a bus for our field class day of learning. Each class is required to spend one day learning in a preassigned country. We drove through the mountainous terrain to the Douro wine making region, famous for port wine. We learned about the geography of wine. Climate, when the rain comes and frost comes, soils, bed rocks, elevation, which direction a hill side faces, and how are the grapes are manufactured into wine differ from place to place. Learning about wine making is a great way to learn many other geographical things. Terroir is a new word I learned that helps explain how physical features impact the flavor of things like wine, olive oil and cheese.
We toured two wineries and samples some local wine.
In my opinion the fresh grapes were better than the white Porto wine which was better than the red wine.
Dumping crates of newly picked grapes.
For some port wines, including in these stone vats, grapes are still pressed by feet, which tread lightly enough as to not break open the seeds.
On the way back to port we stopped to explore beautiful town of Amarante.
The church celebrates the life of a local priest who took great care to help widows find love again. After his death a statue of him and his tomb became a Shrine where single women would come to seek his help.
Napoleon fought and lost a battle at this bridge.
Enterprising towns people now sell uniquely shaped pastries in celebration of the priest who helped woman to find love.
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