Portugal, 2005 [English]

This is a little summary of my recent trip to Portugal with Ines. This should help English speakers understand the Portugal Photo Album. Note that it has ~50 pictures, and the legends are all in Portuguese. Click here for the larger album (>100 pictures).

To me the best thing about the trip was seeing all the Old World stuff: the Metropolis of the Portuguese empire, the medieval castles, the fortress-like churches, the Gothic monasteries, the entire country rich with old history.

The trip lasted about 3 weeks, and we visited the following places:

- Lisboa (Lisbon): The capital of Portugal. Ines has an apartment in the city, so we spent a lot of time there. The city is relatively new (as compared to the rest of the country), because an earthquake in 1755 destroyed the city and most of it had to be rebuilt afterwards (it is considered the "most disastrous" earthquake in history). The city was decorated for christmas, and that was very pretty, especially in the hiscoric downtown ("Baixa"). The city itself had its ups and downs: it was an even mix of a old buildings and streets (a couple of centuries old) with modern third-world buildings (the kind you see in any third-world large city these days). Lisbon is famed for its nightlive (featured recently on the NYTimes), but we only went out once while there (and it was cool, just like the Times said). One of my personal highlights of Lisbon is the district of Belém, where some impressive architeture is found in the "Torre de Belém" (a tower) and the "Mosteiro dos Jerônimos" (a monastery). These building are made in the Manueline style, from the 16th century, which is a evolution of the Gothic celebrating the Discoveries. Food Highlight: Rabbit (delicious, in the mall!) and fish (Tamboril - some ugly fish, don't ask). The food is otherwise average, leaning to homemade brazilian food, nothing spetacular.

- Setúbal: Portugal's third largest city, where Ines mother lives. The downtown was very pretty, narrow cobbled streets filled with nice old buildings which happened to house modern stores. It also had a couple of mediavel fortresses nearby: the Castle of Sao Filipe and the Palmela Castle, which were pretty cool. Setúbal is a fish city - people come all the way from Lisbon just to eat fish there. I thought the grilled fish was average (the Tamboril in Lisbon was much better), but I am told this is because it is not the right season.Food Highlight: Squid with Ink (the squid is fried with the ink! your mouth gets all black).

- Évora: where Ines's father lives, and where we spent Christmas Eve and New Year's. It is in the South, in the countryside. Évora is a town inside large, imposing medieval walls, while inside there is a labyrinth of narrow cobbled streets. There we also saw Diana's Temple (a Roman Temple) and the "Capela dos Ossos", a church of human bones and skulls. Nearby there are some pre-historic sites: a circle of stones, a dolmen, and more, all dating to about 5000-6000 B.C. Food highlight: the Meat Fondue at New Year's, with several sauces for dipping - really tasty! Also, the enormous variety of sweets at Christmas, although I only really liked the Farofias (egg whites cooked on milk, with sauce) that I made.

- Coimbra: Famous for its University, one of the oldest in Europe. We went to Cantanhede, a suburb of Coimbra, for Christmas Day with the family of Ines's mother. In the end, we didn't really have time to see Coimbra, we just had a peek at the University and at Downtown (seemed pretty, though). Food highlight: roasted piglet (not sure that's the right word). It is the specialty of the region - there is a long street lined with dozens of restaurants specialized on it.

- Porto: In the North of Portugal, it is a really beautiful city. The city has a very old feel to it. The area around downtown has a lot of old, large buildings, with interesting arquiteture. It is common to see churches covered in blue Portuguese tiles. The area next to the River Douro is full of restaurants and bars, and it is the nightlife center of the town. The area is called "Ribeira" and it is very cool. Right accross the river are the Wine cellars. I did not try any of the wine (don't really like it), and didn't even visit the Wine cellars, due to lack of time. The city is very hilly and there are plenty of fantastic views. I joked with Ines that only after seeing Porto I discoverer how beautiful Portugal really is. She is from Lisbon, she didn't like that at all. Food highlight: none. I guess Lisbon is still better for some things... :)

- Batalha: The "Mosteiro da Batalha", a gigantic Monastery in the middle of nowhere. It is an impressive building, built in the Gothic-Manueline style, overflowing with detailed decorations.

- Sintra: A village near Lisbon, in a region full of hills. There is a palace in the village, but is ugly outside and boring inside. The village itself is very charming, with small, steep, cobbled streets. The hills around are full of Gothic houses and mansions around. There is an awesome view of the village, forest and houses around from the "Castelo dos Mouros" (Muslim Castle), perched right above the village. The castle itself is cool; it was conquered by the Portuguese in the 12th Century.

And that's it. It was a great trip! :)