Portugal

The view looking over the river at Penacova. This hillside town is where we spent our first few days in Portugal.

This last week we've been making our way down to the south of Portugal. The country is a mix of beauty, the old and new, rugged countryside, smart buildings, tumbled down ruins, and fancy palaces. And so hilly! There have been many times that it has reminded us of New Zealand.

The people have been friendly and courteous although we do get plenty of stares as we drive about in our rickety old camper!

I love the tiny scrapings of vege gardens that are dispersed everywhere among the hillsides. Any spot they can find it is terraced (probably from a thousand years ago when people made an effort with stone walls!) showing off straight lines of corn, brassica, beans, and lettuce. Most of the soil in the garden that isn't planted up with vegetables and also in paddocks around trees is bare - having been rotary hoed. 

In Spain and then in Portugal we were passing miles and miles of un-fenced land with only one type of tree growing seemingly uncultured. I was wondering why so much land was going unused - not knowing what these trees were. The land, it seemed, not even used for grazing.

Then as we arrived in Coimbra we couldn't help notice every shop totally loaded with everything cork. Cork shoes, handbags, wallets, hats, place-mats, even clothes. And then the connection was made - with a little help from the locals - that all those many beautifully graceful trees are one of Portugal biggest export - Cork Oak trees. The further south we went we started seeing that the cork was being harvested. They only use the bark from the main trunk of the tree. Apparently it is beneficial to the tree to be de-barked every 9 years.

Cork trees.
We parked up here one night to make dinner and have showers before we kept driving to Algarve.

I'm not sure if you can see by this photo that the lower park of the bark has been removed.

Our favourite spot - the town centre where there was internet. Just to the right of that space was that great view.

Our first few days here we spent in a small hillside town called Penacova. It sits about a wide river that Josh later explored by himself one rainy day. It has been raining on and off for the past few weeks. The temperature has barely reached 23 degrees which is probably a good thing considering how hot it could be. Still - not really swimming weather (though of course this doesn't stop Josh!)
One morning he got up super early and took a bus 1/2 an hr up river with his Kayak (inflatable) bundled onto his back and a bag of peanuts in his pocket and paddled four hours down river to where we were staying. It was pouring with rain some of that time, and even he said the paddling was hard going with a head wind and no current to count on for a lot of the time! He sure is hard core! I'm so pleased he didn't think we needed to enjoy that with him too. He knows by now that we are only fair-weather kayakers.

After a few peaceful days of doing our washing and catching up with the internet we made our way to Coimbra to hear some traditional Fado music which originated in that city. Traditionally only men are allowed to sing this music. We were lucky to hear a beautiful concert for free in a cafe that once was a church in the 1500s. We also heard in the park close to our camper-van spot some other traditional music with accordions, mandolin and guitar.

A local band playing traditional Portuguese music for a festival.

The girls and I all enjoyed wandering in the city - looking at all the different shops and wares and finding the local supermarket to get some bread and crackers. (Who would have thought crackers would be hard to find in most supermarkets!)

The buildings in Portugal are often white washed with cute little wrought iron frames on the windows. Quite often an entire building would be covered in ornate tiles or a tiled picture of an old fashioned scene or flowers. The buildings are also painted wonderful pastel colours - they especially like pale yellow and pink. I love it! So pretty!

A typical looking street here. (Though no wrought iron here funnily)

Some of the tiles that covered the exterior of the whole house.

This house looks a little worse for wear, but is also a common sight among the freshly painted and more modern houses. I don't think people live in them anymore - they do look rather derelict, but I'd love to know the history of each house! I also like that they are still left there without being bowled over for the new.

A tiled picture on the exterior of a house.

In the city centre of Coimbra after listening to the Fado concert.

After being in a city we headed to Sintra - the castle region of Portugal which is a small town in the hills. It hosts many tourists though who come to see the beautiful castles and villas. The royal family of Portugal built most of the castles and used to go there in the summer to escape the heat as its high in the hills. Its only about 1/2 an hr drive to Lisbon from there. We could see the sea at the top of the massive climb to the old Moorish castle. It was built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th century. How did they build with massive stones a humongous castle and fort without helicopters. Isn't it just amazing?!

Walking around the castle walls. 

Sintra