Sue and I returned last week from a two week trip to Portugal. All and all it was a good trip and Portugal certainly is a great country- terrific scenery, lots of medieval to modern history and terrific scenery. However, a lesson learned is to not travel with a medical doctor. They tend to pack Covid test kits and what you thought was a cold, caught on the plane ,turned out to be covid! Which wasn’t all that bad but certainly slowed us down for the first week.
In this post I highlight four items of particular interest. The the impact of hyper tourism, the opportunity to witness the Freedom March, the ride on a nineteenth century funicular and visit to Bon Jesus Do Monte, and driving a rental car via GPS when the power goes out across the country.
Hyper Tourism.
I have been to Portugal 3 or 4 times previously in my role as a member of the International Advisory Committee for the online learning research group at the Universitat Aberta- Portuguese’s Open University. A big difference between these trips and now is the major tourist sites are over-run with tourists. Mostly grey haired boomers, and often in large groups – off the cruise boats, riverboats or buses. Many of us are in the “Go-Go” state of retirement, looking at Slow-Go in a few years and NO-GO there after. So we are off to Europe! Of course I realize that we are apart of the problem with excess tourists, bit this didn’t squash our enjoyment of this remarkable country.
We went on a walking tour of the old town (Alfama) in Lisbon. The guide related the chronology of invasions (with the year) that marked Portuguese history – from the Phoenicians, to the Romans, from the Spanish to the Visigoths, from Moors to the fascists. At a break I asked when the invasion of the tourists happened. He instantly replied – 2017.
We went on a great drive through the Douro River valley – mind boggling scenery with terrace vineyards, classic old port wineries and beautiful river scenes. We stopped at Pinhão a small town of (600 people) with the river side covered with tour boats of many sizes. During the one hour long boat trip we embarked upon, the guide said that this town had received 1.2 million tourists in the previous year. If you are planning a trip to Portugal, Spain or Italy in the near future DO NOT watch any of the Youtube videos on over tourism such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXv5D_FUhSg
To be fair, and as noted by colleagues from the Open University, the tourists bring much employment and wealth to the major tourist cities. The conversion of affordable housing to short term rentals does displace residents, but many of these buildings are in dire need to updating and refurbishing.
I shudder to think what the major European tourist destinations are like at peak season (June-Sept.) but it may be worth putting up with chills and rains in the winter to enjoy Europe sans an over-whelming number of tourists
April 25 Freedom March in Porto
From Lisbon, we headed North to Porto. Porto is a great city, smaller (though no less crowded) than Lisbon and in many ways more scenic due to the Douro River that runs through the City. By coincidence we happened to be there on April 25. On this day, Portugal celebrates the Carnation Revolution – ending 48 years of Dictatorship and loss of freedom from fascist dictatorship in 1974. The day is marked in major towns and cities by celebration marches.
This was the largest demonstration/march that we had ever witnessed. Groups of marchers, headed by large banners proclaiming their affiliation (teachers, hospital worker, social workers, engineers etc.). It really was a celebratory gathering with cheers from the bystanders.
The highlight for us was the Marching Batoquirs. This drum corp consisted o f nearly 50 drummers setting the beat that got everyone feeling very upbeat (so to speak). The drummers were of all ages, and led by a whistle blowing parade master, they ran through a variety of engaging and complex beat patterns.
I couldn’t help thinking how useful a marching drum band would be for any of the parades and demonstrations we see here at home – sort of a multi-generational addition to the Raging Grannies.
Two Nights of Fado Music
In Porto and later in Coimbra we bought tickets for hour long (with a shot of port) Fado concerts. Fado is a genre of music, original to Portugal, that consists of a band of 2 or more guitar players and a singer. Typically, but not always, the singers are female and the instruments always consist of at least one Portuguese guitar. These pear shaped guitars have 12 steel strings. The musician plays counter melodies and embellishments to the singer’s voice. Typically the songs are sad laments.
Now, one might ask why we would pay to listen to singers moan and groan about the misery in their lives?- and it wasn’t just for the tiny glass of port they serve. The music is haunting and very soothing. The virtuous playing of the Portuguese guitar players was the real star of the show. The two players we saw were both men in their 60’s who sounded like they had been master players for decades.
The next highlight of our trip was the two nights we stayed on Bon Jesus do Monte. This is a ‘sacred mountain” near Brava that was first begun in the fifteenth century as means to bring Catholics back to the true faith in the midst of the Protestant Reformation.
The complex has been enhanced and extended over the centuries to become a major tourist and local place for a family walk, hike in the hills or worship. The complex has three small, classic hotels (late 19th century). The highlight is a massive baroque staircase leading up to the Basilica.
The theme of the whole mountain park is the Passion of Jesus. From the bottom, and proceeding up the staircase and culminating in the Crucification highlighted in the Basilica at the top of the staircase. are a series of chapels that portray the last weeks of Jesus life, his death, his resurrection and ascension. The story is brought to life in a series of small, stand alone chapels. Through unglassed windows the pilgrims can look inside to see life sized statues of Jesus, disciples, Roman Soldiers and the other key figures in the passion story The statues are painted and amazingly life-like. The 3D multi-media of the 16th century.
Funicular at Bon Jesus do Mont
Of course not all of the faithful are able to climb to the Basilica -though many younger locals seemed to enjoying jogging up and down the staircase. So in 1881 a funicular was built. The cars which hold about twenty people look similar to other such devices I have seen elsewhere. But what makes this funicular unique is the way the cars are powered to ascend the hill. Typically a continuous cable connects the two cars and an electric motor (in addition to the counter weight of the descending car) propels the funicular. However, this funicular was installed before there was electricity available. And it didn’t use steam power, a wind mill or paddle wheel on a dam or swift stream.
So how was it powered?
As you can see in the picture above, water from a stream tapped further up the mountain, is fed into a large tank underneath the funicular car. When full of water, the operator closes a big wheel valve. Now the extra weight of the water in the upper car is more than enough to raise the lower car (with passengers). When the car gets to the lower station, it drive over a slanted block of wood openeng a valve and the water spills out of the lower car – lightening its weight enough to be hoisted up once the upper car has loaded its water tank. This ingenious system has been in place since 1881 and is the last remaining gravity-water powered funicular in Europe and perhaps in the world. Very cool use of sustainable energy.
No Power in Coimbra
Our last stop in Portugal was at the former capital and home of Portuguese’s oldest University – in Coimbra. We booked an AirB&B (I though I was booking a hotel) in the very old est part of town near the University. I saw from the hotel map that it was located in an area with very small and winding roads. Given that our rental car had ApplePlay for GPS and we have very good phone coverage with a virtual SIM card (no roaming fees). I was confident that we could find the place, though I was worried about parking our rental car.
What we had not counted on was a nation-wide power outage. This had anly minor effects on us until we made a wrong turn and the GPS stalled trying to find a new route for us. I knew the rental was at the top of a large hill (we were down at river level) yet I also saw that there were very few roads leading up the very steep hill. But we had a rough map and ventured forth ascending on roads that progressly got smaller and pavement gave way to cobble stone. Finally, a parking spot appeared and though we still didn’t know where our place was we thought we were reasonably close.
Clunking along the cobble stone we eventually found our apartment on a road that two loaded donkeys would have had trouble passing- much less a car.
What a relief – we had found our lodging. BUT the code to access the apartment was not working (no electricity). So we descended to a small pub at the end of our street, hoping to get Internet or phone access to contact our host. But alas, no lights, no electricity and no Internet – but they did still have beer, so we fortified ourselves with beer and potato chips and tried to think what to do. Sleeping tin the car didn’t sound very attractive and just driving with no GPS to find a hotel sounded pretty sketchy as well. So we were VERY relieved when an hour later the lights suddenly came back on. Everyone in the bar cheered, and then the publican, went over and switched the lights off – and managed to get a few groans from the patrons before turning it back on. Things fell in place after that. Eventually Internet, phone and even TV returned and we spent two great days touring the old University, National museum and other sights in Coimbra.
Finally, I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of this old Lambretta scooter. It was the same model that I had bought in Madrid in 1971 and with backpacks strapped to the rear carrier, travelled through Spain and Morocco and my first trip to Portugal. Fond memories, but grateful to return with much more money in my pocket, GPS and a wonderful wife and travelling companion
My last challenge was to retrieve our rented car and exit the winding cobble stones streets. The only parking spot we had found was a hill, on a very narrow street (we were afraid the car would be clipped by passing vehicles) but it seemed to have survived. Except, there was a car in front of us, it was raining, we were on a very steep hill, I was too close to the building on the passenger side to turn the wheel to reverse – much less to open the passenger door AND it was a standard transmission vehicle. The only thing better than getting out of that parking spot, was when we returned the rent a car at the end of our trip.
Conclusions
We hadn’t really intended to rent a car . But the first week we spent in Sintra and it was really too long a walk on avery hilly road to get to the train station. Rental cars do allow one to go places off the beaten track, but they are more expensive (tolls on the excellent Portuguese freeways are very expensive (60 Euros for us) and parking in the major cities was 22 euros a night. I think with better planning we would have had a more relaxing trip without worrying about driving a vehicle.
Obviously there isn’t much one can do about excess tourists except to not be part of the problem. I’m very grateful that through speaking tours in years past, we’ve had opportunity to visit most of the major sites and cities in Europe, and so our ‘bucket list” is pretty modest now. Portugal is blessed with incredible scenery, warm and friendly people and just enough misery to enjoy great fado songs, but not to get too upset about anything .