Porto made for a good base for day trips. We drove east to Pinhão, the heartland of some very pretty wine country. The Douro is the oldest demarcated wine region in the world (since 1756). We also visited Braga to the north of Porto.
Douro Valley vineyard
The Upper Douro Valley
Wine storage tank
Grapes and olives, Pinhao
Mosteiro de São Bento, Santo Tirso
Colonnade, Sao Bento
Arco Da Porta Nova, Braga
Braga, Escadaria do Bom Jesus
View of the Douro, Porto
Our first day exploring Porto, Portugal’s second largest city…. where Portugal got its name. And of course from where Port wine is exported to the world.
Porto train station
Porto train station tile detail.
Porto skyline
Statue of Vimara Peres in front of the Porto cathedral
dral.
Porto skyine 2
Porto.... wow!.
Igreja de São Lourenço
Porto street
Ponte Luis I.
Rooms with a view
Cean sheets
Quay-side dining
A view of Porto from Gaia
These ducks were arguing about something at Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, in Porto, Portugal. You can also hear the sound of peacocks egging them on.
I asumed, wrongy, that the images in the gallery I posted below would enlarge when clicked. But no….. So here are the images full size.
Belated pix of our journey from Evora to Coimbra with a pit stop in Aveiro, aka The Venice of Portugal.
On the road, an aqueduct near Evora.
Castelo de Arraiolos, en route to Aveira
Museu de Arte Nova Aveiro.
Art Nouveau quay-side building Aveiro.
These are pix of the paint jobs on the Moliceiros in Aveiro. I was told that the text is usually a double entendre and my efforts to translate the Portuguese with Google’s translator were unintelligible. Some pretty fun and quite risqué paint jobs.
University of Coimbra
Bank of Portugal
Mosteiro de Santa Clara-a-Velha
Plane Trees Coimbra Mondego River
Igreja de Santiago (Coimbra)
I’m way behind on posting pix, but here are a few from our drive from Albufeira to Evora.
We had a picnic lunch in a park adjacent to this church in Entradas en route to Evora
Another pit stop, the Castelo de Portal.
Igreja e Mosteiro de São Francisco, in Reguengos de Monsaraz.
Finally made it to Evora, which is a pretty cool city. Lots of history including this Roman temple.
Evora Cathedral
Storks are quite common in Portugal.
Ossuaries are basically a grave yard recycling program.The Capela dos Ossos is part of Igreja de Sao Francisco in Evors
Igreja e Mosteiro de São Francisco, Evora
The Algarve coastline is a very pretty mix of sandy beaches, cliffs and spectacular sea caves. The Benagil Cave is only accessible by boat and neither of us was interested in getting wet or sandy, so we opted for a hike atop the cliffs. This first pic is not mine, I borrowed it from the web. I just wanted to show why Benagil is such a popular tourist destination.
Benagil Cave. NOT MY PIC!
Cliffs surrounding Benagil beach.
Benagil Cave from the top
Corner building
House in Lagos
Lagos has hills
Grilled fish lunch was terrific.
Draw bridge
Sentry post
Lookout
Dappled restaurant
Bell tower
Bell tower 2
Bell tower 3
Mao Mao
Church of St. Sebastian
Yesterday we headed east to Tavira. It’s very close to the border with Spain and only about an hour and a half rom Saville, a city I would love to visit. Guess we’ll have to include it on the next trip to the peninsula. Anyway, here are some Tavira pix.
Reflection
Nossa Senhora da Ajuda ou de Sao Paulo, Tavira, Algarve, Portugal.
Tile facade
The old bridge
Fixer upper
View from Castle
Gilao River
Igreja de Santiago
Torre do relógio
Ermida de Sao Roque
Illuminated bridge, Tavira
Beer break
We were having lunch in Lagos today at a rooftop restaurant when a hungry gull swiped a slice of bread out of our bread bowl. The theft was observed by our fellow diners, much to their delight. I barely managed to record the event.
Gull steals bread.
After Lisbon we traveled to Albufeira a centrally located city on the southern coast in The Algarve or Faro District. Albufeira has a lovely beach and lots of bars, restaurants and shops. It’s nice enough, and we booked a great AirBnB, and it makes a good starting point for day trips to the east and west.
The Algarve or Faro District
Albufeira Beach
Chimneys, Albufeira
Almart
Red shutters
Albufeira Velho
Albufeira is a party town
I’m way behind on posting pix. In fact we’re no longer in Lisbon, but Albufeira a centrally located city on Portugal’s southern coast, an area called the Algarve. So here are a few more more pix from Lisbon, Belem and Almada.
Cristo Rei
Torre de Belem
Ponte 25 de Abril
Pigeons
Real Mosteiro de Santa Maria
Padreo dos Descobrimentos
Ferramentas
Trams
Tombs
Hanging laundry
Transit Museum
A few people have inquired about my camera etc. I’m just shooting snapshots with my iPhone X. Most =of what happens with these images is post processing in Photoshop Express. If you’re interested in technical details, let me know. I’m happy to share
Miscellaneous pixx of a day in Lisbon. It’s a gorgeous city, full of monuments and churches. One of the world’s great capitol cities.
Tram 28
Pastels
Art work
Wash day
Rainy day dryer
Painted door
LSD
Our first full day in Lisbon. Weather has been cold and rainy, but looking to improve over the next couple of days.
Praça do Comércio
Arco do Triunfo
Arco do Triunfo, head's up
Floor tile
A mixed bag of markets, craftsmen and palaces. Internet out at the AirBnB, this is actually the first time I’ve used my phone as a “hot spot” So we’ll see how that goes. Here are some pix.
Sidewalk troubadour.
Bicycle Wheel Globe
Tile craftsman
Tile Artisan
TukTuk
Tajine this way
Bahia Palace 1
Patti at Bahia Palace
Bahia Palace 2
Citrus Stand
Fruits and Nuts
Juice??
We took a private “tour” to the Atlas mountains today, which means that our very nice driver, Aziz took us to all the retailers where he got a kickback. Not that it wasn’t educational or interesting, but the sales pressure was intense; behavior to which I am congenitally averse. We went to a Berber rug shop billed as a sort of woman’s cooperative, which I suspect is only partially true. But the rugs were varied and beautiful. Not being in the market for a rug, as I explained from the get go, the salesman did an excellent job of making me wish that I were. The next stop was another of that ilk, an Argan oil operation that also sold spices, teas, cosmetics, etc. Dollars were spent. None by me. The lunch venue was lovely, seated right beside the river that three weeks ago flooded so badly that it wiped out a good deal of its embankment. Remember, this area was hard hit by the 2023 earthquake. Anyway, food was great. On the way back Patti wanted to take a pic of a camel which morphed into a camel ride, in costume. I will include some very amateur video. Back into Marrakech we visited the tannery which was technically informative in its use of pigeon shit as an ammoniated bath in the tanning process; we were given sprigs of mint to mitigate the odor. And that’s about it. Got to see some countryside. Here are some pix of the day.
Royal Theater in Marrakech, close to our AirBnB
Berber rugs drying in the sun.
Rug weaving demonstration.
Tajine for lunch
Future goat tajine
Patti along the Ourika River, Restaurant Adrar
Restaurants along the Ourika River.
Post flood bridge
Tannery
Patti atop dromedary.
Having recovered from my malaise, we walked to Jemaa el-Fnaa, a large square surrounded by souks (small stores). The square itself is where various performers ply their trades; snake charmers, musical acts and henna tattoo artists among them. If you feel like being annoyed, I’d recommend the place. Otherwise head to the souks where you’ll see lots retailers selling their niche products, but also a lot light manufacturing. We had lunch at a place called Dar Es Salaam that was just great. Adjacent to the restaurant were buildings damaged by a 6.8 earthquake in September 0f 2023. The earthquake killed over 2000 people.
Carriage Queue
Ferrier
Leather Goods
Earthquake Damage 1
Earthquake Damage 2
Rubber Dealer
Rubber Fetish
Kitchen Gear
Cones
I’ve been under the weather with some kind of bug… nausea, headache and the obligatory talk with Ralph on the big white phone. But after 15 hours of sleep I’m feeling a lot better. Hope to get out and see some of the city today. Anyway, here’s a video of the train we took from Casablanca. It was not an Express.
Today we took a train to Rabat, Morocco's capital city. It's only an hour away and only $7 one way. Rabat is very nice, very clean with wide boulevards. The Medina (market area) is huge and not nearly as crazy as Casablanca's. We had a great lunch of tazines, a Moroccan staple washed down with mint tea. Then we went to the Kasbah des Oudayas. A fort that was at one time the entire city. Before heading back to Casablanca, we visited Musee Mohammed VI to check out the modern art exhibit. Fun day, and we didn't screw up once. Here a some pix of the Medina.
Snack Alame
Sport Shop
Fruits & Shades
Spice Vendor
Feeding Fowl
Garment Vendor
Little Darlings
Pot Pourri
Butcher
Originally, these pix were shared by email. That proved cumbersome for a few people so I decided to use my web site to share. I’m going to see if I can get this located properly in the timeline, but if that doesn’t work, at least it will part of the record
Flying in to Casablanca
View from the AirBnB
Security grating
Fruit vendor.
The ladder store
Alley cat
Old Medina gate
Barber shop bros
Masonry detail
Upholsterer
Fowl vendor
Aldoria cafe-club
Hassan II mosque
Stonework detail
Framed mosque
Tile detail
