Portugal travelogue

Emboldened by (and thankful to) Padraig, I have posted an account of
our visit to Lisbon, Sintra and Cascais two weeks ago. You can find it
at http://www.tnphoto.com/pt/

For those with slow internet connections, here's just the text portion:

Jan and I spent four days in Portugal in mid-March. Planning for the
trip was a combination of Internet research and guidebooks. I found
Rick Steves' Portugal the best all-round book, especially for walks,
orientation and insider info. Frommer's Portugal is best for eating and
drinking information. I especially liked their maps of where to find
restaurants and other attractions. The Lonely Planet guide was best for
background and history, but had its own recommendations for eating and
sleeping which were different from Frommer's. We took all three. I also
got (and liked) the Streetwise Lisbon map, a durable laminated
accordion-fold map.

We flew to Lisbon from London on March 20, 2006, on TAP Portugal, the
Portuguese national airline. The only reason to mention them is that
they enforced a 6 kilo limit for carry-on luggage, which forced us both
to check our carry-ons. They said it's a European Community regulation;
perhaps it's only enforced for flights between EC countries. I faced no
such restriction between the States and the UK.

We checked at the information desk at the airport and discovered that
the Aerobus shuttle bus gives a free one-way trip from the airport to
anyone with a boarding card for that day. We hadn't found that factoid
in any of the guide books.

Weather in Mid-March in Lisbon was mid-60s (15° Celsius) and partly
cloudy. Grass and shrubs were green, and trees were just sprouting
green buds. It wasn't beach weather but quite pleasant nonetheless.

I know some Portuguese from trips to Brazil, and I was eager to try it
in the mother country. I learned that, like Britain and the United
States, Portugal and Brazil are two countries divided by a common
language. The most distinctive thing about Portuguese in Portugal is
the "sh" pronunciation of nearly every "s". It's as distinctive as the
"th" of Castilian Spanish. A crowd of Portuguese talking together is a
sibilant symphony of soft sonic explosions. The Praça dos Restoradores,
where we stayed, is pronounced "PRAH-sa dos RESH-toh-rah-DOH-resh." My
favorite place name is Cascais, charmingly rendered as "Kash-Kaish."

We stayed at the Hotel VIP Eden,, a former Art Nouveau theater which
has been turned into a hotel. It's conveniently located at the foot of
Avenida Liberdade, on Praça dos Restoradores, next to a tourist
information office and a Metro stop. Its rooftop terrace gives a
panoramic view of the castle and center city.

Since we arrived on Monday, all the museums and art galleries were
closed. We used the time to check out the castle, which is open every
day. We'd gotten LisboaCards, which gave us free transportation on
buses, trains, trams and the metro, as well as free or discounted
admission to many sites. I feel it was worth the cost. We walked down
into the Baixa neighborhood ("downtown") and caught the #28 tram. As
Rick Steves calls it, it's a "Rice-A-Roni joyride" that lurches and
jostles its way up and down the hills. One-way cost is ¤1.20, not ¤1 as
Frommer's says. The #28 does not stop at the castle, however. Looking
out the small windows, we eventually concluded we had overshot. We alit
and walked back through the residential neighborhood of Graça, arriving
at the castle just as it was starting to get dark.

The attraction of the Castel São Jorge is not the castle itself, which
is mostly empty. It's the tree-shaded and cobbled area just outside,
and the views from its terrace and the castle walls. This is the view
you see in all the guidebooks. We lingered until the 9pm closing,
watching lights come on over downtown, then walked back through the
medieval Alfama neighborhood below the castle. Alfama escaped most of
the destruction of the 1755 earthquake that devastated most of Lisbon,
and it's a picturesque jumble of twisty, narrow streets and
azulejo-covered tenements.

Rua das Portas do São Antão, paralleling Avenida Liberdade just to its
southeast, is renowned as the "eat street" for tourists. We were
looking for a particular restaurant, Bonjardim, which is glowingly
reviewed in Frommer's. Despite having the address, we couldn't find it.
The pedestrian street of São Antão, however, was lined with restaurants
whose waiters all descended on us with menus and blandishments. Feeling
somewhat besieged, we repaired to a quiet spot to consider. The
restaurant map in Frommer's showed two other nearby restaurants besides
Bonjardim; the name of one was familiar-sounding. We presented
ourselves to Gambrinus and were met by a doorman, not a
waiter-salesman. Once we were seated at table, I looked up Gambrinus in
the guidebook. Oops, the most expensive place in town. We resolved to
stick it out and had quite a nice meal (but maybe not nice enough for
the price). (Just before we left, I discovered Bonjardim in a side
street off Portas do São Antão, in Travessa do São Antão.)

The next morning was warm and mostly sunny. Our destination was the
museum called Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, northwest of the center in the
neighborhood of Saldanha. Getting there was a snap on Lisbon's
sparkling-clean Metro. The museum is set in a park along with the
Museum of Modern Art, a theater and other buildings. Our LisboaCards
got us a discount on a combined ticket for both museums. Gulbenkian was
a wealthy refugee in World War II, and he gave his enormous art
collection to the city in thanks. It's strong on art of the Near
East,Asia, ancient Greece and Rome; furniture of the late French kings;
17th-19th century European painting; and the work of French glass
master and jeweler René Lalique. My favorite was a brooch by Lalique
which at first appears to be a dragonfly with jeweled wings. On closer
inspection, it's a monster with a calm-faced woman in its mouth, whose
arms are wings. An amazing combination of high art and the grotesque.

The Centro de Arte Moderna is less interesting, though it has some nice
paintings. It concentrates specifically on Portuguese artists.

We emerged to find it was raining, so we took a short taxi ride to the
far west neighborhood of Belém to see the sights there. The Centro
Cultural do Belém had an exhibit of Frida Kahlo's life and work. The
Museu do Design has a collection of outré modern furniture. Since the
rain had stopped, we walked by (but didn't enter) the Jerónimos
Monastery and saw the Discoveries Monument on the banks of the Tajus.
We stopped into Pasteis de Belém for a pastel do Belém, as custard tart
with cinnamon and sugar on it. Thus fortified, we took the bus home.
Dinner was snacks and alcohol in the terrace bar.

Like Rome, Lisbon is built on seven hills. The next morning we took the
funicular "Elévador da Gloria" up to explore the Bairro Alto. We were
using one of the walks in Rick Steves' Portugal. For those also relying
on it, here are some notes. The overlook Miradouro de São Pedro is
being restored and is closed. Not on Rick's tour but worth a look is
Espaço Chiado at 14 rua da Misericordia. It's a shopping center with a
grotto theme, with an Op Art floor, cavelike walls and a brass Art
Nouveau ceiling. The ruins of the Convento do Carmo are a little hard
to find. The convent, destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, was left as a
memorial. The convent is off Largo do Carmo on the edge of the cliff.
The vertiginous Elévador de Santa Justa is an Eiffel-inspired elevator
between Bairro Alto and Baixa. It hangs off the end of the ruined
convent, reached by a catwalk. The brave can walk up to a viewing area
on top for unparalleled views of the city. (Lisboans call both a
funicular and an elevator "elévador.")

Staying high, we walked to Rua Garrett, a pedestrianized shopping
street in nearby Chiado. The bar A Brasileira is there. It was THE
place to be in Lisbon in the 1920s and '30s. Placards on the street out
front give anecdotes (in Portuguese and English) about its habitués.

For dinner, we took a cab to Conventual near the very pretty Praça das
Flores. It appeared to be closed. We rang the doorbell,, and in time
the maitre d' came to let us in. The prime minister of Portugal
frequently dines there, and perhaps it's a security measure. We had
quite a nice dinner but Jan discovered that balcalhau (salted codfish)
is really salty.

Our destination for Thursday was Sintra, the hilltop resort which Lord
Byron called "a glorious eden." It has two castles and the ruins of a
third, perched on hilltops 30 miles west of Lisbon. (Note: the castles
are closed on Wednesday.) The medieval National Palace is still
partially furnished and gives an idea what life was like for royalty in
the 14th and 15th centuries. Highlights are the Magpie Room (it's
ceiling covered with paintings of magpies to twit the court gossips)
and the Coat-of-Arms Room (decorated with the seals of all the noble
families but one, which had plotted against the king). (No photos
allowed inside.) The most distinctive part of the palace is its two
enormous conical chimneys, which look like giant champagne bottles or
breasts, depending on your personal obsession.

The Pena Palace was a medieval chapel which was turned into a mad
confection in the 19th century. King Ferdinand had mad King Ludwig's
architect add Disneyesque towers and battlements in pastel colors, in a
crazy assortment of styles. Royals lived there until 1910, and the
house is furnished just as they left it. It's a fascinating glimpse of
the life of 19th century royalty. (No photos allowed inside.)

The guidebooks describe the Pena Palace as a gay and whimsical place, a
sort of 19th century theme park. That's not the way we experienced it,
however. It had been raining hard all day and the palace was swathed in
cloud. What we saw was a brooding, romantic hulk looming out of the
fog, a sort of brightly-painted Dungeons and Dragons set. Inside, we
marvelled at the rich furnishings and tried to ignore the rain pelting
the windows.

Touring the ruins of the Moorish casle was out of the question. We
splurged on a cab ride to Cascais, on the seashore. The rain had
stopped by the time we got there, and we walked by the beach and
watched powerful waves crash against the seawall.

Back in Lisbon that evening, we ventured to the Solar do Vinho do
Porto, a port wine tasting room at the top of the Elévador da Glória.
There you can sit in comfortable chairs and learn about port as you
order from a huge selection of ports by the glass. Appropriate edibles
for port are also served, from cheese and nuts to chocolate cake and
ice cream. They also sell bottles of port for prices that go from ¤12
to ¤1150. If you don't drink port, however, there's nothing else to
drink.

Friday was our day of departure and, of course, the weather improved. I
toured the castle again while Jan shopped, then we blasted off for
home.

Here are a few random notes for travelers to Portugal:

DO try ginjinha, a cherry liqueur. It's best chilled. You can buy a
bottle "sem eles" (without them) or "com eles" (with them), "them"
being a few cherries in the bottom of the bottle.

The guide books never tell you what postage to buy. Portugal has
regular (red) service and expedited (blue) service, with no explanation
of what you get. There are even separate red and blue postboxes.
Regular red service is fine; a postcard to the States costs ¤.74. You
can buy stamps at automated kiosks on the street and at post offices.

A travessa is a side passage between more major streets. They often
have the same name as the nearby street, causing confusion. This is why
I couldn't find Bonjardim.

In Portugal, a bus is an autocarro and a train is a camboio. A
miradouro is a scenic overlook (i.e. panorama). A bica is Lisboan slang
for a small, strong, black coffee.

I saw a couple of things from the cab I'd like more information about.
There's a heroic cow statue, looking like Vaca da Gama, near or at
Praça Duque de Saldanha. There's also an Art Nouveau metro sign at
Picoas.

Tom Nelson
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my ISP does not have an "x" in its name
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Tom Nelson schrieb:

I know some Portuguese from trips to Brazil, and I was eager to try it
in the mother country. I learned that, like Britain and the United
States, Portugal and Brazil are two countries divided by a common
language. The most distinctive thing about Portuguese in Portugal is
the "sh" pronunciation of nearly every "s".

Besides Northern Portugal.

It's as distinctive as the
"th" of Castilian Spanish. A crowd of Portuguese talking together is a
sibilant symphony of soft sonic explosions. The Praça dos Restoradores,
where we stayed, is pronounced "PRAH-sa dos RESH-toh-rah-DOH-resh."

PRAH-sa dosh REST-toh-ra-DOH-resh, please.

Regards, ULF

Ulf,
Is northern Portugal's Portuguese more similar to southern Brazil's?
I'd have said "PRAH-sah doze HEST-to-ra-DO-rez" based on how my
Brazilian friends speak.
Tom

In article , Ulf Kutzner
wrote:

Tom Nelson schrieb:

I know some Portuguese from trips to Brazil, and I was eager to try it
in the mother country. I learned that, like Britain and the United
States, Portugal and Brazil are two countries divided by a common
language. The most distinctive thing about Portuguese in Portugal is
the "sh" pronunciation of nearly every "s".

Besides Northern Portugal.

Tom Nelson schrieb:

Is northern Portugal's Portuguese more similar to southern Brazil's?
I'd have said "PRAH-sah doze HEST-to-ra-DO-rez" based on how my
Brazilian friends speak.

Yes and no. They do pronounce 'r' as 'r' in the beginning of a word in
Portugal.

Regards, ULF

In Brazil , I don't now why, they pronounce the H (at the biginning of the
word) as an R ,,,,, so it's more like this "PRAH-sah doze
RES-to-ra-DO-rez"...... - (in Portuguese: Praça dos Restauradores )


"Ulf Kutzner" escreveu na mensagem
...
Tom Nelson schrieb:

Is northern Portugal's Portuguese more similar to southern Brazil's?
I'd have said "PRAH-sah doze HEST-to-ra-DO-rez" based on how my
Brazilian friends speak.

Yes and no. They do pronounce 'r' as 'r' in the beginning of a word in
Portugal.

Regards, ULF