Advertisement
Published: March 19th 2007
Fatima
Reminds me of St Peters in Rome. What do you think?Well, its like this! I am now back in Spain, Salamanca to be precise, and have less than five weeks of my journey to go before I return to the UK. That means this is likely to be my penultimate entry. I am homeward bound.
Portugal has been a magical place for me. Starting in Beja, a town near the middle of the country, surrounded by flat lands and cork plantations. I then moved south east to Monte Gordo, on the Algarve and worked my way west to Faro. Here I picked up an old friend (Ken) from the airport and we travelled to the small town of Luz, for a week of luxury in an appartment owned by a good friend of mine (thanks Tony, much appreciated).
From there, we travelled around the rest of the coast and had a jolly good time eating and drinking at bars and restraunts. The weather has now become much milder and I have started to regain the tan I acquired last summer. All things come to an end, however and returned to England.
I then proceeded north, back to Beja, to see some friends I had made, then on to
Lous 1 Bridge - Porto
You can walk along by the trains for a spectacular view of the city Evora and Lisbon. Lisbon, what a place! I camped out by the river for three days and visited some spectacular sights. the most memorable thing of the city, however, was the trams; tiny, old, rickety and charming, they go up and down steep hills and along the riverside at speeds that trams should not be capable of (ear to ear grin stuff).
Next, I moved on toward Porto, in the north, via a number of interesting towns that I wanted to visit. The one that captured my interest the most was a place called Fatima. This is a centre for pilgrims who come to visit a sight where the virgin Mary was seen to appear, by three children in the early part of the last century. Those who know me will find this strange, as I have no religous beliefs, christian or otherwise. However, it was the strange mix of the church that looks like a modern St Peters (judge for yourself, from the picture) and the town that seems to sell religous artifacts in a Vagas style. I mean no offence by this, I is mearly how it seemed to me.
Porto was a very different experience
from Lisbon and the Algarve. With some area rather run down, it was a place that I was not sure about at first. After three days there though, I found a charm that made me enjoy the place for what it was, a working city. The port wine lodges are well worth a visit ( I went to Taylors and had an excellent time. They even had dry white port for me to taste).
From Porto, I travelled along the Douro valley, which is extremely beautiful and down to Cericio, where I made friends with a couple who Live there (Ray and Do), and stayed at their place for a few days (saw some properties that I liked and could afford, just need to learn Portugees and get a job).
My last stop in Portugal was at a town called Guards, near the Spanish border. It turned out to be rather a dissapointment, very quiet and quite cold (had hoped to celebrate St Patricks day there). Never mind!
Salamanca, is a beautiful place, with an amazing university that I have had the pleasure of looking around (oh! to lecture in some of the rooms there). My next stop is Madrid, a place that I have been looking forward to visiting for some years now. Hopefully it will not dis-appoint!
Finally, the answers to last entrys questions.
The Seat Marbella was a copy of the Fiat Panda
Generalife means Architect's garden
The tree is a Dragon Tree
Wekk done Dominic, two out of three aint bad.
I am not doing anymore questions, as there seems to be little response to them now (sorry Dom).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 17; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0299s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ed
non-member comment
See you soon
Glad to hear that all is well. Looking forward to seeing you when you get back.