Fado in Lisbon and Castelos in Sintra

This post will be slightly different, focusing on Old Bay's photos more than Corvid's writing, as she's not feeling very inspired to contemplate spiritual insight while we continue to visit main tourist areas. We plan to start the camino in Oporto tomorrow, but in the meantime, we're in Starbucks in Lisbon watching the terrible weather outside. It's snowing everywhere else in Europe but raining here near the coast, which is part of the reason we chose this route--milder climate and fewer mountains. In the meantime....

Welcome to Lisboa! This is the main plaza on the riverfront of the Rio Tejo. This used to be the old port where everyone arrived,with the Arco da Victoria to greet them, but we arrived via train a little out of town then took a bus here. 

Main street of Lisbon, the pedestrian-only Rua Augusta, with the Arco do Victoria at the end. Perhaps it won't be surprising to those who have studied romance languages that it's not very difficult to read Portuguese, but the pronunciation is unintelligible, at least to Corvid.

Rua Augusta at night. This was a much quieter city than Madrid, and more “blue collar.” The folks on the street weren’t afraid to wear bright colors instead of the uniform blacks and grays we saw in Madrid. Corvid felt much more comfortable in Lisbon in her hiking clothing.

Corvid on the balcony of our room in a small "pensao", not exactly a hotel or a hostel, but a guest house with private rooms. Ours had a shower stall, a sink, and what appeared to be a urinal all in the room just a couple feet from the end of the bed.

View from the same balcony at night. Clearly the Europeans know how to decorate for Christmas. Notice the mosaic tile cobblestone streets for which Lisbon is famous.

More cobblestoned streets as we wandered around cozy neighborhoods, stopping for a glass of wine or to get out of the way of a tram speeding by.

We returned to the same neighborhood in the evening to attend a fado performance in a local restaurant. Fado is a famous and distinctive form of Portuguese music, and lots of Lisboetas grow up singing or playing it. It was the highlight of our visit to Lisbon.

When we purchased a fado CD from one of the performers, they insisted that we take our picture with them. The gentleman to the left had one of the best "amateur" voices we've ever heard.

One last photo of Lisbon at night before we continue our exploration of the Lisbon area. When Corvid visited Europe during the summer after her first year of college, she and her companions were on a constant quest for the best city fountains. There were many contenders (e.g. the Mannikin Pis in Italy), but we settled on the "mother of all fountains" in Vienna. Madrid and Lisbon have offered their own gems on this trip.

And now for a complete change of pace as we leave Lisbon the next morning to visit the picturesque village of Sintra to the west, closer to the Atlantic coast.

A view of Sintra from one of the hillsides above the village.  The Atlantic is visible in the distance. 

The Moorish Castle on the hill overlooking Sintra. Remember that the Moors ruled this part of Europe after Rome collapsed and before Christians kicked them out. Sadly, we learned that St. James (for whom the Camino de Santiago exists) was the patron saint for the early Christians who fought against the Moors. 

One of the many gifts left by Moorish culture is the ceramic art common all over Portugal now. This tile mosaic was on the side of a wall in the town of Sintra, depicting the Palacio de Pena, another impressive structure overlooking the town.




And one more locale before we leave you for the time being...

We decided to take short bus ride to visit the western-most point of Europe, Cabo da Roca.

(Corvid took this photo, which is why it's dark and not as nice as the above, but we want to have some photos of Old Bay, after all. Also, she wouldn't let him buy the certificate that proved he was there, so he got this instead.) 

Finally, for those other nature-lovers out there, we leave you with this bright image of the very interesting succulent vegetation at Cabo da Roca, which clearly doesn't mind the windy, rainy weather one bit.
Next stop, Oporto and El Camino de Santiago.