Portugal

Week 22 — January 19th - 31st (Tony)

Following our lovely week in Nerja, we moved westwards, to Cadiz. After crossing through a range of hills north of Gibraltar, the southwestern corner of Spain opens out to flat arable farmland for as far as the eye can see, a stark contrast to the rugged, barren country everywhere else. The ancient city of Cadiz sits on a small rocky outcrop at the end of a long sandy isthmus and is easily explored on foot. Its links to maritime history are legendary. The city outgrew its fortress walls long ago and the population is nowadays spattered among a number of dense residential settlements around the harbour, wherever land firm enough to build on could be found. Our unit was actually in El Peurto de Santa Maria, half an hours ferry ride across the bay. The port remains one of the largest in Europe. And finally, a mighty river — deep enough for large ships to navigate all the way to Seville. Both Cadiz and Seville flourished from their predominance of the trade between Europe and America in the first couple of centuries.

Cadiz, Huelva (north on the coast) and Seville are the points of an almost-equilateral triangle with each side approximately 120 kms. The delta within is lowlying, most of it intensely farmed, much of it marshland. Fortunately, a large chunk has been preserved for its natural heritage and now forms the largest National Park in Europe. We drove more than 200 km to the park headquarters to join a tour of the park in a 20-seater 4-wheel-drive bus which took us down the beach and over sand dunes and around swamps. We saw deer, wild pigs, marsh horses, eagles, flamingoes and just about every sort of waterfowl. A long, tiring but fascinating day.

To visit Seville we took the easy option, jumped on a train then boarded a double-decker bus. Seville hosted world expos (1929 & 1992) and many of the unique and extravagantly designed buildings remain part of the city's landscape. An exciting place to visit, like Barcelona, but thanks to its wide streets and extensive parklands, a more relaxed atmosphere seems to prevail. Seville's cathedral would have to be one of the biggest in the world (Sally assures me it's the third largest). Its treasures, crafted from gold and silver plundered from the Americas during Spains early conquests, are mind-boggling including one altar made of solid silver.

Crossing into Portugal leaves one in no doubt that you are in a different country. The architectural style of the developments along the coast of the Algarve is much more sympathetic to the environment. Practically every building is no more than two-storey, single, duplex or triplex units and quite attractive. The beaches are wide with golden sand and face south. It's not hard to understand why the Algarve is such a popular destination for summer holidays. In fact, everywhere we've been in Portugal homes, outside big towns and cities, are mostly detatched cottages on simple allotments with front yards and gardens. And mature trees! In all Spain one could count on fingers and toes the number of mature trees taller than 6m.

When we drove into Faro we thought it was just another typical, tired old town. However, we found a vacant car space in the main street (a rarity anywhere in Europe) so parked the car and walked a few metres and found a fabulous hotel. After checking in we turned the corner and discovered a refurbished town centre with a maze of pedestrian malls, lots of restaurants and stylish shops. Sales are still raging here as retailers desperately try to off-load excess stocks of winter fashions. In no time Sally and I spent less than AU$500 on a pair of top quality leather jackets.

Heading north from Faro we drove through a range of hills covered in native cork forest. We have yet to see how they actually strip the cork. It was odd to see trees denuded of bark to about 2m from the ground and occasionally we came across stacks of bark waiting to be processed. It was heartening to see an effort being made to weed exotic species (mainly eucalypts) from the forest, allowing the native corks and other trees to regenerate. After the hills, the country opened out to a vast plateau of rolling, fertile farmland.

We drove into Lisbon but it is far too big a city for our liking. I am sure it has lots of charming features but we couldn't face the frenzy and chaos so we threw a u-turn in the middle of town and continued to Sintra. Good choice. Sintra is overlooked by an amazing Moorish castle and fortress perched atop a high hill. What a bastard of a job being a builder in the Xth century! As it was late in the day, we took a taxi to the top and after roaming the ramparts, we strolled down through the centuries-old gardens to where thousands of locals were enjoying Sunday drinkies in the town centre's many bars and restaurants. We happily joned them.

The eroded cliffs at the cape and extraordinary rock formations at Peniche proved a worthwhile deviation. And quite by accident, we stumbled upon Nazaré, a beachside resort town with a fenicular cable car to the top of the cliff and its old original town perched high above the Atlantic with views to die for.

We stayed a couple of nights in Aveiro, another interesting town, where we found a hotel equal to any. From there, we visited Porto, Portugal's second city, the easy way — by train and bus. Porto is huge and has some amazing buildings as well as numerous stunning bridges across the Douro river. However, the highlight naturally, was a visit to a Port vintner's caves, with tastings of course!

We loved Portugal and our sojourn there was all too brief. It is certainly worthy of a more extensive return visit some time in the future. Everything, except diesel, is cheaper — and best of all, there's no dog shit! Tick...

And so back into Spain. Next stop, Santiago de Compostela.