Southern Portugal isn't perfect, but it offers a lot to like
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If you need a place to hide out during the fall and approaching winter, why not Portugal? The weather is mild, a definite plus for those of us who live in Germany.
We flew into Lisbon and spent a few days there, including last Christmas, before heading for the Algarve. In tourist season, the Algarve would be impossible, but we figured it would be pretty well deserted at this time of year, and it was … except for the occasional Brits on holiday.
The Algarve is a land of great scenic beauty and mild weather, and was greatly beloved by the Moorish conquerors. Any Spanish or Portuguese word that begins with “al” is likely Moorish, so architecture and cuisine are not the only legacies they left behind them when the locals drove them out.
But before we head to the Algarve, I must briefly sidetrack with my favorite side trips.
Day tripping
Since we had a couple of days to kill in Lisbon, we made some memorable day trips. My favorite was to Alcobaca, land of peaches and of a monument to King Pedro I’s morbid obsession.
Alcobaca is an attractive village with a small but striking 14th-century monastery. Pedro, heir of King Alfonso, was married to a cousin for political reasons but had a Spanish mistress named Ines, who was also his cousin. These royal shenanigans caused problems, as you will see.
Alfonso was concerned that Ines had too much influence over the future king, so he had her killed by some of his courtiers. Pedro was inconsolable, but he had a plan. When Alfonso died and Pedro became Pedro II years later, he had Ines disinterred, dressed in coronation robes and set on the throne for her coronation. He forced the noblemen to kneel to her and to kiss her rotted little hand.
Then he commissioned a tomb for each of them in the monastery at Alcobaca so that they could be together for eternity. These tombs are considered outstanding examples of Portuguese Gothic sculpture, and Ines’ effigy is quite beautiful. Pedro’s? Maybe it was all that inbreeding, but he doesn’t look so good.
I understand why he might have been forced to marry a cousin, but why couldn’t he have picked a girlfriend out of his gene pool? I wonder if the Spanish and Portuguese inbreeding encouraged the morbid fascination with corpses. Pedro had his dead queen, and Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella (also cousins), never traveled without her dead husband’s body. That is another story.
Another day trip from Lisbon was to Sintra, sort of in the mountains but within sight of the ocean and formerly a playground of the royal, rich and famous. Lord Byron said that to see Portugal and not see Sintra was to “verily go blindfold about,” or something like that.
Sintra has an air of decadence, with lovely pastel mansions, castles and crumbling villas. This would be a great place to stay for a few days just to soak up the vaguely sinister atmosphere and local color. Supposedly there is very little action and night life there, although who knows what goes on behind those walled gardens and gated homes?
Sintra also makes special cheesecakes the size of cookies. Of course, go on down the road and the next village has the same thing named for its village, but they are toothsome little tarts that are heavy on the cinnamon. If Lord Byron liked to hang out in Sintra, that is enough of a recommendation to me.
Last but not least of the day trips is Obidos. Back in the 13th century, King Dinis thought Obidos was such a cute village that he gave it to his queen as a wedding gift. It remains charming today, a medieval walled city with tiny, white houses that takes you back in time. Except for a few shops, there is nothing to suggest that anything has changed in the last 800 years or so, and the town is very small. One of the few shops sells an excellent cherry liqueur, bright red, almost painfully sweet, with the cherries still in the bottle. Free samples before you buy!
There is an amazing view from the city’s ramparts, if you can deal with the climb and what passes for steps — high, broken and narrow with no railings. I wanted something to hang on to so badly that I was crawling on my hands and knees.
OK, now back on track to the Algarve — much beloved by the Moors and now much beloved and polluted by sun-seeking tourists. Soon every square inch will be covered with atrocious condos and motels, so you’d better see it quickly.
The Algarve
We decided to try our luck with public transportation, since Portuguese trains, buses and taxis are relatively inexpensive here. The four-hour bus ride to the Algarve was pretty typical: lots of kids, noise, smoke and no toilet. But it was cheap.
We stayed a couple of days in Lagos, a mid-size city with beautiful cliffs and a rock formation called the Point of Piety. The Atlantic sea around Portugal is such a clear, vivid blue-green that it doesn’t look real. It looks like somebody just dumped a big bottle of blue food coloring into it. Everything looks like a postcard, and even my point-and-shoot photos came out beautifully.
Lagos is a nice, walking-around town with a huge, covered market. It has buildings covered in blue and green tiles that are a Portuguese specialty.
Ornate, individualized ceramic chimneys in every possible design and color are also big business in Portugal. They are cute but hard to fit in a suitcase.
Figs and almonds are Algarve specialties and available all year. Unfortunately, so is Portugal’s favorite food — dried, salted codfish. I first noticed this stuff in the Lagos market, and wondered about the source of the horrible stench. It was coming from the planks of codfish. Supposedly the Portuguese prize their national delicacy and have at least 365 ways to prepare it — with spinach, hard-boiled eggs, and so on — but who wants to know?
We took a local train from Lagos to Tavira, which the concierge in Lisbon assured us was a quaint and typical village in the Algarve. This was right after Christmas and there was nothing going on anywhere, especially on a weekend. Everything was closed, the hotel was several miles out of town, and it started to rain.
As it turned out, we were the only residents of this large resort hotel — I don’t know if it opened out of season in our honor or stayed open in the hope that someone might pass by. It was pretty spooky, and the bus back to town only ran a couple of times a day. Tavira was sort of cute, with a river running through it — hence, its “Little Venice” nickname. It was deader than a doornail and the only cheery sight for me was a giant supermarket, which was open on Sundays!
The Algarve is beautiful, with its jagged coastline, white-sand beaches and teal-blue waters. The weather was decent for December, no jacket required until it turned cooler and drizzly toward the end.
Food? I wasn’t optimistic after seeing the codfish planks. If you weren’t into pork or codfish, the choices were limited. I did have one good meal of fresh salmon. Probably any fresh fish is a good choice.
Desserts were not to my taste, either: very sweet but very “eggy.”
Dining tip: Watch out for the “coverts,” plates of not-so-appetizing appetizers with which the waiter will cover the table before you order. Each starter has a price, even bread, and if you don’t tell him to take them away, you will be charged, likely much more than they are worth.
Wine was not as great as I expected, although I probably used to think that Mateus Rosé was good because of the cute bottle. The vinho verde (green wine), which is a very young wine, is pleasant — sort of like a wine cooler.
The beer was pretty good, especially Sagres, named after the cape where Prince Henry the Navigator had his laboratory. No wonder I was drinking more beer — it was better than the food!
I particularly recall the night that we walked to a little café that was the only place within miles of the Tavira hotel: I kept seeing people coming in and then leaving with long boxes that resembled florists’ boxes for long-stemmed roses. I was sitting by a window to another room, which was dark, although I could see some objects that looked like little feet.
As I scrutinized them, I saw they were connected to dead piglets, which were piled up like kindling by the window, waiting to become the take-out special: roasted suckling pig. I swear I saw one of those feet move. I felt much worse about them than I did about the dried codfish. It was vegetable soup for me that night.
Having said some negative things about Portugal, I want to mention a few areas in which the country excels:
- Public restrooms: Portugal is bathroom heaven. They are free, abundant and scrupulously clean with normal fixtures and soft, white toilet paper. There are bathrooms in supermarkets, malls, tourist sites and restaurants. Even the bathrooms in the train and bus stations were clean!
- Cable TV: There were so many channels in the hotels that I lost track. There are English, American, French, German, Italian and even Russian channels. The movies are run in the original language with subtitles, another big plus since they run lots of American movies.
- Scenery: Beautiful, crystal-blue water, tiled houses, fishing villages unspoiled by tourism, the geographical variety of mountains to sea to tropics.
There is a lot worth seeing and doing in Portugal, but try to go off-season and bring money. Rent a car and do Portugal and Spain together, and compare them for yourself.
Geraldine Russell is a guidance counselor at Larson Education Center in Kitzingen, Germany. You may e-mail her at geraldinerussell@hotmail.com.
