Skip to main content

Portugal is Beautiful

 Whilst I am not an Instagrammer or whatever those in that part of the Gen Z demo are called I do like to capture thoughts in this medium of a blog .. mostly to impress on me what I did when I was a wee lad in my fifties.. assuming I make it few more decades and have the desire to look back in time..

This new year eve we left America to visit the southern tip of continental Europe in the form of a country visit to Portugal.

At the end of what is called the Iberian peninsula sits this nation of 10 million inhabitants straddling the Atlantic Ocean on its west and south shores. Shaped like and in many ways similar to our former home in California this is a fourth in geographic size and population to the largest state in America. It too is longish and sits along an ocean.

It too has a wine region except it is known for producing some fine sweet kind called Port.  Grapes are harvested in the Douro River valley in the area called Porto.  Used to ferment and then process halted with a grape brandy that adds alcohol and also raises the sugar content in the beverage so produced.  Some fine drinking that.  Got ourselves a bottle when we went there.  So for context the 3 big(ish) cities we hit up were Lisbon, also called Lisboa in lingua franca there and capital city in the central part of the country, followed by trip north to Porto (wine region); followed by a trip to the south coast in a sleepy hamlet called Armacao de Pera.

Latter was the sight of some spectacular limestone cliffs and caves right on the ocean.  Some pictures follow..


Happy new year 2023! Lisbon waterfront along Tegas river



remnants of Xmas celebrations




there is an underground movement too with lovely metro services running to various parts of the city



Main Train and bus station - Oriente





Plaza Commercia (large town square)


Great explorer of the 15th century who found India on a voyage lies here





fresh prawns from the sea

Porto in pictures - lovely vistas along the Douro river


Luiz bridge




Armacao de Pera in pictures..



Benegil caves approach by boat only



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
2 comments
Read more