Introduction to Portugal in Lisbon

Marco Polo was not the first Westerner to visit China.  In fact, his father and uncle had apparently spent quite a bit of time there.  When they returned to Venice from an extended business trip, they met 15-year-old Marco for the first time.

They brought the teenager along with them as an apprentice in the mercantile trade on their next voyage.

Marco's subsequent 24-year journey throughout Asia became the basis for his journal, "Book of the Marvels of the World," which came to be called "The Travels of Marco Polo."

Dictated to his cellmate while imprisoned upon his return to Venice, that chronicle turned out to be one of the most influential books ever written.

Just as Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan and the Beatles encouraged my generation to pick up guitars and start garage bands, Marco Polo's adventures inspired exploration of the world.

Nowhere did his stories resonate more than in Portugal, perched on the edge of the vast Atlantic Ocean near the entrance to the Mediterranean.

Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator launched the Age of Discovery.

In the year 1415, at the age of 21, Prince Henry encouraged his father, King John I, to capture the Moroccan port of Ceuta on  the African side of the narrow Straight of Gibraltar.  Ceuta harbored Barbary Pirates who harassed trading vessels.

The Barbary Pirates also regularly raided the Portuguese coast, capturing villagers to be sold into the African slave trade, so this was much more than a generic policing action for the exclusive benefit of sea-going merchants.

The Moors, of course, had previously conquered Portugal, beginning with an invasion of Iberia in 711 A.D, including the fall of Christian Lisbon in 714, so I guess they felt that turn about was fair play.

The Christian "Reconquista" actually began in 718, but the Muslims held Portugal until the Second Crusade, when Crusaders turned at least some of their attention from the Holy Lands to help liberate predominantly Catholic Iberia.

While Spain would not completely return to Christian control until 1492, the Siege of Lisbon in 1147 liberated Portugal (except the Algarve, which later became part of Portugal).

Clearing out the enemy pirate's nest of Ceuta freed seafaring Portugal to explore the Canary Islands, the east coast of Africa and beyond.

Henry the Navigator, being the fourth son of King John I, was never destined to be king, but on May 25, 1420, he was appointed to what in-my-mind was a more significant position: Grand Master of the Military Order of Christ, the Portuguese version of the Knights Templar.

This authority provided him with substantial financial resources for exploration.

When his father died, Henry's eldest brother, Edward of Portugal, took the throne.  Edward granted Prince Henry exclusive rights to trading profits from all lands he "discovered."

Needless to say, Henry was highly motivated to explore the world for God, Portugal and personal reward.

Interestingly, Henry himself wasn't actually a navigator or even a sailor.  It may have been fortuitous that he wasn't, because it forced him to share the bounty with those who could perform these essential functions.

Henry funded not only the explorations but the underlying education required to accomplish his lofty goals.

Before long, the small country of Portugal rose to the forefront of cartography, navigation and seamanship, attracting other explorers for decades to come.  Among these adventurers was young Italian Christopher Columbus, who took a Portuguese bride but was unable to convince the crown to back his bold endeavor to find a west bound route to the East Indies.

Despite missing that golden opportunity, Portugal soon became the wealthiest nation in Europe.

In 1498, just six years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrived by sea into Calicut, India, having sailed around the southern tip of Africa.

The distance covered in the first true ocean route to Asia was the longest sea voyage to that point in history, and in fact covered a distance greater than the circumference of the world.

Opening this trade route for Asian spices including cinnamon and pepper gave Portugal a virtual monopoly in Europe on those commodities for decades.

Famed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan later planned and led an expedition funded by Spain that circumnavigated the globe and actually reached Columbus's destination, the East Indies (Spice Islands), by sailing west, but Magellan was killed in battle in the Philippines before personally completing the circumnavigation that his ship completed after his death and for which he is generally credited by history.  He did sail east to the Spice Islands around Africa through the Indian Ocean on a previous trip, so over his lifetime he did essentially sail around the globe, but not all in one voyage.

The Catholic Church would eventually attempt to divide the New World between Portugal and Spain exclusively.

While other countries wouldn't abide by that edict, Portugal nonetheless accumulated an impressive empire, controlling vast territories including Brazil, a country almost ten times as large as Portugal, which it ruled until 1822.

However, all was not "sugar and spice" in the mercantile world.  A significant portion of Portugal's treasure came from exploiting the African slave trade.  That despicable enterprise had flourished for centuries before direct involvement by Portugal and other European countries, and it's impossible to judge history by modern standards of conduct, but I think most agree God would not be happy with His children in bondage.

When disaster struck on November 1, 1755, many in the devoutly Catholic country of Portugal, which undoubtedly attributed much of its success to the favor of God, probably believed that to be the wrath of God for their sins.

The fact that one of the most destructive calamities in history unfolded on one of their holiest of holidays, All Saints Day, would have factored into that conclusion.

An earthquake estimated to have been a magnitude of nine on the Richter Scale struck at 9:40 AM on that holiday and lasted for about five minutes.  Chasms 16 feet wide opened in downtown Lisbon.

As buildings crumbled, survivors hurried away from the city center to open areas along the coast, where they found another eerie sight.  The ocean receded dramatically, revealing past shipwrecks and lost treasures, undoubtedly including booty from the New World.

Surfers can probably guess what happened next.  A tsunami brought huge waves that not only reclaimed the harbor but washed over the hills of the city, wreaking more havoc.

With it being All Saints Day, candles had been lit all over town in remembrance of the dearly departed, and between the earthquake and tsunami shaking floors and walls, many candles fell over, resulting in fires that engulfed what remained of the city in flames.

By the time it was over, 85% of Lisbon had been destroyed, and an estimated 40,000 people died in that city alone.

An event this large did not limit damage to Lisbon.  Much of Portugal was ravaged, as were parts of Spain and Morocco.  Earthquake shocks were felt as far away as Finland, and tsunami waves hit the Caribbean and Brazil.

When we stepped out of the metro tunnel in Lisbon for the first time, however, we did not find rubble. 

Instead, we saw a beautiful historic city, with wide streets and tree-shaded walkways paved in exquisite stone pavers.

Back to 1755, after attending Mass on that fateful All Saints Day, King Joesph I, at the urging of his daughter, had taken his family away from the throngs of celebrants in Lisbon for the peaceful countryside, so despite that city and other areas of the wealthy country having been devastated, there was government leadership that survived to maintain a sense of order.

The Marquis de Pombal had also survived.  He emerged as the primary hero of the disaster, taking command in the chaos with common sense solutions.  Putting aside conventional Catholic concerns for proper burials, the Marquis directed citizens to gather the dead to be buried at sea before disease germinated in the rotting corpses.  He prioritized rescue operations by fire fighters and other government workers.  He pressed civilians to stay and help, under threat of punishment when necessary.  The army built gallows to make it clear that looting would not be tolerated.

In the aftermath of the crisis, four possible plans were presented to rebuild the city, including one to reassemble the ruins on the original footprint, which would have been cheapest and easiest.  The King instead chose a bold plan to build a modern city, free of the limitations of the past, with forty-foot wide streets to accommodate newer modes of transportation, and the popular Marquis de Pombal took charge of the massive reconstruction project.

The beautiful Pombaline Downtown built under his direction utilized "caging," a method by which wood is used to make the structures more earthquake-resilient.

In 1761, the Marquis de Pombal, who was the equivalent of Prime Minister of Portugal from 1750 through 1777, oversaw the abolition of slavery in his country.  As to whether that can be attributed directly to the Earthquake of 1755 is uncertain, but it certainly was part of his modern reforms and his underlying embrace of the Age of Enlightenment.

Many contemporary philosophers including Kant and Voltaire wrote about the Earthquake of 1755 as a seminal event of the era.

Pombal Square, featuring a massive statue of the Marquis, was only 164 feet from our accommodations in Lisbon, the comfortable Dom Carlos Park Hotel.  There's also a Metro station right at Pombal Square, which itself is at the center of a major round-about, making our hotel very convenient.

The hotel staff served us courteously throughout our stay, beginning from the moment we checked in before noon and they stored our bags, delivering them to our room when it became available, while we were out and about.  Our contemporary room and the hotel's chic community spaces were immaculately clean and attractive.  The breakfast buffet purchased in our Travel Bound reservation featured a variety of delicious foods.

The most memorable feature of the hotel was an honor bar.  We particularly enjoyed the sweet, smooth Port wine available for only four Euro per serving during the evening, providing an easy place to unwind at the end of long days exploring the greater Lisbon region.

Sintra, My Way?

"Lo! Cintra's glorious Eden intervenes 

In variegated maze of mount and glen.
Ah me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen,
To follow half on which the eye dilates
Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken
Than those whereof such things the bard relates,
Who to the awe-struck world unlocked Elysium's gates?"

--- Lord Byron

Having flown through the night --- or was it the day? ---  including two plane changes to arrive in Lisbon before noon, my thought was that nothing could be finer than to be a sidewalk diner sipping cappuccino under an umbrella, transitioning to a light lunch with local wine before returning to Dom Carlos Park Hotel for a siesta, subsequently finding a quaint restaurant for some local cuisine.

As Jacques Pépin would say at a cooking demonstration later in our trip, "To stay happily married, we came to an agreement long ago.  When we disagree, we do what my wife wants, but when we agree, we do what I want."

So, after changing into shorts in the hotel's restrooms and packing our airport clothes in our stored luggage, we strolled down the tree-shaded avenue in search of the train station for a day trip to Sintra.

As Frank Sinatra --- note the "a" in the middle of the crooner's name that differentiates it from that of the quaint town in Portugal --- once sang, "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention."

Once again, I found myself enjoying the day even if it wasn't as the result of doing it my way.  As with La Rambla in Barcelona, downtown Lisbon turned out to be a nice place to ramble.

After stopping for directions at a Metro station and receiving additional help from friendly locals, we navigated to the correct train station, discovering we had twenty minutes to spare after buying the 4.5 Euro roundtrip tickets.

So, we agreed to ingest some caffeine, in this case Lipton Peach Iced Tea at a small cafe in the station.

On the sleek, modern train, a nice couple from Calgary sat down in the seats facing ours, and we enjoyed conversing about Lisbon, their trip and our upcoming cruise.

No conversation would be complete without bragging about our kids, and despite having no children themselves, they must have found ours to be as fascinating as we do, right?

When we arrived in Sintra about an hour later, we found the sidewalks bustling with tourists.  The problem with beautiful, easily accessible villages in this prosperous age is that almost inevitably the quaint charms that made them famous in simpler times tend to be elusive.

By the time we traipsed to the corner, we decided we were too tired to walk much further, so we headed back to the train station to buy 20 Euro tickets for the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus.

For the same ticket price, we could choose the long tour, the short tour or both, but we just took the first bus so we could sit down.  It turned out to be the short tour, and with the furnished earbuds in place and the English channel selected, we listened to a recorded narration about the history of Sintra as we rolled up the hill to the castle.

We snapped some photos, but didn't hop off until we reached Castelo dos Mouros, the ancient fortress constructed by the Moors between the 8th and 11th Century.  It's a scenic place to hike around hillside parklands.

The Castle of the Moors had been pretty much abandoned and allowed to go to seed until the Palácio da Pena, a romantic era re-imagination of a medieval castle, was constructed in the 19th Century for Portugal's King Fernando II on the site of an old monastery.

"I know Italy, Sicily, Greece and Egypt, and I have never seen anything, anything, to match the Pena. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen...the Castle of the Holy Grail."

--- Opera composer Richard Strauss, not to be confused with Waltz King, Johann Strauss

Reportedly, this should be the highlight of Sintra, but Julie preferred the authentic fortress set among forest-like grounds for what turned out to be our one hop-off site, and while the Pena was only a short hike away, I was frankly too tired to push for it.

The entire area has wonderful architectural design set around sprawling countryside featuring diverse plants imported from around the world to be cultivated in the rich soil in harmony with Sintra's ideal climate.  It seemed a bit overgrown in some places, but I could easily imagine how it must have looked when properly pruned and spruced up for dignitary visits.

Upon boarding another bus, I found myself nodding off pretty frequently as we drove the balance of the short route and then changed buses to take the long route around Sintra, so I can't say I was chomping at the bit to do more.

I stayed awake long enough to hear that many Romantic Era composers and writers praised Sintra as the most beautiful, enchanting place in the world.

Lord Byron wrote, "I must just observe that the village of Cintra in Estremadura is the most beautiful perhaps in the world."

Hans Christian Anderson wrote, "All foreigners will be able to find a piece of their homeland in Sintra. I discovered Denmark there. But I thought I rediscovered many beloved pieces of other beautiful lands."

I also heard the name Christopher Columbus when we reached a rocky point by the ocean, where the intrepid explorer may have crashed in a storm on his way back on one voyage.

In any case, upon being dropped off at the station, we immediately caught the train back to Lisbon.  Too tired to walk back up the tree-lined boulevard to our hotel, we hopped the underground Metro and were at the Pombal Square Station by our hotel in a few minutes.  We found our bags had already been placed in our room by the accommodating staff at the Dom Carlos Park Hotel.

Time for some specialties of Portugal....or the 5 Euro Combo Meal at Burger King that came with both a double cheeseburger, chicken sandwich, fries and soda.  If you know Julie, you know we went with the latter --- and split it --- but on the walk back to our hotel, we agreed to do what I wanted, stopping at a bakery/bistro for one of their world famous custard tarts, which cost about a Euro and was quite tasty.

Finding the honor bar at the hotel meant we didn't need to go any further for a glass of rich, smooth Port before bed.

Chilling Out at Belém Tower

One of the most famous landmarks in Portugal is Belém Tower, so of course that was on our must-see list.

After our prior day's extensive guided tour featuring several stops rich in history, however, a more leisurely morning sounded good to us.

As you probably have heard me say if you ever asked me about shore excursions, you should always mix them up, or the ports you visit can blend together.  Create distinct memories everywhere you go.

We'd seen wonderful church interiors in Fátima,  Batalha and Nazaré.  In addition, we knew several more amazing Cathedrals lay ahead on our itinerary.

When our short train ride brought us to Belém, we found a long line of tourists waiting outside the entrance to Jerónimos Monastery, a truly spectacular, gargantuan church.  Any thoughts we had about going inside were soon rationalized away.

We chose to roam around taking photos of the exterior rather than standing in line to do something that might blur with other experiences of Portugal.

We did catch a glimpse of a handful of interior features by stepping inside the ticket office for the Archaeology Museum but soon were on our way.

Meandering in the general direction of  Belém Tower, we strolled along sprawling green-lawn parks punctuated by lovely fountains and monuments dedicated to explorers. 

It would be a beautiful area even if it had not included those two UNESCO World Heritage sites.

As we crossed a bridge, the Tower came into clear view.

By now, we were thirsty, and rather than cheaping-out to buy drinks from one of the modestly priced street vendors, we instead went to a nearby cafe with shaded tables that gave us the perfect view of Belém Tower while we took our refreshments.

It gave me the opportunity to sample one of the fine beers of Portugal.  Trying local beers has become my custom when visiting new countries, much in the same way Russell Crowe's Gladiator rubs the local dirt on his hands and smells it before his battles, drawing strength from his connection to the soil.

Sagres Cerveja is a pale lager with 5% alcohol content, similar to an American lager like Coors Banquet Beer.  It makes a refreshing beer on a hot, sunny day.  Appropriate to the history of Portugal, the logo of Sagres includes a stylized Crusader cross in a shield.

While nothing dramatic, simply sipping beer in the shade at the ideal cafe table while taking in the view of Belém Tower was a highlight for me.

I can't say I was thinking much about history at the time, but of course I would look it up later.

In the late 15th Century, King João II embraced the idea of defensive fortifications at the mouth of the Tagus River for the increasingly wealthy city of Lisbon in the burgeoning Age of Discovery.

The Tower commissioned by King João II was completed under his successor, King Manuel, who lends his name to the distinctive Portuguese Manueline architectural style of the era.

Jerónimos Monastery, like Belém Tower, is another prime example of the Manueline Architectural style.  It was built on the site of a decrepit church where Vasco da Gama prayed and slept before embarking on his historic voyage to India past the Cape of Good Hope and then around the southern tip of Africa.

It was the first voyage to link Europe with Asia by a sea route, which you may recall as being the objective of Christopher Columbus, among many others.

Explorations did not stop with Asia, of course.

In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral explored the northern Coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal.  He is considered by most to have discovered Brazil (though of course indigenous people already lived there regardless of which European got there first).

Brazil was a bountiful colony of Portugal until 1808, when it began to be elevated to being a nation within a kingdom.  In 1822, Brazil claimed independence.

Without feeling rushed, we strolled back to the train, switching to the Metro for a short ride to our hotel.  We picked up our bags and re-boarded the Metro in the direction of the cruise port.  Taking a Metro with luggage and then walking a few hundred yards isn't the ideal way to get to a cruise ship, but in this case, it worked out well, because we came to a wine store at the port.

Most cruise lines allow you to bring one bottle of wine per adult to enjoy in your room, and Oceania allows you to bring three bottles per room.  We had our hands full with luggage, however, so two bottles --- Rosado (rosé) for Julie and Tinto (red) for me --- would have to do.

Our ship happened to be at a new terminal under construction, so we were forced to walk a bit out of our way.  In the only negative we found about Oceania, the security to get on the ship seemed slow compared to a similar cruise line, Azamara Club Cruises, and more like a large ship.

However, I think we just happened to arrive at the time that almost everyone else did, which can happen anywhere.  The line behind us got progressively shorter.  In addition, it usually is primarily port personnel, not the cruise line, that controls this process.

Before too long, we were on board enjoying an amazing meal at the buffet.  Our room was beautiful, as we expected, with the marble bathroom that included a bath tub and separate shower a particular treat.

As we cruised from Lisbon and passed Belém Tower, Enrichment Lecturer Terry Bishop shared commentary over the PA system.  As happens everywhere, several folks were more interested in carrying on their personal conversations than learning about the area, and that is certainly their prerogative.  Fortunately, I was able to find a spot right by Terry in order to hear him more clearly.

He told us about Padrão dos Descobrimentos, a beautiful monument to what we might call Portugal's All Stars of Exploration.  Julie and I had passed it on our walk along the waterfront back to the train station from Belém Tower.

This concrete Monument of the Discoveries is a relatively new project, inaugurated in 1960 and based on the original design from a smaller temporary exhibit for the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940.  As an aside, it is always strange to me to think about how life continues to go on even when a world war rages on.

Among the people represented by statues on the monument are many whose stories we touched upon during our time in Portugal, like Henry the Navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, Queen Philippa of Lancaster, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Vasco da Gama. 

Needless to say, if you have the opportunity to cruise from Lisbon, I strongly recommend spending a few days there before boarding.

Belém