John: Well we’re now in Lisbon. Immediately before Lisbon we went to Porto which is the home
of the official port wine industry. We went to the Graham’s winery cellar door
… well it’s a bit grand to be called a cellar door … has a restaurant and great
views of the Duoro and Porto … and did the tour … which was mostly notable for
the superior driving skills displayed by our driver piloting the coach through
very narrow gaps between the buildings on the site … as to the rest … if you’ve
seen one winery you’ve seen them all … and sampling the “real thing” in country
doesn’t improve it as a drink in any way.
So far after an uneventful, if long, train ride from
Santiago to Madrid we’ve seen Segovia, Toledo, Avila, Salamanca, Porto, Fatima,
Obidos and Lisbon. I can safely say that I am now utterly confused as to what
happened and where we were on any one day. This may be partly caused by us
settling down in the Plaza Major in Salamanca on a warm evening for an hour or
so and knocking off a couple of bottles of Verdeloj … or Verdelho in English …
followed by another one over dinner … and a G&T to finish the night and us.
All of these smaller towns are ancient strong points, so
they all have stone walls in various states of repair which generally date from
roman times … and they all have castles or citadels (brown) … and cathedrals
(grey) and religious houses (white or grey). We’ve mostly toured the old parts
of these places which are very crowded because people wanted to live inside the
walls and this has meant narrow streets … the main road in old Toledo is about
the width of the road outside my place … and 3-4 storey buildings … no lifts … and
organic layouts with limited street signs so its not necessarily wise to stray
too far off the path. So its all a bit
of a brown, grey and white blur at the moment.
Lisbon is nice and has some impressive buildings but its
clearly doing it tough. The guide today said that the average annual wage for
somebody without a college degree is $15,000 … presumably US dollars although
she may have meant Euros anyway its not much compared to Australian wages and
prices are … high or so we were told … we’ve been to the Supermercado’s as they
call them in Spain but only to buy staples … water, alcohol and potato chips.
Porto and Lisbon seem a bit down at heel compared to Spain … but then it’s a
much smaller country and probably less able to cope with the outcomes of the
GFC.
We seem to be being encouraged to shop in all of the places
we stop … there is probably only an hour of actual sightseeing, as distinct
from ambling past the souvenir stalls, you can actually do in the smaller
places and they usually arrange the stop so you can have lunch or an coffee and
use the loos … bus has a toilet but nobody seems game to use it … I’m not
actually sure how you would fit in it, it seems smaller than an airline toilet
… we’ve been asked to save it for an emergency … because they can’t necessarily
empty the tank and we have to carry it with us. Some of the ladies on the tour
seem keen shoppers … but most of the larger stores and brands seem well
represented in Australia and I haven’t seen anything that I like well enough to
bring home. Fatima has an over-abundance
of souvenir shops as well as a Coles and Woolies size supermarket selling
Christian artefacts … and it was crowded. All the stuff for sale is pretty much
the same … nearly bought a miniature model of a super bull … while Bull in a
superman cape … in Toledo but it was 20 euros and I thought that excessive.
We’ve been trying the local foods as we go and today …
somewhere on the Portuguese “Riveria” we had the “genuine” piri piri chicken
which was half a charcoal grilled chicken with a chilli infused oil …
apparently quite unlike the Nando’s version … I’ll have to try it to compare
when I get home. Spanish and Portuguese food is not very spicy … todays food
was the hottest I think we’ve had … its not chilli hot like some Asian food.
Competition for the tourist food dollar is fierce … with most restaurants
having spruikers out front waylaying customers … it’s a bit like Kings Cross
but in daylight. Also very evident that restaurants liked/recommended by the
guides get a lot of business compared to others.
We were also promised a gawp at some of the houses of the
rich and famous but you couldn’t seem much from the coach … because the coast
faces the Atlantic and also for gawp-proofing most of the houses have wind
breaks … mounds covered with salt tolerant cacti and other plants in front of
them.
All of the towns, even Toledo, seem to have little trains …
by which I mean a car/ute made to look like a train towing trailers made to
look like carriages. The train in Leon was packed … the train in Toledo less so
… probably depends on the time of day and whether the tourists are on a guided
tour or not.
Seville tomorrow … at least I think its Seville … 06:00
start … having a holiday is tough work.
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