I hope to return to Portugal and there’s at least one place, other than Lisbon, I want to revisit.
That’s Evora between Albufeira and Cascais. Not so much because of the town’s Roman ruins …
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… but an eatery I want to try, the Restaurante Guião on the Rua da Republica.
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I particularly want to sample the ‘Cod that Never Enough’.
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And after what doubtless will be a splendid repast, I hope there’ll be a concert at Evora’s marvellous 19th century bandstand.
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Among the places I enjoyed, but once was sufficient, is Nazaré, renowned for monster waves and surfing …
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..,. however, not when I visited, although I did like this shot of a fishing boat just offshore …
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… and I had an excellent ham, cheese and honey tosta. Yum!
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I really enjoyed the 18th century Palácio Nacional de Queluz …
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… filled with the usual stuff one finds in European palaces - this is Prince Miguel de Bragança (1802-1866).
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But what really captivated me was one queen's mahogany, marble and bronze early 19th century commode.
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It brought back happy memories of seeing Queen Victoria’s bathroom when I was an impressionable teenager. Wow! The old girl used a toilet like everyone else. One of life’s important lessons.
Lord Byron called the hilltop town of Sintra (or Cintra) a ‘glorious Eden’.
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A place of mansions, castles and royal connections.
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I quite liked the story of Edward VII who, when Prince of Wales …
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… came to Sintra in 1876:
‘(He) visited Cintra with the king (of Portugal), where they rode up … on donkeys … In Cintra His Royal Highness bought a donkey …’ (They Went to Portugal, Rose Macaulay, 1946)
However, the purchase resulted in local concern about the donkey’s fate:
‘What would he feel, poor burro, idle, melancholy and expatriate, at the English court?’What the devil do these people want me for? he would wonder, ‘For the Epsom Races?’
In memory of the donkey, who was named Principe de Galles (Prince of Wales), here’s a 19th century lithograph of one of the donkey’s Portuguese relatives.
And finally Fatima, but only as it was on the route.
I learned the prayer area in front of the shrine is twice the size of St. Peter’s Square in Rome …
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… saw a lot of tacky souvenirs …
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… but quite liked the modern stained glass.
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