COLOMBIA: BOGOTA PART II (SHOPPING, PLAZA DE BOLIVAR, CITY STREETS, AND A SERENDIPITOUS MEET-UP)

 March 17, 2023

From the Botero Museum, we walked to an area where souvenir items are for sale on tables lining the street. This is the "Old Town," known in Bogotá as the Candelaria District, and it includes the foundation buildings of the city. Candelaria is Spanish for "Candlemas," a Christian holiday that commemorates the presentation of the baby Jesus at the temple.

On our way there, we passed this awesome three-wheeler that was selling, among other things, arroz con leche, or rice pudding.

The Nobel prize-winning novelist Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) is extremely popular in his home country of Colombia, as well he should be. There are many sites named for him, such as the cultural center in Bogotá that we walked by.

We also saw many artworks depicting "Gabo," as he is affectionately known in Colombia. He looks like someone I would want to know, at least in this painting!

There was a lot of art for sale, often copies of well-known works, such as Botero's Mona Lisa in the bottom right corner.

PORTUGAL: EVORA, PART I - ST. FRANCES CHURCH

 July 2, 2022

Évora, yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, was the last city on our list before returning to Lisbon, and there were a lot of things we wanted to see there. However, most of them were closed between 12:00 and 2:00 PM,  so after parking our car we took a crazy, zig-zagging 12-minute walk through streets, alleys, and staircases, guided by the GPS on our phone.

We arrived at the Igreja São Francisco, or the St. Francis Church, not quite sure how we had gotten there.

Built between 1475 and 1550, it is a huge Gothic church--although it doesn't look very Gothic on the outside, and the inside has Renaissance and Baroque styles as well. The vaulted nave is the largest of its kind in Portugal.

The main altar includes an impressive "wedding cake Jesus" crucifix.

PORTUGAL: SLEEPING IN FATIMA AND A TRIP TO ESTREMOZ

  July 1-2, 2022

After a long day of sightseeing, we were ready to dump our stuff at our hotel, grab a bite to eat, and go to bed. The only problem was that we couldn't find our hotel, the SDivine Fatima Hotel. Our GPS placed in in the center of a roundabout. We had to call the hotel twice for directions. We finally found it just off the roundabout on one of the many exits, but set back from the road with no visible signage.

We were still in the city of Fátima, and it was fun to see this azulejo depiction of the Visitation of Our Lady of the Rosary to the three shepherd children.

After unloading our luggage, we set out on foot to find something to eat. The only thing we found open was a butcher shop that made sandwiches and "toasts," or grilled sandwiches (kind of like paninis). The guy behind the counter spoke as much English as I spoke Portuguese, so we had a pretty funny pantomime exchange. He gave us some meat and cheese samples to try, and we pointed at what we wanted. When Bob asked for mayonnaise for his sandwich, the butcher was horrififed, basically refusing. The sandwiches were good, at least my toastsed one with melted cheese oozing out the sides was!

We also shared some very good sausage and olives.

The next day we got off to an early start because we planned to cover a significant distance.

PORTUGAL: BRAGA

July 1, 2022

Our Braga accommodations, the Hotel Vila Galé, was about a five-mile drive from the Bom Jesus Basilica. At first we couldn't find it. The address led us to this building, which was clearly (we thought), a church and not a hotel:

Eventually, however, we noticed the hotel signs on the right end of the building.

We learned that our hotel was occupying a site that was originally the Hospital de São Marcos, established in the 1500s--similar in some ways to our hotel in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The Iberian people built incredible hospitals! The original building was expanded a few times over the centuries, and the building as it now appears served as a public hospital with a capacity of 521 active beds in 2007. It was vacated in 2011 in favor of a new, modern structure. In 2016 the Via Galé hotel group purchased the building, and in 2018 it opened as a four-star hotel. 

The hotel is enormous. Once we checked in at the front desk, we walked through a series of corridors for almost five minutes before reaching our room.

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART IV - ORDEM DO CARMO AND RIBEIRA

 June 28, 2022

We were nearing the end of our crazy, too-fast day in Porto, but we still had a couple of places on our list.

The first was Ordem do Carmo, or the Order of Carmo, a rococo church built between 1756 and 1768 as a convent for the Carmelite Order of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Like several other churches we saw in Porto, the exterior walls are covered in blue tiles that are not original to the structure but added in 1916.

 In this case, the tiles depict the history of the Carmelites.

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART III - CAPELA DAS ALMAS, IGREJA DE SANTO ILDEFONSO, MAJESTIC CAFE

 June 28, 2022

After lunch we made our way back to the more interesting part of town. When we passed the church on the left, I thought, Wow, how beautiful is that! But then we came up on the church on the right, Capela das Almas (Chapel of Souls). Oh. My. Goodness. 

Yeah, take a look at those tiles. How can you not be overwhelmed at the first site of THIS?

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART II - CATHEDRAL, CLERIGOS CHURCH AND BELLTOWER, AND A LUNCH DETOUR

 June 28, 2022

The Portuguese word Sé is used to mean "cathedral" or a diocese with a bishop. Typically, the word Sé is reserved for the main or ruling church of the community. 

We could see the Romanesque Sé do Porto, located on a hill in the middle of the historical city center, from all over town. 

On our way there, we passed the Fountain of Mouzinho da Silveira, built in 1875 as a monument to a Portuguese statesman who died in 1849. This landmark was dismantled in 1920 to make room for two businesses. In 1966, however, the businesses were gone and the fountain was reconstructed after a model of the original one. I'll bet it is beautiful when it has water in it (if it ever does).

Did you notice the cool reflection on the vehicle in the lower left corner of the photo above?

PORTUGAL: AVEIRO, THE (NOT) VENICE OF PORTUGAL

 June 27, 2022

Our last stop on a very full day was the city of Aveiro. Photos of the city that we saw online were beautiful, and we were excited to visit. However, Aveiro turned out to be the biggest dud of our trip.

First of all, we parked in an underground parking garage that at the end of the day we had a very hard time finding. We would learn more than once on this trip (or maybe we DIDN'T learn) that we need to pay more attention to where we leave our car. We rarely had main streets or grid-like streets to help us navigate. Luckily, I took a photo of the above-ground portion of the parking garage, which saved us in the end.

As we made our way from our parking spot on the hill down to the canals that the city is famous for, we passed some interesting sites. The sign on the left let us know that this city is on the pilgrimage trail to Spain's Santiago de Campostela Cathedral, a place we would visit in a few days.

Like every city we visited in Portugal, there were churches with beautiful azulejo tile facades and streets with intricate cobblestone patterns.

PORTUGAL: COIMBRA

 June 27, 2022

From Batalha we drove about an hour north-northeast to the university city of Coimbra, where we had a private tour scheduled. We had about an hour before we were supposed to meet our guide and were starving, so we found a parking place within walking distance of our meet-up point and conveniently located near the Café Santa Cruz. We lucked out because this café has been open since 1923 (although the building itself dates back to 1530) and is a Coimbra landmark. 

Photo from here

We arrived at lunchtime and the place was packed. They had a buffet-style set-up, and they couldn't keep the dishes stocked, so the line was moving pretty slowly. We paid 18€ for both of us, and that included drinks, and when we finally got through the line, we discovered that the food was quite good. The tables were full of what looked like university professors and students, and it was fun to be in that atmosphere.

Photo from here

Just outside and perpendicular to the restaurant was a wonderful "trash art" mural of a baby owl by the Portuguese artist Bordalo II. The left side is more or less traditional, its claws digging into an old wall, and the right sight is much more futuristic.

PORTUGAL: ALCOBACA, MONASTERY OF SANTA MARIA

 June 27, 2022

Our first stop of the day was only a seven-mile drive from Nazaré--the city of Alcobaça, and more specifically, the Monastery of Santa Maria. The church that is the centerpiece of the monastery was built by order of the first king of Portugal to commemorate a victory over the Moors in 1147 and as a gift for the Cistercian Order (a Benedictine branch) under Bernard of Clairvaux. It took 76 years to complete the cathedral, and another 60 or so to add on the cloister. They are the first Gothic buildings in Portugal, and the church itself was the largest in Portugal at the time of its completion (and still is). The complex was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.

The central church facade dates to 1702.

The interior was completed in 1269. The church was consecrated for the monks and the public was not permitted to enter until the 18th century. 

The dramatic nave is over 325 feet long.

The best things in the monastery are the twin tombs of Pedro I of Portugal (called both "Pedro the Just" and "Pedro the Cruel"), who died in 1367, and his mistress, Inês de Castro. The story of their affair is a little long, but worth your time.

PORTUGAL, LISBON: NATIONAL AZULEJO MUSEUM AND THE TIME OUT MARKET

 June 24, 2022

We had a little extra time before dinner and decided to visit something that was on our "B List" for Lisbon: the National Azulejo Museum. Azulejo is the Portuguese word for "tile," and as the word is used in Lisbon, it refers to a specific painted tin-glazed ceramic tile. Azulejos are everywhere in Portugal; in fact, they are probably the most iconic image of the country (at least for me). The Azulejo Museum houses one of the largest ceramics collections in the world.

If we make it back to Lisbon, I want to spend more time using the metro system. I've read that almost every station has a unique azulejo mural. 

The National Azulejo Museum was a nice blend of old and new. One of my favorite modern pieces is this whimsical blue bird with a terribly unimaginative name.

Wall Plate by Ellen Jensen (1977)

These are typical 18th century azulejos:

Gold framed azulejo: Devotional tile panel: Our Lady of Conception, St. Marcal,
St. Francis of Borjia, and Souls in Purgatory (1758)
Lower border azulejo: Ashlar with Hunting Scenes (c. 1740)

PORTUGAL, LISBON: LISBON CATHEDRAL

 June 24, 2022    

As we were walking up the never-ending hill to the Lisbon Cathedral, we approached the restaurant we had discovered by accident a few days before, the Restaurante Alpendre. Just seeing it made our mouths water and our tummies call out for a snack, so we stopped to see if their sardines were any better than they ones we had eaten at the festival in the park. They were.

As we were sitting there, who should walk by but the couple from England whom we'd met the previous day on our small group tour to Sintra, and whom we had seen earlier in the day when THEY were sitting outside a restaurant and WE were walking by. Bob ran out to say hello while I stayed at the table so the waiter didn't think we were ditching without paying the bill. We couldn't believe we saw our friends twice in one day in such a large city with so many tourist attractions.

After our little snack, we continued on to the cathedral.

The Lisbon Cathedral is the oldest and most important church in Lisbon. The original Romanesque church was built in 1147. During the next few centuries, several additions and renovations were completed. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake (estimated strength 8.5 to 9.0 on the Richter scale) and ensuing fires destroyed the main chapel, the cloisters, and many chapels. The cathedral was partially rebuilt in neoclassical and Rococo styles, and then fully restored in the early 20th century.

PORTUGAL, LISBON: CITY VIEWS AND THE CASTELO DE SAO JORGE (ST. GEORGE'S CASTLE)

 June 22, 2022

Feeling fortified by an excellent seafood meal, we continued what had turned out to be a much more lengthy and difficult "walk" to the St. George Castle than we anticipated.  Suddenly stops along the way to take in the view seemed unusually appealing. Of course, how could we say no to this view?

The large dome on the left is the Church of Santa Engrácia, one of the many churches we never made it to.

One of the building walls near the view area had this azulejo (glazed ceramic tile) depiction of Commerce Square, the large plaza facing the ocean we had seen at the beginning of our walk.

The bougainvillea was in bloom all over town. I'd like to copy this look in my backyard, right down to the real bird on the edge of the birdbath.

Still going uphill, we reached another large plaza with a large statue at the center.