Yesterday we took a road trip into Portugal:
Today we rode burros to a little hamlet clomping over stones laid by Roman hands.
Tomorrow we leave this mountainous paradise for Seville.
Before we move on to our Portugal adventure lest it all seem like fun and games. . .the kids still do their homework every day, sibling squabbles still erupt and the adults fester for time alone. Remember the hand washing laundry gig? It still goes on daily.
I didn't get a shot of today's extravaganza but picture clothes hanging from 6 patio chairs, from trees, light fixtures, bushes and strung across Nani's trusty Rick Steve's clothes line that we've chided her about the whole trip. We haven't seen a single dryer since we hit Spain. The kids have learned to ring clothes like champs and have been enlightened about how DIRTY their clothes are when they wash them out themselves. Try hand washing your clothes (your parents will love it!) at home--- you may be surprised by many things.
We drove across the Portuguese border yesterday without any fanfare other than a small sign. No customs, no border to speak of, no passport check, nobody period. In 1985, a treaty was signed in Luxembourg that eliminated passport controls across a huge section of Europe, it's known as the Schengen Area. The European Union has been evolving for a long time, it is now comprised of 27 different countries. Our generation probably remembers the creation of the 'Euro' or common currency that was established in 1999 and is used in 17 countries. It means we were able to use the same money in Portugal that we do in Spain.
What wasn't abolished were languages! In Portugal Portuguese is still spoken so we did our best quickly learning how to say thank you fluently! Many, many people spoke English and if not, people that spoke Spanish came to our rescue. It made us realize how lucky we are to be relatively fluent in Spanish. I hope kids in the United States will start learning second and third languages early, early on like they do in Europe. Until then, try to find classes to learn a second language yourself. Sophia- Gigi misses Chinese class! The more people let our school districts know that foreign language acquisition is something we value the closer you can be to learning another language.
Ironically, as I was just about to post this I read that only 30% of Americans have their passports! 60% of Canadians do while a whopping 75% of United Kingdom citizens hold a passport. Invest in one. You won't be sorry. If you have one use it. You won't be sorry. My greatest memories of childhood are of traveling. They are memories that don't dim over time, they seem to grow stronger. I know that's not true for my daily life at home. Is it true for you? Save a little every day- Rick and I have been saving for this trip since before 11 year old Gigi was born. You don't have to spend 11 years saving for a 55 day trip for a family of 5. Take one child and one adult and go for a week. Start somewhere.
Enough of a rant and on to Portugal:
It felt old like Spain. here's two playing soccer with the crumbling castle walls right behind them.
It was not 11:30 when we saw this clock tower. As we stood staring at it we began to see the layers of the town right in front of us. Can you see what could have been old Minaret towers when the Moors were in control? Can you see the 'brick over' job by the Spanish? Gigi exclaimed, the Roman part is probably beneath it all and she's likely right.
Serpa was white, white, white like the Spanish towns we have been visiting. One neat difference was their use of arches and domes. The interior of their buildings held the wonderful surprise of high domed ceilings painted in ochers and greens---they were stunning.
Serpa held all sorts of mysterious touches.
A 13th Century wall rings the city.
The 'new and the old' bump into each other literally. Cars actually make it through that passageway above (we parked outside the walls and hoofed it). In the picture below, see this gentleman working his garden. The stone wall behind him is the castle-fortress.
Even the adults enjoyed the freedom. There's Rick holding a catapult ball. Yikes! Not sure that was allowed!
Or this. . .
We found out today on the burro ride that a lot of the building we see all around us didn't include cement. Many times it's just dirt holding up all those stones.
There's nothing but a 50 foot drop between Gigi and the ground.
On the steps up here's one deference to safety! There was about a 100 foot drop on the other side.
Here's are the troops in an open tower nook. See how the step is so high it almost reaches Gigi's knee.
The kids ran all along the parapet walk. Don't know what that is (I had to look up the name)?
Check out this castle site. I linked you to the 'parts of a castle' but there's tons to explore for yourself. If you know of any great castle sites let us know.
Two other amazing things happened during our trip to Serpa. Just before entering the castle I noticed this scene; I had fallen behind. (Do you see the big falling castle wall in the background?) You're seeing an excavation site.
A group of archeologists and anthropologists were excavating bodies that had been buried in front of the church. They had exhumed 125+ bodies that were from Medieval times up to more 'recent' times. There is no information about the people. The city wants to put in a plaza so the bodies will all be removed. If you want to learn more about archeology, castles, ancient peoples and so on try starting here.
This is what we passed under to reach the castle.
The other amazing experience we had was. . . our meal. We ate in a family restaurant (our waiters looked like identical twins!) that has been around for 41 years. I know we sound like a broken record- we can't believe the food can keep being so spectacular. Everything from this restaurant's bread to the beautiful tapas (one dish was a scrumptious local delicacy made of black-eyed peas) from our meal to our outstanding dessert (a yellow sponge cake drizzled with honey and stewed plums) was out of this world. One of the remarkable things was the quantity; our group puts a lot of food away and we couldn't eat it all.
Here are the tapas: they are all free. One is a local hand-made cheese, the other jamon iberico, green olives, sumptuous bread, and the black-eyed pea salad.
Here we are trying to fathom how we're going to eat all of this food.
This is the main plaza (our restaurant is off on the left).
One of the brochures for Serpa said that the town had peaked during Roman times, as hard as that is to fathom that idea, we could understand it. The town was filled with elderly. More old ladies than we can count opened their doors and peered out into to the cobbled lane as we passed by; others leaned out windows passing the time. We hardly saw any young people.
Right now Portugal is hurting. It's economy has been described as 'very scary', it may have to seek a 'bailout' from its European neighbors. It's economy is shrinking. . . fast. As we walked the narrow lanes Tata pointed out that they were largely named for Marquis' and Friars. As we looked around at the whitewashed buildings, their ancient tiles, and their doors Tata said something very profound.
Some of the doors were TINY!
Tata said, 'Where is all the wealth Portugal brought from Africa? From Brazil?' I replied, 'Tata that was hundreds of years ago.' With a twinkle he said, 'What you're also seeing is the legacy of what happens when you put most of the money into the hands of very few.' Take a look at Portugal's history. We've been pummeled by seeing the fall of the Roman's and the fall of the Moors but modern times are providing us with a LOT of examples of countries who are in great transition.
When we were in Priego de Cordoba a fellow named Joaquin helped lead us to our guesthouse. As he set out to leave he grabbed my arm and said, 'Is your country really fighting to take away healthcare for all? Will it happen?' I told him I didn't know what would happen. He said, 'Here in Spain, everyone has healthcare.' I will report that we were all shocked that an antibiotic that costs over $100 (WITH INSURANCE) cost us around $5 here in Spain. No system is perfect but it's worth studying the past to see what works and what doesn't.
Surprises were to be found everywhere in Portugal.
Our hope is that Portugal surprises the world and weathers its tough economic times without too much distress to its citizens. Try to keep track of what happens, right now in February the experts really don't know what will happen. Greece and Ireland ended up having to except huge sums of money and will be forced to make really hard decisions on what services they can provide its people, will Portugal follow?
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