Our first wedding anniversary - Sandeep & Sonali

Obrigado Portugal!

 This Easter vacation Portugal was the place to be for us!

Portugal, I believe, is one of the oldest countries to continue to have unchanged boundaries since more than a one thousand years. Amazing to be true. But it is!

Lisbon is a city with a perfect mix of modern as well as traditional/historic touch. The place we loved the most is the 16th-century Jerónimos monastery built to honour Vasco da Gama's epic voyage to

Jerónimos monastery

Monument of the Discoveries

India. Great piece of architecture funded majorly with the funds generated from the spice trade with India (sic). All over Portugal you will see many monuments and roads and places honouring Vasco da Gama. Just opposite to this monastery is the ‘Monument of the Discoveries’, an enormous monolith that leans over the River Tagus built to honour the brave navigators who discovered new worlds for the Portuguese. There is another Church with the world’s most expensive chapel paid for by the gold found in colonial Brazil (sic). The National Palace and the museums also have many displays depicting the 'discoveries' and colonial connections of India and Portugal. Like the beautiful churches built in Kerala by the Portuguese, introducing christianity in India, etc., Of course you cannot expect to see monuments for, or even mention of, the most cruel Goan inquisitions or exodus of the native GSBs from Goa to escape the persecution of the missionaries.

Sintra a small town, not very far from Lisbon, was more beautiful than Lisbon in my view. The beautiful fairy tale Pena Palace and the lovely view from its ramparts is amazing. Of course the walk is very tiring. The approach itself to Pena palace is 'adventurous' to say the least. A very steep ghat road (hill road) with very narrow roads, almost impossible to drive, but the taxis and tour busses whizzing past just like it is on a German Autobahn, at times scary. But once you reach the Palace it is worth all the effort. The lovey colourful palace is really out of some fairy tale.

Pena Palace

Then after a short walk is the Moorish castle built by the Islamic invaders and then again reconquered by the Christian crusaders. It is a very interesting place, full of history, stories of bloodshed and also breath taking beauty. There is one place in this castle which is actually a tomb. When the crusaders eventually captured this castle from Islamic invaders they found many small unmarked tombs of many soldiers scattered all over. The king of the day ordered all the tombs to be cleared and all remains buried in a single tomb. The stone of the tomb carries a Crescent and a Cross. Reason being that it was impossible to know if the soldier was a muslim or a christian! Died in the name of religion but buried as just a creature of God. Ultimate reality of Life!

Moorish Castle

 

Lagos is much more than the cave trips. The very stunning views of the ocean and sun from many viewpoints scattered across all of Lagos are just impossible to put in words. Though the town of Lagos reminded me of the Santorini in Greece but both are very different. Santorini is serene, Lagos is stunning. The beaches are very beautiful. What is unique of the beaches of Lagos is that they are not just sand and sun, they all have a very beautiful look to them provided by the stunning rock formations all over. The arches formed in the sea and the possibility that you can walk/Swim through them is really breath taking! Even my kids could just walk/Swim to a few rock arches in the sea. The experience is very difficult to put in words. Of the numerous view points and beaches my kids loved the 'Praia Porto de Mõs' and 'Ponta da Piedade',

Ponta da Piedade

Not to forget the beautiful rock formations on 'Praia Dona Ana'. The highlight of Lagos is definitely the 'Grotto tours'. A very unique experience of entering a dark cave surrounded by water and only one source of light, maybe at the other side of the cave, at the same time, the blue-green water is so clear that you can see the rocks and pebbles at several feets down at the bottom of the sea (Of course not too deep), and when your guide Julian decides to give an adventurous twist to your private boat trip by suddenly racing the boat and tilting it sideways! The kids did not want the trip to end!

Grotto tours

When we arrived in Faro one of the first things we saw was a piece of architecture by the sea, the letters F-A-R-O suffixed with two hearts.

Whoever came up with this idea understands faro well. Faro wins your heart. So beautiful! The island hopping boat tour is amazing! Especially when it is a private family tour and with a guide like Richardo it is super amazing. The deserted Island turned out to be very beautiful. Hardly eight to ten people more on the entire island, all tourists, beautiful sand, lovely. It pays when you have a guide like Richardo. I was surprised to know that he had a masters in Economy and has done his research paper on Amartya Sen (so knows all about the misery and hopelessness of India! - Thanks Mr Sen) But he was also aware of the resurgent India. He has been a banker earlier but prefers to do what he likes the most, hence chose becoming a tour guide in his beautiful home town. He was so happy touring the place with us that he extended the plan to include another island which was not on the itenary but more beautiful than others, when we reached there it was totally deserted, the beach was most beautiful, very sunny and golden sand. Kids swam in the sea for more than an hour and simply did not want to go back. Sneha was so happy, that when we got back onto the boat again, she surprised us all by gifting Richardo with some sea shells which she had collected from the beach. So sweet way of saying thank you.

One thing that I liked the most in the city of Faro were the Nests made by Storks on the top of tall buildings surrounded by lines of orange trees. Beautiful.

One more interesting experience to share. Many people asked us from where we are. When we said “India”, they again asked, “Do you live in London?” When we replied “No”, their immediate reaction was, “So you are the resistance”!

Draw your own conclusions on the above conversation, just remember that Portuguese were also a Colonising power once!

The people are very friendly. Sneha and Shashank made some friends already. Even on a short 3 hour journey on train from Lagos to Lisbon they made friends with a little girl who could speak only Portuguese. But language is hardly a barrier to make friends. An elderly lady sitting next to us on the train loved the kids playing together so much that she removed some cake that she was carrying for her grandson and gave it to all the kids. Beautiful memories from a beautiful place.

Kids also managed to pick up a few Portuguese words like Si (Yes), Obregada (thank you).

Shashank says Obrigado and Sneha says Obrigada Portugal.