Eating and Drinking in Portugal

Portugal is not a wealthy economy, so the meals are simple, and the traditional fare "rustic". Sometimes it was best just to choose a pasta dish instead! The wines were marginal and grouped according to district rather than variety - Algarve, Alentejo, Dao, Douro and Minho. The Ports however were in a class of their own!

Our meal on the first night was billed as typical portugese. Mine was a stew of beef bones.

Dried cod is a particular delicacy. It is heavily salted and when you need it requires days of  steeping and rinsing in water before use - often in little croquettes which were OK 

Our guide Diego in Lisboa introduces us to Ginjinha, the liquor made from bitter cherries 

The jolly gentleman on the right is saying "If your feeling a bit peeky you should have a tot of Ginjinha"

The jolly lady on the right is saying "A cup of tea won't perk you up, try a tot of ginjinha" These are very liberal translations from the portugese.

In Obidos we tried it in chocolate cups!

The residual cherries are extremely high in alcohol content (Over 40%)

Portugese tarts were lovely, especially with cinnamon .

Barbara and David from Vermont, Peter from Aussie at our wine tasting. I quite liked the Alentejano wines but wouldn't rave about them.

Out for dinner that night. White crusty bread with EVERY meal, cured meats, cheese, and usually olives or olive oil

Always willing to give a glass the benefit of the doubt.

After the FADO show we went and had a tapas style meal. Our guide Ana and Barbara

Thoroughly enjoyed the company of Barbara and David. He is a retired archaeologist and goes around the world helping out on digs. Was a hippie in the 60s and 70s - such a gentle fun personality. Barbara, so kind and helpful. 

Peter and Natalia did not join us for this meal. Ana, Barbara, David, Duncan, Diana and me at tapas.

Natalia next to a very big bottle of Port in a shop where we did a Port tasting - and the old favourite Mateus Rose next to it

All the usual at the Port tasting - but a little rye bread which vanished fast.

You wouldn't believe it - we are now on a food tasting tour in Porto. Our local guide is Sara and she is drinking green wine - really it is just wine which is fresh and young, not actually green. This one is bubbly, but really it is quite like a Pinot Gris. At this stop we had buns stuffed with a slow cooked pork, and quail.

Me and Diana, obviously on glass three by now - and enjoying it!

Our last night in Porto - we all went out for dinner together. Dessert was a shared affair...

and we totally smashed it!!

Crowds of locals, crowds of tourists.

 One of the things I found most challenging about this trip was the clutter on the streets. The uneven cobblestones, the slippery steps worn away by thousands of years of foot traffic, people going about their daily business, tourists who were gazing about, tourists with selfie sticks, cats, donkeys, bikes, motorbikes, beggars, people wanting to sell you stuff, rubble, fog... the list goes on.

Street in Hvar (C)

Cobblestones in Split (C)

Mats at Market (M)

Argan leaves (M)

View from Sky Bar - the only place in Marrakech where we could buy alcohol 

Beach near Rabat (M)

Volley Ball takes up half the beach at Cascais (P) so all the sunbathers squished up together

AS if the cobblestones aren't enough - lets add some psychodelic patterns (Cascais, P)

Pena Palace at Sintra is here somewhere. (P)

Cobblestone square with street performers.

Donkeys with cowhides draped over them - they look like cows! Heading to the tanneries in the medina in Fes (M)

The cat variety was thin - but not undernourished. I guess its to stop them getting too hot. Rabat (M)

Who'll buy by nice watermelons?  (M)

Falls at Krka were heaving. Hard to get in and out of as the edges very muddy.

Hvar - with fort up top. Many rich and famous had their boats moored here.

Korcula. Another typical example of the restaurants putting their  tables on the footpaths/steps. Just one more thing to avoid.

Some Weird Stuff

J K Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter Books, taught English at Porto in the 1990's. Nearby is the University of Coimbra (Sounds like Queenborough). It was also the university that our tour leader Ana attended. This university garb has some characteristics which come very close to Harry Potter. The cape can be worn by undergrads, but with very strict rules.

Cape must hang over left shoulder. (Very hot day)

Is that Hermione???

The older buildings are the basis for Hogwarts. Also they use bats to cleanse the library which stores old books of bugs and beetles. I would not have believed this had I not seen the wire netting on the front of the bookshelves and the large vinyl sheets which they spread to catch the bat droppings. On our way home, annoyed by the large TV and the Croatian French World Cup final, the bats screeched and dived around us. I screeched too!!

An Optical Illusion in Morocco???
While visiting the Heri Souani in Morocco we went to the vast stables and granaries. The stables could house up to 12,000 horses, so of course they needed lots of water. Moulay Ismail designed an elaborate scheme of aquifers and as we were going through the granaries he showed us where the water course flowed underneath the floor. You couldn't see it with the naked eye, but as soon as you looked through your camera there was a wide green line. Duncan saw a light fitting on the other side but it was hard to reconcile this with the green line. Puzzled!

A Total Eclipse of the moon in Croatia.
It had been a very different day for us, going to Bosnia where large numbers were killed in the Homeland War. Later an excellent wine tasting at Matusko winery, and then we anchored in the bay at Trpanj for a BBQ on the top deck with a gentle breeze and a gorgeous sunset.

Then I looked back (over Margaret's head) The moon looked odd and was diametrically opposed to the position of the sunset!! Very exciting - but took about 2 hours for the shadow of the earth to cover it completely - by which time it was well after 10pm. Some of these shots are where I've taken photos off someone else's high power lens camera.

And lastly, the really weird award goes to this turkey serving dish proudly displayed in Pena Palace (Portugal).

Walled Cities

From the first day in Lisboa, to the last day in Dubrovnik we were confronted with Walled Cities. The purpose, of course was protection and some were used as forts, while others used to keep people safe. They were all pretty much the same design - square towers joined by high walls with gates, many of which are now missing as they were made of wood. Generally when you climb  the wall of the city you got a splendid view of the terracotta roofs of the newer towns (Usually called The New Town!) below.
Our first one was St Jorge Castle in Lisbon.
Built in 1147 when the Moors dominated the region, and added to, repaired and rebuilt over the centuries, with many of its towers still standing.

You can see the grey walls with trees growing on the top of the hill and the fortress part to the left. It seemed a little daunting that we would be walking up there after a four hour exploration walking tour in the morning.

But walk up there we did, and this is the view.

Excavations for an archaeological dig at St Jorge

This sphinx like creature was supposed to scare something away!

Inside St Jorges Castle. A castle has fortifications - a Palace does not.

Here is the Castle of Guimaraes next to the Palace of the Dukes of Braganza near Porto. This must have worked as a form of defense as Porto claimes itself to be "The Undefeated City"

In Morocco most of the old cities are walled for protection. They had , being in Africa, lions and tigers and jaguars roaming in the Atlas Mountains. They were Barbary Lions - very big but sadly almost certainly extinct as co-lateral damage in the fight to kill all the wild rabid dogs in the mountains using poison.

As we start to rise into the Atlas Mountains (where all the Moroccan runners do their training) there is a monument to the demise of the Barbary Lion. There are some hybrids still living in zoos.

This is a google shot. Haha.

Town planning was not a great strength of the early Moroccans and as the population expanded so the medinas became incredibly crowded and disorganised. We were warned not to go in alone. With the narrow streets and tall windowless buildings it is very disorientating. Also any age can ride a motorbike with no license.

Street in a medina in Marrakech

Not uncommon to see a terrified 2 yearold sitting on the handlebars.

On the Island of Hvar we started off in the Old town of Stari Grad. There is a model of the walled city. Then we went over the hill to the Hvar Town. This is when we decided not to climb up to the fort, but have tapas and wine-tasting.

A bit worried this might fall down on us

Bruschetta and white wine to start with. Mmmmm

Finally, no selection of walled cities would be complete without the Old Town of Dubrovnik. Of course it is not all that old as most of the roofs had to be replaced after the 91-95 war. We had planned to walk it in the morning when it was cooler, but one of the ladies on our tour collapsed through dehydration. Fortunately there are First Aid stops all the way along and she was OK - but it was VERY hot and crowded. Some of the people on the boat went up in the cablecar and looked down on the old city. At the top of the hill was a museum set in the actual building that the Serb occupied and we were keener to see this than to walk the wall.

Top of the hill, showing the old town and port

The outer walls as seen from the start of the cablecar.

So thats it - walled cities everywhere in all three countries. Forts, Castles, Towns, Cities, Medinas Kasbahs (for royal and military). I've missed some beautiful ones out too.

Toilets on Tour

I am wondering if you are expecting a day by day account of our travels, but I have decided to group things together as there are so many similarities throughout Portugal (P), Morocco (M), and Croatia (C).  Incidentally, on this trip we also visited Singapore, Britain, Germany and Bosnia. But just to kick things off, a short post on the necessities of life. Beds, sheets and pillows seem very different to NZ. And of course toilets! these three are from our toilets in Morocco. They are generally about 2 dirham to go to (about 14c), and if you are lucky you get some toilet paper for this price, but the quality of the toilet paper leads something to be desired.

 This is the wash room at the Mosque of Hassan II. Diana is a GP in Melbourne with a special interest in Palliative care and was very helpful to me if I needed a hand up or down. I knew in this case that the toilet would be a squat toilet - and worried about how I would get up and down, however my tramping etiquette made it a successful mission without Diana's help! On Fridays and feast days this fountain would be working and many women at a time would carry out their ritualised washing before going upstairs to pray - not with the men as their raised bottoms as they knelt forward might inflame the passions of the men.

 This little cute toilet was on our first day in Morocco, where we stopped for lunch. On of our tour party insisted that we have lunch - seemingly unaware that we wouldn't get served for a while - as lunch is not until at least one. He seemed to think he would get a beer at this restaurant. Poor George. The silly thing was that he was married to an Egyptian woman - you'd think he might have been a little more aware of these customs. George sells caravans.

This is in our riad (hotel) in Marrakech. Now thats what I call a real throne!