In Portugal yesterday
Sep. 27th, 2004 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayI did not set the alarm clock... dozed as long as I wanted, giving myself a chance to recharge after last week. Then headed out on a stroll around Lisboa for most of the afternoon, and stopped at a megalithic site on the way back to Nerva.
Rather than attempt to drive and find parking, I left my rental car at the hotel and used taxis for point-to-point. First stop was St. George's Castle, on a hill overlooking Lisboa... going back originally past Moorish to Visigothic times:
I wandered the towers and battlements... one could tell what was rebuilt vs. original crenellation (with or without slots). And there were great, panoramic views, like this one from inside of a tower:
As it was Sunday morning, I heard church bells pealing periodically from all around the city.
Wandering down the hill, I stopped at churches and murals and trellises with flowering vines... Steep streets with built in steps, laundry flapping... old men sitting on steps. At one sidewalk cafe, I sat down and sipped and looked over the old sailor's quarter (the Alfama):
Wandering through it... cooking smells, nothing larger than alleys, steep and labyrithine. Pleasantly lost. Sounds of fado (angsty Portuguese guitar) music through open windows... I eventually reached the waterfront, and stopped at the Museum of Fado for an air-conditioned musical break. Lunch near Praca dos Restauradores. Ginginheva (cherry/gin flavored brandy).. then to the hotel and back on the road.
Near Evora, I followed signs through a nearby town, then on to several km of dirt roads out to a megalithic site sitting in a cork-oak grove, as described here. I did not add the comments ;).
And here's a view of me standing in the inner circle, with Evora a white smudge 12 km away in the background. The menhirs ranged between 1-3m high, mostly around 2m. There was a triangular flat raised stone in the center, pointed east.
Several stones retained faint markings, like these circles...
I found a tiny exfoliated weathered rock chip in the dirt at the base of one of the stones and pocketed it, figuring I'd look at the rock type later (and one of my new-agey friends might want it for some ritual, I figured ;).
A km away was this sole 4m menhir, rather phallic...
which I approached while fielding a call fromtenacious_snail on my cellphone.
Then drove back three more hours to Nerva... mostly on back roads, by choice, like this one through cork oaks.
Rather than attempt to drive and find parking, I left my rental car at the hotel and used taxis for point-to-point. First stop was St. George's Castle, on a hill overlooking Lisboa... going back originally past Moorish to Visigothic times:
I wandered the towers and battlements... one could tell what was rebuilt vs. original crenellation (with or without slots). And there were great, panoramic views, like this one from inside of a tower:
As it was Sunday morning, I heard church bells pealing periodically from all around the city.
Wandering down the hill, I stopped at churches and murals and trellises with flowering vines... Steep streets with built in steps, laundry flapping... old men sitting on steps. At one sidewalk cafe, I sat down and sipped and looked over the old sailor's quarter (the Alfama):
Wandering through it... cooking smells, nothing larger than alleys, steep and labyrithine. Pleasantly lost. Sounds of fado (angsty Portuguese guitar) music through open windows... I eventually reached the waterfront, and stopped at the Museum of Fado for an air-conditioned musical break. Lunch near Praca dos Restauradores. Ginginheva (cherry/gin flavored brandy).. then to the hotel and back on the road.
Near Evora, I followed signs through a nearby town, then on to several km of dirt roads out to a megalithic site sitting in a cork-oak grove, as described here. I did not add the comments ;).
And here's a view of me standing in the inner circle, with Evora a white smudge 12 km away in the background. The menhirs ranged between 1-3m high, mostly around 2m. There was a triangular flat raised stone in the center, pointed east.
Several stones retained faint markings, like these circles...
I found a tiny exfoliated weathered rock chip in the dirt at the base of one of the stones and pocketed it, figuring I'd look at the rock type later (and one of my new-agey friends might want it for some ritual, I figured ;).
A km away was this sole 4m menhir, rather phallic...
which I approached while fielding a call from
tenacious_snail on my cellphone. Then drove back three more hours to Nerva... mostly on back roads, by choice, like this one through cork oaks.
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Date: 2004-09-27 05:32 pm (UTC)