More treking along Levadas

We have walked along Levadas in three places in the last few days.
First we took a bus to a village about an hour away and walked along a levada there, then caught the bus back. The wakk went through some very attractive wooded ravines.
Then we took a taxi up into the hills where there are a couple of well know walks among the ancient laural and heather forests (both these species form trees here).
We got there quite early and did both walks but as we arrived at the end of the second one, the number of walkers was building up, but fortunantly we did not encounter many people comming the other way on the narrow bits when we returned. Some of the paths are only wide enough for one. On one side is the waterway which is betwen 25 and 60 cm wide, and on the other side is a drop - often covered in trees and bushes but a bit scarey.
Today we went by bus to Port Do Moniz which has a very scenic coastline (though rather spoilt by a cafe out on the rocks) and a few small islands near the shore.
After looking at the nice scenery, we took a taxi up into the hills over the town and walked along a levada high on the side of a deep gorge into more laural forests.
We then walked back to the bus stop and took the bus back.

A nice Levada walk

Today, monday, we took the bus to a place where we could join the western end of the Levada de Caleta. We followed it for several miles along  ravines coveded in pine and eucalyptus trees. We also saw some tunnels intended for the motorway but not yet connected up. It was a very pleasant walk as it was not too hot and the levadas are more or less level. Other paths and roads here in Madeira tend to go up and down a lot so walking can be quite hard work.

A comment on the incomplete golf course (earlier blog) by a cafe owner -  he said all developmemt work had stopped due to the financial situation. We think the same applies to the tunnels and the motorway. It seems a bit crazy to stop without finishing something.

Last night we went out along the garden here at tbe apartement which is on a ledge on the cliff face. We looked for Corrys Shearwaters which nest on the cliff. Shearwaters are seabirds that havd a surviuval strategy of returning to wwtheir nests after dark to avoid predators (we have seen buzards here).
We saw a few and heard their wierd cries but they may be affected by work nearby to stabilise the cliff above the marina.

Attached are some pictures of our Levada walk and one picture showing our apartement. This is the one showing part of a small marina in which the moorings nearest the shore are empty. This is because of rock falls from the cliff which is therefore being stabilised - as referred to earlier. This is a major operation with three tower cranes in use.

From Lisbon to Madeira

We arrived in Funchal on monday after a busy six days in Lisbon where Cathy did further research on Trant and we visited some of the attractions of the city. Lisbon is another hilly metropolis with a network of trams, some  of which are vintage plus late 19 century furniculars that one can use to help avoid some of the climbing.
Lisbon (like Coimbra) has a few lifts, one of which is also late 19C - it takes one to a platform from which to view the city.

We visited the castle and the cathedral from both of which there are excellent vistas of the city and the estuary.
We visited several museums including the Gulbekian and the fine art museum that houses Bosh's temptation of St  Anthony which we spent some time admiring.

It also has a 12C processional cross which at one point was pawned by an Abbot of the monastry that used to own it in orrder to pay for the education of his son. This was during the 15C as far as I remember. When redeemed, the item was missing a fragment of the "true cross" that had been fixed to the back.
The processional cross itself has nicely restrained decoration and is quite small. All the museums churches and monastries have many later crosses (and other religous hardware such as chalices) many of which are made quite hideous with overdecoration.
The distinctive local Portugese decorative element that recurrs in buildings is called Manueline - typically this includes rope patterns around arches.

We have now arrived at tbe apartement we have rented for the last two weeks. This is on a hillside overlooking the sea on the southwest side of the island of Maeira. Opposite, on the other side of the narrow, steep sided valley to us are terraces with bananas under cultivation, and below us ( hidden by the cliff) is a small village with shops and one restaurant. We can hear the sea, the occasional rooster and watch fishing boats that have set out from the small harbour (and separate protected swimming area) below. On thursday, we went for a swim which was very refreshing but the water is colder tban the Caribean!
On friday (yesterday) we went by bus to the westernmost point of the island for a trek. When we got off the bus, first we went towards the sea and the lighthouse on the point. Unfortunantly, the area had been cleared with the intention to build a golf course. The actual coast is spectacular but the walk itself scored low marks because the golf course area was a mess. Later on after getting some advice in a cafe we had a very pleasant walk among the ravines and pine woods. There are very few buses and we had a bit of a struggle to get up the final hill to the main road in order to catch the last bus but we made it. The hills can be very steep and indeed the path back to our apartment from the upper village is very steep in places. Fortunantly, the supermarket and a bus stop are in the lower village about 12 minutes walk. The upper village is at least 30 minutes downhill and probably 45 minutes uphill (but we have not tried this yet)  and has another bus stop which is the only stop for some buses. However there are plenty of taxis.
The steep inclines make for some strenuous walking. The preferred option is to follow artificial irrigation channels  called levadas that follow the contours though they can be vertiginous.
Today we are having a rest day.

Lisbon - more historic buildings

We arrived in Lisbon by train from Coimbra tuesday
Lisbon, like Porto has a huge number of old buildings dating mainly from the fifteenth to eighteenth century.
Yesterday we went to Belem and saw a huge Monastery which now houses two museums in addition to the church and the cloisters.
Lisbon has quite an extensive tram network. Like Porto it has a lot of hills which the trams seemto climb but for the very steep streets there are furniculars - all dating back to the nineteenth century though some of the trams are more modern.
There are lots of museums and a port right next to the city over which looms the remains of the ancient castle and several cathederals. One cathederal was partially destroyed in the 1753 earthquake which devasted the city. The city (largely destroyed) was rebuild on a grid and this part forms the centre of the city which is surrounded by broad avenues and parks, as well as a few crowded slums, which are quite picturesque in the way the compact tenements climb the steep streets exhibiting the washing of the inhabitants on frames slung from windows over the narrow alleys.

The pictures show the Cloisters in the Monastry that was built to give thanks for the discovery by Vasco da Gama of a sea route ( via the cape of Good Hope) to India. Taxes on this trade paid part of the cost - and were the reason for Portugal's subsequent prosperity , (aided also by otber colonial trade particularly Brasil).
The next picture is the attached Cathederal, and the last picture in the waterfront square, Praca do Comercio, which is a huge open space between the old town centre and the river Tagus.

Clarissa in Coimbra

Before we left for Bussaco we spent the day on the other side of the Mondego river  visiting the two old convents of Saint Clara and the Quinta das lagrimas, which Clarissa writes about in her journal. The old convent was already replaced in her time by a newer one, higher up away from the river, which constantly flooded the old one. The contrast was huge.The old
one has been beautifully restored and displayed, with an exhibition about the nuns' lives. The newer one (mid 17th century!) had a surly ticket seller, no information and  no interest in my story of Clarissa's visit. There was no trace of the organ where the nuns made her play God save the KING, but Samuel found the door in the grill separating the nuns from the world, through which she was carried. FASCINATING. 

At the Quinta das lagrimas Nicholas Trant had placwd a stone with some lines from a poem to commemorate the murder of Ines, a famous prince's mistress. There was a stone there, but with different lines crom the poem to those clarissa quotes, and all the lealets say it was Wellington whoplaced the stone there. I guess we'll never know the truth.

A battlefield (or a tree covered hill)

Last night, we went to a bar to experience some Fado.  Fado is singing accompanied by guitar, with a common theme of loss and longing, thought there seemed to be an element of humour to what we heard last night.

Interpretation by non portugese speakers is fairly hard if not impossible however.

We also had a further look at the buildings of Coimbra last night and went into the university psychology departement housed in a friary complete with cloisters decorated with 17 century tiles with biblical themes and labels for the different departements of the psychology faculty.

We also looked at the University chemistry departement which looks like a Vienese palace. This was constructed at the orders of the Marquis of Pombal, an important 18 century portugese statesman. He is aparently connected to Trant in a way because French troops had desicrated Pompal's grave but Colonel Trant who discovered this soon after as he passed the tomb had the remains collected up and re-buried.

We decided to head for the countryside after the hotel in Coimbra turned out to be full on Saturday night.
We planned a short trip north-east to the site of the battle of Busaco (Busaco is spelt with a c cedila, not s but I cannot enter this).
This is now a (small) national park as it is a very scenic hill covered in trees and commemorates the first defeat of the french who occupied Portugal in the Peninsular war.
We arrived at about 2:30 pm by bus and after checking in at our hotel walked up to the military museum, where we found references to Colonel Trant and a display of weapons as used in the fighting.

The appearance of the battlefield has much changed.t the time of the battle it was scrub. Now it is covered in trees - aparently planted by Carmalites who walled in the site for their devotions after the battle. However there are some huge eucalyptus trees so we think some other agency is now mantaining the site as the Carmalites left in 1836 and Eucalyltus was not widely planted untill after 1965.
However it ended up like this, the area is good for walking and for views of the hills beneath so we very much enjoyed our walk and our visit to the museum that was staffed by an enthusastic member of the army who talked to us very animatedly about the position of Portugal during the Napoleonic wars.

At Coimbra

We arrived at Coimbra yesterday. This was the medeival capital of Portugal and until the 20th cetury, Portugal's only University city.
Its relevance to the trail of Clarissa and her father,Nicolas Trant is that following the French occupation of the city in 1810 it was liberated by a Portugese force under Nicolas Trant.  His victory may have been eased by the limited French garrison as most of the troops in the city were casualties.
Trant raised a volunteer army of Portugese students and seized the city from the French occupying forces.
Cathy has Clarissa's diary which records the welcome gjven to the liberating forces and the subsequent grand reception.
Cathy was given a very helpful reception by the University archive and library who together unearthed a thesis with some relevent material, including pictures of the presumed location of the [19C] reception.
The city itself has a picuresque (if in some parts dilapidated and rather neglected) centre. It is on a hill and tbe streets are often steep. Portugese roads and pavements tend to be formed of two inch granite or limestone mosaics (sometimes witb patterns but often plain) making the steep inclines just a bit harder for the over 60's to traverse.
Happily there is a special (electric)  bus and a lift to make ascending from our hotel to the University easier.
As the University is built around the old Royal court buildings, one might expect some interesting buildings. However Royal patrons seem to have gone to extra special lengths to leave traces of themselves to subsequent generations by creating Baroque extraviganza in the form of a library, Chapel and various halls that are fascinating if rather ovedone to the extent that a new fairly utilitarian set of modern buildings now provides some of the current academic facilities. However as we found on taking the combined ticket to visit of the parts of the University open to visitors, lectures take place inside a kind of Roccoco palace, with lecture theaters (19 century ambiance) leading off a two story cloister adorned with decorative tiles that would not seem out of place in an palace (which indeed it was prior to the sixteenth century.
The original library is is a fantastic structure but wholly unusable as a library, with elaborate gilded decoration and laquered columns supporting shelves of books chosen for their orate spines.
As in Oporto, there seem to be a relatively large number of sixteenth and seventeenth century buildings many of which now house university faculties. Some however seem semi derilect. In tbe city many of the older and more ordinary buildings seem to be abandoned. However some are occupied by student communes or "self styled Republics". Student graffiti appear on many of the walls even  on tbe major buildings.
This all in a city with many churches and a Cathedral with an ornate 15 century alterpiece.