Obidos and Farewell

Today was our last full day in Portugal.  Tomorrow we fly to the USA.  We had two included events, the first in the morning.  We drove out to suburban Obidos.  For me and I think for Ruth as well as some of the others, this could have been skipped. It isn’t that I felt I needed more time in Lisbon but that it was a pretty drive to a small, cobbled, walled city with a steep uphill climb to see the exterior of a castle and a view of mostly just the highway below. And Shopping! The one street we were supposed to stay on was shop after shop where Nina encouraged us to support the local economy.  I feel I did that by just showing up in Portugal.  Have I become cynical?  

I will say that one of the best living statues I have ever seen was here. A ‘young girl’ perched on a wall and was all in silver costume and paint to look like a statue.  She moved in a repetitious mechanical fashion that made her actually seem like a wind up doll.  There were some very good street musician splaying guitar and singing.  Oddly, a lady who appeared to be their mother sat close by to each and watched the collection.  An officer warned Nina about pickpockets.  We are always conscious of that when we travel even to big cities in the States.  Crowds will almost always = pickpocket possibilities.  But with this special warning, they must have been busy today.

It was a nice day for a stroll and soon Nina was collecting our VOX radios on the bus for the ride back to the city.  She and the driver were friends and chatted the whole way.  I think she figured the tour was over!

Back in the city we enjoyed our lunch while our phones charged.  Ruth and I then took the map and made our way toward the Avenida da Liberdade.  This parkway was created after the 1755 earthquake as a Passeio Publico even though passage of ordinary people was barred. The high walls and gates excluded you and me as we would not have been of the high society or royal persuasion.  With the liberal revolution of 1821 these impediments were pulled down and it is indeed the avenue representing liberation.

Many monuments are placed at the beginning and end of each grassy section dividing the promenade. Some are of heroes as late as World War I as Portugal always sided with the Allies and the United States but did not become involved in WWII.  The street has a central lawn with a tiled walkway on either side.  Cafes and Kiosks selling food, newspapers, and souvenirs are along these.  Then on either side of those is a broad street making for one way traffic.  Next to that is the ordinary, but tiled, wide sidewalk fronting high end merchants.  Here you find boutique hotels and high end shopping; Prada, Michael Kors, Louboutin and others.  After about four short blocks there is a cross traffic street and another statue.  The titles of the statues indication who the person is and why he is there is spelled out with black cobbles amid the grey stones.

This is not my photo but I love the feel of it which is the feeling I had as I walked along this historic and iconic street.  A step back in time if you ignore the traffic!

 

Soon it was time to make our way back to the hotel.  On the way over a young lady helped us make all the right turns and was very friendly.  We were still in the Baixa District which is where our hotel was conveniently located.  We took a different route home and it was very much for locals only.  Lots of dusty construction, narrow streets with vans blocking traffic and strange characters made it most interesting.

Once we safely arrived we made sure our bags were in order for the next day’s travel and dressed for our Farewell Dinner.  Our bus took us a distance from the hotel into what no longer looked like a touristy section of town.  Here in a small restaurant on a back ally we were treated to a Fado performance while we dined on roast pork which luckily had gravy on it since all the meats were cooked to be very dry. The one exception to this was a hamburger which we enjoyed at a small, local chain.  The Dors did not want pork and Dorcelia waited especially long for her plate of chicken to be placed before her.  Dorene took the proffered fish.  All during our trip Nina commented on the desserts and sweets.  She didn’t eat them because they were too sweet.  Our friend Marion who had been here before agreed.  I did not find them that way at all.  As I mentioned earlier we added powdered sugar and cinnamon to one of them to give it a boost.  Tonight we had a delicious Flan but it was oddly served with ice cream on the plate. I was lucky, Dorene didn’t want her Flan so I was delighted to eat it for her.  Wine flowed but Ruth said it wasn’t even as good as her 99 cent bottle.

I was disappointed in the Fado show.  On the bus earlier in the week we had listened to the kind of music defined as Fado and it seemed solemn and forlorn.  Nina had explained that typically is a story of heartbreak and loneliness, kind of like our own country music but very somber.  What we heard seemed lively and cheerful. This restaurant and show was definitely a family affair and the mother, daughter, and father all performed.  Two men played the music.  One with the very unique Fado guitar and the other what the Portuguese call a Viola Guitar.  It is sort of a fat or wide version of our acoustic guitar.  They played quite well and we had a good view of them from our raised dining platform for the six o’clock dinner show.  The tables on the main floor were set and before we had left a tour arrived for the eight p.m. performance.  This group had a completely different menu judging by what was on their plate.  And their show included a lady playing the accordion and dressed in what looked to be a Polish costume.  I know this because I encountered her in the bathroom.  It was a bit of a strange evening.

Back at the hotel we left only the pajamas we were wearing and our clothes for the flight home out of our suitcases.  Ruth and I both like to not be scrambling to pack in the morning before moving on.  Although our flight was not until five to one we were leaving for the airport at nine.  Nina is going to stay with us until the security stop because she says it is a tricky place to fly out of.