Portugal in the Box – #25

Monday 22nd June 2008

 

Valenca

 

 

We had a wonderful night on this parking by the fort, no sexually repressed Catholics came with their girls or their cars or their motorbikes. Some dogs, yes, gave us a concert at some time, and early in the morning I heard a cockerel. What a surprise indeed! It has been a long time since I have heard a cockerel! Cockerels have wonderful colours and feathers, but, forgive me to say it so rudely, I quite hate them. I hate the sound of their voices, I hate the way they walk and I hate the fact that they wake up the whole neighborhood when they feel they have slept enough themselves. Sometimes I could strangle them, really, and I swear that I am normally an animal lover (yes, I know, some will object here with my bulls…)

And in fact I am not proud that the symbol of my native country is a cockerel…. although I feel that many men in France behave like little cocks!

 

In the morning we were amazed to see that the immense parking was full. Strange above all was that all these cars had not woken us up. The reason was soon clear to us: most of the cars were one person cars, having arrived to their place of work. The thing was that the whole little town inside the gigantic fort was comprised solely of shops, whose owners parked outside. Strange really, this amount of shops. And they were all selling more or less the same things, above all towels. Towels in all styles, colours and sizes. It must be a speciality around here. Some of them sold clothes too and instead of me drawing we ended buying a totally new outfit for Kevin! I would need new clothes much more than him, he has already dozens of pairs of bermudas, shirts, and shoes in the motorhome. But I hate shopping for me, and I love shopping for Kevin. No idea what that means, really… it has surely a deep psychological significance, kind of rejection of something, myself, or society, or whatever! I was always like that, even as a young girl…

But finally I got something too, a great new hat! One more for my collection… I seem to have inherited this love of hats from my father, although I always thought that he loves hats because he is bald… now I think love for hats might have a deeper significance. I for example, feel quite naked and somehow in danger when I have not a hat on my head…

 

There were a lot of Spaniards there, and I guess they just come across the border to buy towels and so on. One must say that they are quite cheap here, and of good quality. After the shopping I managed to do some sketches while Kevin walked back to the motorhome, but I was interrupted unpleasantly by Spaniards, wanting to see what I did and starting discussing with me. There is really an enormous difference between Portuguese and Spaniards. Portuguese are much more polite, much more respectful of your own private sphere, much more discreet. Since we are in Portigal I have not been disturbed once in my drawing by Portuguese. They normally have a short glance at me, sometimes a smile,, and go on their way. I love that!

 

We spent a part of the afternoon outside the town library, trying to log into the wifi internet connection. It did not work as well as the day before, but we finally managed to do some work. Full of frustration though, as the connection always broke down and I could not send any mail… I think on our next travel we will have to renounce totally to the internet, it is simply too much stress and often too much wasted time.

 

In the afternoon we went back to the town within the fort. For months I’ve been trying to find a new bathrobe, and believe me or not, I could not. I had looked at many places in Spain, and even in France, as we went there at the end of March. But although it was snowing outside it was officially spring and the spring collection did not include anything with long sleeves! Who could believe that I would eventually find my bathrobe in Portugal, at a time when it is 35°celsius outside! A great bright yellow one!!!

I tried to make some new sketches from the fort and the town, sitting on the ramparts while Kevin was sitting at a cafe, but I was quite disturbed by gigantic ants which entered my clothes all the time and bit me. Very unpleasant… I guess there were some snakes too crawling around but I tried not to think about them. I managed doing some distorted sketches of the walls and towers. In fact I am quite in love with these little towers growing out of the walls, they look so cute hanging there like Medieval telephone boxes!

As I was finished I joined Kevin at the cafe, drank a Portuguese beer and got really drunk, already after half a glass! Of course it was a 5,7% beer, but I am French, you know, and I have a long history of 13% wine drinkers in my blood, so I normally get away easily with strong beer. And believe me, I already had much stronger beer in Germany, and above all in Belgium! I really wonder : what was with that beer? Not unpleasant though, neither in the taste nor in the effect!!!

 

Portugal in the Box – #24

Sunday 22nd June 2008

 

Vila Cha – Viana do Castelo – Caminho – Valenca

 

„… I live in a big labyrinth under the Earth. The labyrinth is all mine. It has two entrances, one by the sea, the other at the top of a high mountain. Inside the labyrinth there are only stairs, stairs everywhere, instead of passageways. I move down these stairs like body surfers move on the waves, I mean I surf on the stairs on my belly. I go once to the surface and I meet an old professor. The professor is unfolding a parchment and explains to me that it is a very ancient map of the labyrinth. He is searching for something on the map but he does not want to tell me what. Bored, I go away and meet my first ex-husband, who tells me.

„It is such a pity that you live under the Earth now, if not, we could go to Greece with some friends and spend 3 months there. „

I tell him to come with me. We surf down a street on our bellies and I bring him to a wonderful little beach in my labyrinth under the earth.

„You see, I don´t need Greece…“

At that moment I hear somebody crying awfully. The crying woman runs up to me and tells me to go to a certain street on the Earth, up the hill, by number 13. I leave the labyrinth and go there. I find the house. The woman lives there with her partner. They are a love couple but from different religions, and the population does not allow them to be together. Everytime they leave the house together, they throw stones at them. He lives like a recluse now, never leaving the house. I feel so sorry for them that I start throwing big stones at all the other houses around, destroying all the windows and doors…“

 

 

We are parked for the night in Valenca, in the very North of Portugal, by the Rio Minho, which is apparently the border between Spain and Portugal. It was very strange as the first sign post „Espanha“ began to appear again… we left Spain more than 3 weeks ago, have driven 2500 kilometers, always towards North, and suddenly we are again at the border of Spain! I think not many neighbouring countries, at least in Europe, have this kind of geographical interaction…

Anyway, we have left the sea now, driving East along the Rio Minho. We had wanted to stop before, to stay some more nights by the sea at the top of Portugal, but somehow the places didn´t look right to me, not inspiring. One, Viana do Castelo, could have been good, but as so often in the last few weeks, we arrived there in the middle of festivities, with barrages and fences and policemen and spectators everywhere along the town streets. Again we lost our nerves and again I have no idea how we managed to leave the town without an accident. Really Kevin has become incredibly good at driving our motorhome, many times it is only a question of millimeters! But it is very stressful and I have the feeling that Kevin is quite fedup with all that and just dreams of empty highways to Nowhere….

Susan commented that it seems there are many people everywhere we are. Yes, Susan, we have noticed it too! The whole population comes out and lines the route, everywhere, and applauds when we pass by, walking, biking, driving, however! We are big stars in Portugal, and we didn´t even know it!

 

So we are in Valenca now. There is a big fort here, just in front of our parking. It seems quite interesting to me and I should be able to make some sketches tomorrow. We will then have to decide how we want to go on with our journey. Until now it was quite simple, we simply followed the coast Northwards. We have to drive back down now… one thing is for sure, we will have to change my beloved strategy of small romantic and wild roads if we want to survive the trip, we both and the motorhome. If the roads don´t become better, and until now they didn´t, we will have to take the dream highways from Kevin and hope to find interesting stuff along the way… this thought depresses me quite a lot, I must confess!

At least we succeeded to find a Wifi internet connection in the town, in front of the Library, and I could write some mails. It was nice to have peace around to write some words to friends and family, but well, it was extremely hot inside the motorhome and anyway the power was limited. Spoiled people always miss something, you know…

 

 

“Toro 2010″: new bullfight paintings – #9

“Si los espectáculos cultos ponen ante mis ojos un mundo de inmoralidad y una exuberancia de lujo que ciega mis ojos al tocar al corazón, hoy tengo derecho a mis corridas de toros.”
Antonio Peña y Goñi (Spanish composor, music critic and bullfight critic, 1846 – 1896 )

(“If the modern spectacles present me with a world of amorality and an exuberance of luxury which blinds my eyes and pierces my heart, then I have the right to my bullfights!”)

*****

Considering the era in which he lived, his quote is strangely prophetic and I can only agree wiht it.

Please visit my new website:

T O R O : Bull and Bullfightart

Portugal in the Box – #23

Saturday 21rd June 2008

Vila Cha

„„… I am walking alone through a big town abroad. At each corner appears an old witchy woman, with long white hair, clothed in a long black coat, and everytime when I meet her she stops walking, stares at me and starts singing:
„I want my wonderful red wine
Oh yeah this is what I want!“
And then she starts laughing with an open mouth and I can see that she has no teeth at all.
It is night then and Kevin has joined me. We are walking through an illuminated immense fort. Here and there are lovers sitting, embracing, looking at the moon, not moving, but making some kind of prayer.
Somebody tells us that is a place for lovers, and that we seem such great lovers ourselves, that there is even a better place for lovers, it is the park of the local research institute by the sea. We go there, enter it. We are at once followed by a group of lovers, all quite old. The witchy old woman is there too, but alone.
A man says in german:
„Hey, Kev, you are such a wonderful lover, I wish to become one myself…“
Kevin laughed and I just wondered where this German guy knew him from. He told us too to go the stage, sit there and listen. There was a little ampitheatre made of stones, and many couples were sitting there already. A young woman came on stage and started singing very low with a very soft voice. The witchy woman once again stared at me and sang her red wine song and laughed. I felt awful and wanted to go, but Kevin wanted to see more of the gig.
Then a man came to her on stage and said:
„Now , you will watch the topless part“
At that moment I heard a deep sound of motors. I looked in the direction where it came from and I saw 3 tanks, connected to each other by an iron bar, driving all around the fort and the instítute.
They drove on only two wheels, from the outer tank, and they above all drove up all the walls. Then they came near while the man on stage was ripping off the top of the singer and her breasts were revealed. The three tanks started driving up her body from behind, entered her body in the back and came out again in front through the naked breasts and destroyed them,. The singer´s body was pulled away by the tanks.
„Why don´t they do that with the politicians instead of with musicians?“
asked Kevin, very angry. The German guy answered:
„Because politicians are a matter of politics…“

I read a comment the other day telling me that my way of writing does not make clear what is a dream and what is not. Well, if my real life was like my dreams, I don´t believe I would still be around!!!!
Anyway, before I read that comment, I had started myself to put my dreams between speech marks and suspension points. But in fact I don´t really want to separate them strongly. For me who lives this trip and these dreams it is extraordinary to see how my brain creates the dreams out of the daily life, and it sometimes it becomes quite difficult even for me to separate one from the other. They are like Siamese twins. They belong together. So please, take them as such, and know that my life on this trip is both of them… Never before in my life had I so much the feeling that my real world and my dream world are so deeply and so obviously interconnected!

Anyway… we had a quiet, relaxing day at the camping today, more forced by the weather than by our will. This, unfortunately, allowed us to participate fully in a Portuguese camping life at the weekends. Quite early in the morning, a lot of cars invaded the camping. All Portuguese families who have their tents, caravans or motorhomes permanently here and come to spend their weekends. A lot of movement and noises.. But the worst being that about midday each of them started a barbecue, most of them grilling fish. Now I must tell you: I hate fish and the smell alone makes me feel sick. This means that I spent some uncomfortable hours today, above all because we were making the big washing by the washing machines which stood in the sanitary building in the middle of the camping! We had to walk many times through the barbecue smoke, pure horror for me! I just hope that our clothes won´t get the smell when we hang them outside to dry….
The afternoon was spent quietly with some reading and painting. Kevin looked at some music video and at some point started wildly accompanying Prince on his bass guitar. So wild that the motorhome was swinging in all directions and I could not get straight the masts of the big boat we saw yesterday! I really wonder what the people outside were thinking was going on in our motorhome! When you think that we both look quite different and much younger than 99% of the European motorhomes and caravaning population, I am sure that they thought a wild sex party was going on inside here…

Late afternoon we had a short bike ride to the beach and the little fishing harbour, but everything was grey, and it was quite cold, and I could not get the right inspiration to draw really, so we rode back to the camping. But even in these 30 minutes outside we saw so many stupefying things, I would need an entire book to write about them. The harbour was an incredible amount of stuff, little and big houses, half boats, barrels, thousands of flags, tyres, masts, plastic boxes, nets, pieces of wood everywhere, ropes, iron, old clothes, cats, men, dead fish, and a thousand unrecognisable other things, everything more or less piled upon each other in an indescribable chaos.
And then we saw a small house with 3 enormous iron statues on its roof, represernting something which looked like two Demons and the personified Death, all of them following a kind of dragon made out of iron and ceramics. The whole being almost as big as the house itself. No wonder that I get these weird dreams in Portugal!

Portugal in the Box – #22

Friday 20th June 2008

Vila Cha – Vila do Conde – Vila Cha

We both had a wonderful, peaceful night in the camping of Vila Cha, after having looked quite late in the night one of the Hercule Poirot films starring David Suchet. A good way to forget a little our friends from the West Wing! Funny really, when a series is well done, you get attached to all the heroes, it is as if they belong to your everyday life, and when the series finishes, it is a kind of little inner drama. We both were very attached to the West Wingers, great actors, great characters… what a pity that they are gone!

We had decided to visit the area with the bikes, especially to drive to the next town, Vila do Conde, which was apparently of some historical interest. I could not face a drive in the motorhome: the roads are simply a catastrophe all around, and I really wonder how the motorhome has not fallen to pieces yet!
I don´t know why I thought it would be easier on bikes though. Luckily I have a strongly reinforced cover on the saddle and I can ride for a while upon the awful cobble-stones without suffering too much.
But the trip to Vila do Conde still became a nightmare, really. We were lost many times on small roads leading to nowhere, we again followed some wrong signposts, etc etc. And all that on these awful cobble-stoned roads. The worrying thing is, like Kevin says, that they build the new streets in exactly the same way. I really wonder why. I don´t believe that it is to prevent the drivers driving fast, because these don´t care at all, they drive everywhere with lightning speed, not bothered about anything which could be in their way or under their wheels, bikers for example!

Anyway as we finally arrived in Vila do Conde much later, and after much more kilometers than planned, we did not regret it. We first made a stop at the entrance of the town, where I sketched some pretty houses and an interesting church. The town was very busy, in fact, the cars were all in a slowly moving queue, and really I was happy that we were with the bikes after all. We drove through the town, from monument to cafe to monument. The town was in festival mode, music was coming out of loud speakers all over the town. Once more, like in the mass in Fatima, I noticed that the Portuguese language is wonderfully appropriate to singing, more than Spanish in fact. It is softer, more melodious. I quite like it.
We were amazed by an immense aqueduct in a fantastic state which was crossing a part of the town and ending by some extraordinary other monuments, one being a sanctuary and the other one we don´t know, surely something from an ancient regime. Concerning monuments they really have „La folie des grandeurs“ in Portugal… I wonder where that comes from. Because they are such a small land, a kind of compensation? From the same kind of thinking as little men driving big cars?
Anyway, we had a fantastic time there. We even visited a reproduction of a very ancient ship, from the 10th century if I remember well, and we both could really imagine having a sailing trip on it. It was a good occasion for reminiscences. Kevin told me about his Dad being by the Navy, and I told him the story of my brother and me, on our sailing boat „Atalante“, in a big storm lasting for many days in the middle of the Atlantic, the navigation electronics malfunctioning, the main sail ripped off, and my brother climbing the main mast, with his vertigo and his ill hands and Atalante swinging from one side to the other, so much that the point of the mast seemed to touch the sea… It was the scariest moment in all my life! I really thought that my brother would fall into the ocean and I would have no chance to save him and we would both die… I still don´t know how we then reached our goal, exhausted but safe…
After I told him that story Kevin was no more sure that he wanted to have a trip on „Paso Doble“, our new catamaran…

I made many sketches, of this great boat and “the people” on it and the houses behind, not easy really because of the super size, but the result was quite ok.
Just sitting in the sun at a cafe by the water, with all these beauties in front of us, me drawing, Kevin reading, having a milk coffee: life was a paradise again!

There was much more to see in that town but we had to keep some energy for the ride back. This time we decided to follow the main roads, more kilometres but surely less suffering for our arses and so on! We even found one kilometre of a real bike track, next to a company which filled me with disbelief as I read the name:
„Infineon“.
I won´t enter into details, but Infineon in Germany has played a role in my life in the past… I didn´t know that they had a daughter company in Portugal! I got quite emotional as I rode along, thinking how small the world is. Anyway I am quite sure that they have sponsored the bike track for their workers, this is the kind of things such companies do…

On the road we bought warm bread and as we finally arrived home it was about 6 PM. Believe me we enjoyed the late lunch with the warm bread, and the shower, and the electricity everywhere in the motorhome!

Portugal in the Box – #21

Thursday 19th June 2008

Torreira – Porto – Vila Cha

Did I say „And then up to Porto!“ ?
Yes, I did.

Well, we should tonight be well parked and wasting water and electricity in a camp site in Porto, but we are not. Parked in a camp site, yes! Wasting, yes, and even much more than we planned, as we are both very frustrated. All lights are switched on in the motorhome, all laptops are connected, all camera batteries are being charged, but… we are not in Porto! We are about 30km north of Porto and as I finally got my voice back I stated:
„I don´t go back to Porto!“
Because, yes, we have been in Porto today and I think it was the worst city I have ever crossed in my life. ‚Trafically’ speaking I mean. I have been in some bad cities before, the worst having been Paris, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro, the very worst being Napoli in Italia. But what we experienced today in Porto was simply the worst traffic nightmare I have ever experienced. And when one considers that Kevin had to maneuver the 7 meter long monster through this traffic, then you might understand that we both lost our nerves. He lost his nerves because of the traffic and I lost mine because he lost his and I was finally scared to death, really: to death! And I still can´t believe that we have left that town without having had an accident!
I guess we had the bad luck to come through when the most important festivities are going on.
A pity though, I must say, and this might be the deepest reason of my frustration tonight. From what we have seen from Porto (and it was a lot as we drove a long time by the riverside, and then through the centre and quite through the historical part of the town)  I just can say that it is an extraordinarily beautiful, interesting and crazy city. We would have had plenty of stuff to see, places to visit, and subjects for me to sketch.
But well, we will go back to Porto one day. But not soon, not on this trip. For the moment we will stay some days in this camping which is quite nice, relax, and have some bike rides all around.

There is even one computer connected to the internet when you put coins into it, and it is in a quiet room, so I might have a chance to write some mails to my dear friends… By the way, this morning in Torreira, the internet cafe where we were sent to yesterday from the tourism office, was closed.

Portugal in the Box – #20

Wednesday 17th June 2008

Torreira – Sao Jacinto – Torreira

It seems as if I will have to make a little break with the memories of my dreams… the effort to remember in the very early morning, at a time when I still need some sleep, gives me a headache and I can´t go back to sleep then. I have had a sleep problem all my life, most of the time needing only 5 or 6 hours a night, but there are times when I can´t sleep at all, night after night… it is not the case now, but my sleep is still quite precarious, and I need to care for it, above all when we are touring… we need more energy on the road then at home!

Today after breakfast we took the bikes and rode on that wonderful narrow piece of land between the estuary of the Rio de Aveiro and the sea., until the end, Sao Jacinto, where river and sea join and the land stops. There and back about 30 kilometers, a good ride also, considering that we are not as well-trained as the guys from the Tour de France. But it would have been ok, if the bloody wind had not had the bloody idea to blow on both ways against us, above all on the way back. It blew like hell and we could hardly come forwards!

On the way back we had a romantic stop by a little old cafe at the roadside, just 2 tables outside, where the cafe with milk still only costs 50 cents… I have not seen that for ages! We could even buy the bread for the lunch later, and Kevin got his traditional ice-cream.

I made some ink sketches too, of the boats and the sea and the fishermen while Kevin was sitting by the bikes at the side of the road, reading. We have found that this is the best way to organise us when I want to sketch, so that he does not get bored waiting for me and I don´t feel stressed to have to be quick with sketching. One often says that a well functioning couple is a matter of many compromises. I said it myself. But I believe now that compromises are just the solution for a good working couple, but not for an happy one. I think whatever we do, we must always try to find a way to satisfy both interests at the same time, and not to renounce to them, for the sake of a compromise. This often demands a lot of creativity, and goodwill. But it is so easy to find both when one really loves with all our heart and soul…

As we finally arrived home, we were totally exhausted but quite proud of ourselves. The feeling of having gone beyond one´s possibilities is always something tremendous. I know it well from sport, and from art. These are for me the moments where I most feel alive… or at least more special! And we all need to feel special, sometimes, don´t we? However humble we might be, we are human, and we need to feel that we are just not one more amongst millions…

Believe me, after the effort, we enjoyed the simple lunch: the bread bought by the road, some cheese from Spain, some dry sausage bought in France and some lemon curd bought in England. Really, an international feast for the senses!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with some reading, some colouring, relaxing above all. Later on we walked to the heart of the town, to try to find an internet space. We have not been able to find a possibility for a week now, and I really begin to fear the state of my mail box… Finally a very friendly woman in the tourism office told us where we could find an internet cafe, and we will try it tomorrow.

Then up to Porto!

By the way we have just finished watching the entire series of „The West Wing“. It has keeped us emotionally and intellectually interested for about 2 months now. I have no idea if what they show and tell corresponds a little bit, a lot, or not at all to reality, but the programme is so well done that as a stranger (having no idea about politics like me) you could swear it is real, and that they are the real people governing the world. One thing upset me though: they made a lot of fun about the Frogs (the French) there… I could not feel any ounce of respect for them there… but to be honest, I understand it quite well!

And Kevin enjoyed it especially… although one must say that the English were not treated with great admiration either!

“Toro 2010″: new bullfight paintings – #8

“Si nuestra fiesta nacional fuese la fiesta nacional británica, media docena de matadores de toros serían ya lores.”
Antonio Burgos (Spanish writer and journalist, 1943-)

(“If our National Feast were the National Feast of Britain, half a dozen bullfighters would already be Lords!”)

*****

Well Antonio, there is more likely to be fighting in the House of Commons, they normally just sleep in the House of Lords!

Please visit my new website:

T O R O : Bull and Bullfightart

Portugal in the Box – #19

Tuesday 17th June 2008

Praia de Mira – Torreira

„… there has been some kind of environmental contamination coming from

Nature itself, from the sea. A part of the coast has been contaminated and the people living there have been evacuated. But some humans are immune to the poison. I am one of them. I have decided to move to that part of the world because it has many advantages for me, especially the environment – it now looks incredibly beautiful, It has been changed by the poison, all has become much more colourful. For example the sand grains on the beach have all colours of the rainbow, and the stones too are all in different bright colours. And the rain too. I have bought a house there and I am going there now. As I see the house I am a little bit deceived, as the outer walls are deep black. Inside it looks very chaotic, much seems to have been destroyed by the poison. Especially the air is filled with millions of black particles. There is a garden too, and a part where one grows vegetables normally, and I see that all vegetables have died, except one strange sort, which when I look closer, seem to be books.

I then go for a walk along the beach to the dunes. Suddenly I notice that strange things are growing out of my fingers. Kind of roots. And the roots grow very fast and soon there are some little branches with dark brown leaves coming out of each of my fingers.I get panicked, thinking that I have an unknown kind of allergy to the poison filling the air. But I succeed in ripping one of the roots out of one finger and decide to wait until I meet somebody else to take them all out.

A little bit later I meet an acquaintance who brings me my dog. But my dog dies at once. Then I arrange to get five puppies all looking the same, with white lamb faces, hoping that one will survive. But very soon three die, because of some bones imploding inside. One is growing very well, and looks quite healthy and lively.

I go back home and notice that I have got some neighbours, They have just bought the house and are building immense plastic walls around their house, which seem to reach the sky, They say they want to be protected against the poison of nature. Then the postman comes and brings me a telegram, saying that my sister-in-law has left my brother in Tahiti and is having fun around Europe now… and later I am taking part in a competition where one has to symbolise publicly, but alone, with gestures, all the different possibilities of sex, even masturbation …“

We had a wonderful bike ride this morning, through the town in search of an internet cafe or cyberspace, but we were informed that there was no such place in Praia do Mira, except the Culture Centre. I had to ask some different times to finally find out that the Culture Centre was in fact 100 meters away from our starting point, the motorhome!

The Portuguese seem really to have a problem with everything concerning the traffic logistic and directions. It is very rare when you ask them where is what, that you get the info which sends you directly to the place, even if this place is on the corner. Don´t they care or are they unable? One wonders sometimes that one of them, once, was able to find the way to India… but perhaps the discovery sense is something quite different to the orientation sense? Or perhaps is something much deeper involved in having the right direction sign at the crucial point or to get the right advice to go from point A to point B than to find a sea way to India?… surely a big field for brain research…

Anyway as we finally found the culture centre, it was closed, and should reopen at 7 PM… a little bit late… so we cycled outside the village, to the dunes. A fantastic scene was awaiting us on the other side of the dunes, on the beach. Seagulls in a quantity I had never seen before, it must have been thousands and thousands, stood on the beach, on the waterline. Fishermen pulling a boat out of the wild water with 2 tractors… what a powerful scene! In these moments where Human, Animals and Natural Elements are so deeply involved and interconnected in a powerful but peaceful survival fight I always get quite mystical and it gives my soul good faith material …

We thought the boat came back from fishing but apparently it just came here to get the nets loaded… what a work, by the way! Hundred of meters of rolled and piled net to unravel, my God, what patience! And there were in fact about 6 men working at it! When I think how impatient I get when I have to unravel my 2 meters of computer lead, then I really wonder how they can do it1 I guess hundreds of years of tradition in blood and brain…

We made a lot of photos and rode back to the motorhome for a lunch. From the window I suddenly saw a lot of people gathered down on the dunes by the sea. I had the feeling that something important was happening. I took my camera and ran down the dunes, not an easy matter by the way, the sand was very deep. What I saw there was the most extraordinary Men/Animals/Nature spectacle I have ever seen in my life. The fishermen were pulling out the nets from the sea, and thousands of seagulls were flying around the nets, and hundreds of people were gathered around, most of them trying to catch some fish escaping the net. I have tried to estimate the quantity of fish they caught, there must have been at least 100,000. I wonder how often they do that, everyday? At just that spot of the coast? How is it possible that the ocean is not empty yet? It is a mystery for me. A mystery too, who eats this enormous quantity of fish. They must work for international export, I guess, which would explain why the fishermen let the people take the escaping fish without one word…

I was quite sad not to share this event with Kevin, but it was impossible to have got him in time, everything would have been finished then. At least I could show him the many photos I took!

Late afternoon we took to the road again, but the highway this time, and drove to the next interesting place by the sea, called Torreira. Unfortunately one of these places where the „Forbidden to motorhomes“ signs appear everywhere, but we still managed to find a great place by the water, close to the little harbour full of pretty rainbow boats.

By the way: they should be careful in Portugal not to annoy too much the motorhomes tourists. Since we are here we have noticed that 90% of the tourists are travelling in motorhomes. Considering the fact that fuel is very expensive here, and that motorhomes by definition need a lot of it, even if Portiugal is a great country, it is not obvious that motorhomes tourists will always come back. The Portuguese should not fall into the temptation to forbid us the best parking places, and to send us to places where we have to pay to stay. We are still far from this situation, but I noticed a certain tendency… this would be the wrong calculation, no doubt!

Portugal in the Box – #18

Monday 16th June 2008

Sao Pedro de Moei – Fatima – Figueira da Foz – Praia do Mira

„… I was trying to find sleep after a big party, but I could not. Suddenly Michael Douglas entered my room, stood in front of my bed and said:

„I am a special agent and I have a mission for you. Get up, put neoprene clothes on and come with me!“

I got up, went to another room where one friend was sleeping in an armchair. I took my neoprene suit which I was wearing for the party, but it smelled of smoke and I hated it. But Michael Douglas urged me to go and I put the suit on. We drove along a coastline, to a cliff high above the sea. The ground was totally black. Michael took some tweezers out of his bag, gave them to me, and told me that between the stones it was full of electrons, and my mission was to find the electrons and to gather them all with the tweezers.

„For what?“ I asked.

„The governemnt wants to build a time machine with them!“

I gathered the electrons, put them all one by one in a plastic bag, and we drove away again. Suddenly a guy with a gun arrived and pointed it at me.

„Give me the bag!“

But Michael had a gun too, and stood behind him, and forced him to lift his arms.

We went into the car, the guy was driving, with the gun pointed to his face. But somehow he succeeded in reversing the situation and I escaped from the car. The guy ran after me….“

No idea if I escaped and if somebody could build the time machine with the electrons I had gathered… the rain upon the roof of the motorhome awoke me!

Damn, our first rain here in Portugal!

In fact we had wanted to walk along the wooden path they have built on stilts here all along the coast, but it was raining and even if I generally find rain romantic, I was not quite in the mood of such romanticism. We had in fact a very profane preoccupation: we needed urgently to find a place to empty our toilet!

By the way, these woodland paths, apparently another example of an incredible effort of time and money waste. The path goes for ever, because of the danger of erosion they say, but fact is that there is hardly anybody walking on it. Exactly the same phenomenon as the bike track yesterday…

Kevin had said, after spilling his hot milk over for his cereal:

„It will be one of those f…g days again, when everything goes wrong!“

and indeed it became one of those days.

I had planned a trip to the inner part of the country, leaving the coast for a while, making a loop through some interesting places, the heart of them being Fatima, one of the internationally well-known centres of Catholicism. But let me tell you something: if you want to go to Fatima, wherever you are or come from, just take the toll road! Don´t be tempted to follow the green marked tourist roads, you might end with your car in pieces, and above all you might lose your heart for Portugal!

As much as we have loved Portugal until now, I must say that we lost a little bit of this love today. The roads we were driving today were a nightmare. I am not speaking about the curves, but about the surfaces. Holes and bumps everywhere, sleeping policemen for pedestrians at places where nobody lives, and when you finally get a better road for some kilometers, the speed is incessantly limited to 50 or even 30 kilometers the hour. We spent hours and hours driving on these roads.

And then: three times today, through lack of signage at the right places, we ended up on totally wrong roads, each of them costing us hours of wandering without any idea where we were!

At the end of the day Kevin was really a „wreck“. I don´t know who is in Portugal responsible for the traffic management, but is is simply a catastrophe. I thought it could never be worse than in Spain, but the Portuguese have overtaken the Spaniards! And I wonder, instead of building these useless bike and pedestrian tracks everywhere, why don´t they use the money to fix their roads, which are far more frequented? Or why doesn´t give the EU money to Portugal, instead of to Spain, where they have got more than enough fantastic roads?

Anyway, Fatima was worth the trip. I was born 5 kilometers from Lourdes, in France, this other international centre of Catholicism, and I was expecting something in the same style. If you want to know what I mean just listen to Kevin´s „Heretic Song“.

But Fatima is very different, much quieter, purer, much more modern too. I wonder if it is because the wondrous apparition was later in time (1917)? Fatima is a peaceful place, not many shops full of holy stuff like in Lourdes. The sanctuary itself and above all, the modern chapel, with all the doors corrsponding to each apostle is really a place of peace, concentration and great religious symbolism. Religious or nor, you can go there, sit and relax. It is wonderful for that. In fact it is the most relaxing church I have ever seen. The whole sanctuary is, with its immense yard. We even attended a mass, well, standing in the background… I found the canticle so beautiful, and even if Kevin says that the singing monk was out of tune, I find that he sang beautifully. And that the Portuguese language is quite appropriate for this kind of songs…

Kevin the Heretic was quite impressed by the whole thing too, but of course he could not help letting out his hilarious comments about Catholicism and its rites. I wished he would not be so lazy and write „The Heretic 2“., or at least share all these bons mots with you in his travel tale in Cafe Crem. Catholicism has an incredible impact on him, he always becomes especially brilliant with words, one could think it is really divine inspiration. You can for example imagine his comments as we ate the best ever bread,bought in Fatima, can´t you?

At the end of the day, already quite exhausted, we still spent 2 hours trying to find a place for the night. But we were stuck on endless, chaotic woods roads, where we couldn´t drive faster than only 10 kilometers the hour…

Our torture came to an end about 21h30, as we arrived in this place, Praia do Mira. As itself not a wonderful place, the town has no charm, but the beach and the dunes are wonderful and we have found a great place to spend the night, surely the best place here. Once again, 5 stars!