Josem 2017 travel blog

Did I really say no more churches? No way... today's blog is all about monasteries and churches. You need to suffer like we suffered. Of course, you can just click off whenever you wish - once Ruth and I enter a monastery, we're committed to see it through. Surprisingly, I found the day very interesting - I hope to give you a little flavour of what made it interesting. It wasn't the churches themselves that generated the interest but the royal politics.  Mind you, the church provides the service of preserving things like tombs, sculptures, and paintings which depict the Portuguese royal rulers through each of their eras, and therefore, we are brought into their lives as we discover their exploits while standing in front of their final resting locations. Look here... first we visit the Monastery of Santa Maria in Alcobaca. After "knocking that off", we visit the Monastery of Santa Maria in Batalha - about half an hour's drive (at 130km/hr) away. ...

Yes, Yes, Yes. Today I'm going to concentrate on the extraordinary - if it doesn't qualify, then it isn't going into today's blog. One of Portugal's finest is Vasco da Gama.  He established the trade routes between Europe and India amongst other things. This is the house in which he lived in Evora: Just a normal everyday Portuguese apartment in a typical Portuguese street.  I suppose I shouldn't expect anything different. But I'm on holidays, looking for the extraordinary, and I think its extraordinary that I am outside Vasco's place.  I would have liked to have had a chat with him about his exploits - then I'd really have something unique to share with my blog readers. Vasco was extraordinary even if his home wasn't. Portuguese tiles was extraordinary before I saw them on just about every street I walk down here. They even put them on park benches as this extraordinary woman found: The sausage rolls are extraordinary. As ...