Today is the day that Lori got to watch Lado perform ALL day as we walked from Alvorge to Condeixa-a-Nova…my thanks to the many people who sent me videos (breaking every rule of recording live performance) and to Darlene for providing me with live feed to the after party – a bitter sweet experience not being with Lado for the performance and for the celebrations. Congratulations to you the amazing team who all worked so hard to make this inaugural trully national fesitval happen – I’m looking forward to Adelaide and dancing Bunjevacko again (David I’m holding you to your word!).
So the first thing I have to say is that you can’t please either of us – last night in our “house” we FROZE. Lori has ‘allowed’ me to include the photograph of her channeling her inner Eskimo on the couch last night… first it was too hot and last night it was too cold…BUT today was JUST RIGHT!
Before we start on today I have to comment on the forward thinking Portuguese. What we have noticed is that Portugal absolutely DOES NOT do churches like Spain. These Portuguese churches are quite beautiful in their simplicity and lack of ornamentation – particularly the lack of gold is very obvious. However, we have become mildly hysterical because clearly some bright spark thought that on the nights that they can’t find someone to pull bell ropes – perhaps technology could help. Hence, in almost every town at every half hour are BOOMING recordings of bells and the most hysterical was the town where they were playing the tune of “The Bells of St Clements” at 10 decibels above the legal limit. We’ve also had “Ave Maria” and a Bach Tocatta and Fugue (it seemed to take half and hour to finish which made it pretty useless chiming the half hour!).
Today was a great walk. The scenery was wonderful particulalry walking through a valley for the better part of an hour. The photos just don’t capture depth or height – so high! I was getting texts and phone calls and the quiet was very much interrupted by the sounds of Lado and Koleda singing. I don’t think I will ever forget this experience of watching from afar.
We walked past windmills, vineyards and olive and orange groves. The WINNER of the day was the almost two hours we spent in the excavated Roman ruins at Conimbriga (Condeixa-a-Velha). This is the largest and best preserved Roman settlement in Portugal. The Romans arrived here in 139 BC and built a settlement on what was a Celtic settlement. Excavations commenced in the late 1800’s and implements back to the Iron Age in the 9th century BC have been found at the site. We were blown away – the mosaics are stunning and boy did those Romans have a thing about baths and bath houses – they were BIG on cool – medium and hot baths…what a pity that the owner of the house we stayed in last night wasn’t Roman (we had no water in the house this morning!!) Anway, we spent a couple of hours wandering around continuing to marvel at the ingenuity of the Romans. It seems to have taken a long time to get back to the level of innovation that they seemed to have remarkably captured 2000+ years ago.
We have a relatively short walk into Coimbra tomorrow and then a day off – washing and repairs!
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Loving following your journey , especially in real time being in the Northern Hem with you. My aching legs from being a tourist pales into insignificance.
Hey – nope I think hoofing around a city is sometimes worse than what we are doing – so great that at least we are in the same hemisphere…coz Subi to Coogee is obviously a hazard… heading to Vela Luka for a swim with mum, Melinda and her crew, Jordan for a week and Rad – looking forward to eating grilled fish – how long are you away for?
Only two more days and back on the plane…short but sweet. Yum to grilled fish in vela Luka.
Bypass and head to Vela Luka – we will be there soon!!!!Tell em we’re on our way….
Who would have imagined churches without bling in a European country! As Portugal was a main player in its day one would have thought that their churches would have rivalled Italy and Croatia for the overall tonnage of gold leaf.
The Roman mosaics in Condeixa-a-Velha are so beautiful and in such amazing condition – they look as if they have just recently been laid.
Enjoy Coimbra.