Living With The Wild Boys…

March 16, 2025

For those of you that have chosen to come on this journey with me, you will agree that this was a very varied trip. We travelled by car, bus, articulated electric streetcar, metro, vintage tram, 4×4, regular train, high speed train, e-bike, tuk tuk, ferry, and of course, many many kilometres on foot.

We ate all sorts of things, many we have never seen or heard of before. We have learned so much from so many people. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful when we needed it. My mind has been opened in so many ways by my time there.

And, as always, I know that there is so much more to see, and that I have barely scratched the surface of this beautiful country. I hope that I get a chance to go back one day and continue exploring.

Here are a few photos that didn’t fit in my earlier posts.

March 14, 2025

Even though we went to sleep late, we had to get up early to embark on our final day trip in Portugal. We chose to visit a town called Évora.

Évora has a long history going back to Roman times, and that was one of the reasons we wanted to go. Also, we had a strong recommendation from Harriet and Shelly, who had been there a couple of years ago.

After taking a modern electric tram, and a high speed train, we found ourselves in Évora by about 10:30am.

We walked about 20 minutes from the station to the centre square. Here’s a couple of things we saw along the way:

The centre square was left over from the Roman times. There were 8 different roads fanning out from this central location.

We walked to the temple of Diana first and read about these ruins. We looked at the view of the surrounding area from the “acropolis” of the town.

We then headed directly through the winding streets to our second priority, which was the Chapel of Bones. I had never heard of this before. The chapel inside walls and pillars are literally made and decorated with bones. We had an interesting conversation with Teva about how we felt about it vs. what the people then had intended by building the chapel out of bones.

With further research we found out this bone temple is the oldest in Portugal, but it is not the only one. Further, there are other similar chapels elsewhere in Europe. I have to admit, I had some trouble wrapping my head around this concept. Mostly because, in Judaism, there are many rules about the treatment of human remains, and this was counter to those teachings. 

There were several tours with guides coming into the chapel; I overheard one of the guides talking about how this chapel was a place for quiet contemplation. Having this huge group of people talking was definitely not conducive to any meditation. Also, there was a family who was on a loud video call in the middle of the chapel, trying to share the visuals of the chapel. 

This is a poem which was in the Chapel:

Where are you going in such a hurry, traveler?
Pause…do not advance your travel.
You have no greater concern than this one: 
That which is now before your eyes.

Recall how many have passed from this world,
Reflect on your similar end.
There is good reason to do so;
If only all did the same.

Ponder, you so influenced by fate,
Among the many concerns of the world,
So little do you reflect on death.

If by chance you glance at this place,
Stop … for the sake of your journey,
The longer you pause, the further on your journey you will be.

The chapel of bones was within another museum, so we went through it as well, seeing yet another ornately decorated cathedral covered in beautiful devotional oil paintings, figures, intricate carvings and archways covered in gold leaf and beautiful Azulejos (traditional Portuguese tiles). This cathedral was dedicated by the followers of St Francis, who originally came from the Galicia Region of northern Spain.

On our way back to the temple of Diana, we came across a very interesting building that Teva had spotted down an alleyway. We were trying to figure out what it was, when another couple had done the same thing. Turns out they are from Canada and have spent four months every year in Portugal for the past five years. Funnily enough, their son lives within two blocks of our house in Bowmanville. This is their first time in Évora. They were also wondering what the building was. I went close up to do some reconnaissance and found out it was owned by the military, and was not open to the public. 

We had a fantastic lunch experience in the Mercado building even though most of the vendors were closed for the day. There were a couple of restaurants open, including one called Pizza No Mercado. We got the burrata starter which was amazing. The pizzas were also incredible!

While we were eating lunch, I heard some music coming from inside the Mercado building. It was three men, sitting at a table in the foodcourt playing music. One of them had a ukulele and another had a guitar.

Here is small clandestine video I took (turn up the volume to hear it as I was a bit far away)

They also sang a song that David Broza translated into Hebrew Called “Kmo sh’at” or “Como Tu” in Spanish – not sure if they were singing in Spanish or Portuguese.

We wanted to see the Roman baths but they were closed for restoration, so we went to the Évora Museum next to the temple of Diana. There was a decent sized exhibit of archaeological artifacts from the area around Evora. Created in 1915, it traces Évora’s long history and culture, and was officially dedicated to Frei Manuel do Cenáculo in 2017. Frei Manuel do Cenáculo was an 18th-century monk who became the bishop of Évora and collected many of the archaeological pieces of the collection, which also includes art from extinct convents and churches.

There were a wide variety of artifacts, from many different eras. The amount of detail on these sculptures is amazing.

Also what was interesting were a series of “faked” Roman gravestone artifacts from the 15th century. They were created to detail a false and inflated history of Évora to generate more interest in the area, possibly bringing business in from far way.

On the second floor was an extensive exhibit of devotional oil paintings from different chapels and cathedrals. Many were actually painted by Friar Manuel Cenáculo, Archbishop of Évora.

One of the highlights of this museum for me was an exhibition of some of the work submitted in the 25th International Youth Art Meeting.

From the museum plaque:

“Students of Art Schools from Albania, Germany, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, China, Croatia, Egypt, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Russian Federation, Hungary, India, Israel, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine, with ages between 7 and 18 years old, participated in the contest phase of this 25th International Meetings of Youth Art, whose theme is “The wondrous sea depth”.

From this phase there was a selection of the best collection that defined the representations to be present in the activities to draw and paint Évora, in open studios in the city streets, which is intended to be a day dedicated to the Frei Manuel do Cenáculo National Museum, in an initiative titled “One day at the Museum”, activity that began in 2022.

This exhibition is divided in two parts: in the larger room you shall see works of the “One day at the Museum” initiative, in which the exhibitors glossed the artwork of this institution; in the smaller room the prizewinners of this year’s Contest who come from Portugal, Serbia and Hong Kong.”

Here are some of the submissions from the “One day at the museum category.” Most of these students were around 14 years old.

We really enjoyed the vibe of Évora. We didn’t feel pressure to see everything in one day, but I can see how you could easily spend a relaxing couple of days here taking in all of the sights.

While in Évora, Aubrey and I both bought a Portuguese version of Birkenstocks. They were mostly made of cork, and I chose a pair with a traditional Azulejos pattern on them.

The gentlemen who owned the store told us that Birkenstock had actually opened a factory in Portugal and was producing sandals with all Portuguese cork. We also bought a few kinds of tinned fish that Portugal is famous for. I forgot to take a photo at the store, but here is a photo from the store in the airport. One of their trademark things for their bigger stores seem to be a brightly coloured ferris wheel of tinned fish 🙂 They also have the largest selection of tinned fish varieties and one store outside of Portugal, located in Times Square, NYC. Here is their website: https://portuguesesardine.us

As we were running for the train out of Évora, we saw this in the sidewalk – I have absolutely loved all of the public artwork in Portugal that we have found, sometimes in the most unexpected places.

We headed back to Lisbon to meet up with Aidan for dinner.  We had a bit of an adventure on the way back. You see, on the way there we took this modern electric tram, and we tapped our  credit card on the machine in the tram – no problem. This time when we got on, it would not accept credit cards. We did not want to get caught on the tram when we hadn’t paid, so we hopped off at the next stop, found a machine to load our transit card, and then got back on the next tram. We only had 4 minutes to figure it out, as we didn’t want to miss the ferry. When we got back on the tram, only two of the three cards reloaded properly. So, we stayed on and hoped no one would check. I held onto my receipt in case an inspector came on before the ferry terminal. Luckily none did.

Aidan met us at the ferry terminal around 7:15. He had a busy few days since we saw him last, so it was great to meet up again. It took us wandering awhile before we found an available restaurant called Meson Andaluz. There was only space on the patio on the stairs outside the restaurant. It was interesting Andalusian cuisine from Spain.

It was a bit chilly, but the food was fantastic, and we were there for several hours eating. We ordered four or five tapas and then two entrees, but we were still hungry, so we ordered three more tapas and two more entrees. It was a lovely dinner that we savoured. Really outstanding.

Again, we had a lovely time with Aidan and didn’t get home until midnight. We had to pack and didn’t get to sleep until about 1 am and then had to get up at 4:30 to go to the airport.

March 13, 2025 Part 2

After our initial mixup of where we were supposed to go, we made it to the synagogue. We knew we were in the right place because there were security and police outside the door. They asked us several questions and then let us in the gate that opened to a courtyard. The synagogue building itself was set back from the street. The main facade of the synagogue faces an inner courtyard, since Portuguese law in the 19th century forbade non-Catholic religious temples from facing the street. This building finally had the permission to be built in the late 19th century and was completed in 1904. We came in at the same time as a young woman from the US, who I ended up sitting next to in the women’s section upstairs. The sanctuary was beautiful.

I had brought three wigs and a couple of costume pieces for us to wear when we came to the synagogue. It was the Jewish Festival of Purim, celebrating the survival of the Jewish people with the help of Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai. The King had an evil advisor named Haman who orchestrated a genocidal plot against the Jews. In the synagogue, people dress up in costumes, the Megillah or scroll is read, and as the story is told, everyone makes noise to blot out the name of the villain Haman. This reading was particularly chaotic: Kids running around and yelling on the top floors, timed noise-making, and a lot of talking (particularly in the women’s section). We were one floor up from the men and were having trouble hearing the words to follow along above the din, especially as there were no microphones used, as is tradition.

The American woman who came in at the same time as us had also picked up the wrong copy of the Megillah (written in Portuguese and transliterated Hebrew). There was another lady sitting next to us from England who had the English and Hebrew version, so the three of us crowded together to share one book. 

It was a powerful experience. All around me were people from all over the world speaking different languages. I heard Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, English and French. I shared the book with two other women who felt that it was important enough to come to the synagogue to participate in this joyous ritual in spite of being far away from their home communities.

Here is a short video clip:

Even though I couldn’t make out every world above the noise, the energy in the synagogue was positive and joyful, and I feel very lucky to have had the experience that I did.

The British woman (on the left) had made arrangement to join the local congregation for a breaking of the fast meal. Observant Jews fast for the day before Purim starts to remember that Queen Esther fasted for three days before she had to confront the King with the information that his trusted advisor had sentenced her to death in his genocidal plan. Esther had hidden her identity as a Jew before this and felt she needed help from G!d to have the strength to do what she needed to do.

We hadn’t had the chance to make any prior arrangements, so we didn’t want to intrude. Instead, we invited the young American woman (Arden) to join us for a celebratory Purim dinner.

Here are a couple of photos we took in the courtyard before heading out to dinner:

We went to a lovely restaurant we found very close by called Chao de Padras (translated to “The Stone Floor”). On the wall is a quote which translates to: “If there are stones blocking your way, keep them, someday you will use them to build a castle”.

Again, all of the food was delicious. We tried a variety of things, including something called rooster fish and Portuguese goat cheese with red wine cooked pears, We enjoyed getting to know our dinner companion, Arden, learning a small part of the story of her life. It reminded me of when I was younger, travelling the world, living fully in the moment. It also made me grateful for how far I have come, and for the fact I have hopefully still a long way to go, with amazing things still to come in my life going forward.

Great food, good company, all in a day full of amazing experiences. We enjoyed our walk home but didn’t get home until 11:35. It was then that I had made a mistake with the time difference; my midnight Clarington Diversity Advisory Committee Meeting online, actually started at 11pm Lisbon time, so I was already late. I had made the time calculations earlier, but I forgot about daylight savings in Canada (but not Portugal) the previous weekend. It was a middle-aged brain fart. I joined the meeting late but was still able to have a chance to weigh in on the response to some nazi swastika graffiti found spray-painted on a playground in Courtice, within our municipality of Clarington. 

My meeting wasn’t finished until around 1am, so we had another late night, followed by a very early morning tomorrow. It seems we will be undoing our sleep-in from this morning and will be back on a sleep deficit.

March 13th 2025

We got another late start. We were exhausted. After much deliberation (so many choices!), we decided to go to the National Tile Museum. The museum is set in Madre de Deus Convent, founded in 1509 and its collections allow a journey through the history of tile, from 15th century till present day.

It is located up the coast, northeast of where are staying. The tile museum was fascinating. We had seen so many beautiful tiles on the walls and floors of cathedrals, chapels, palaces, and mansions. Going to this museum gave us a better understanding of the influences on the tile making, and how the techniques and production overlapped and were influenced by other cultures. As it is with most Art History, the sharing of techniques and styles between artists transcends borders. The word Azulejo comes from the Arabic word azzelij or al zeleycha which means “small polished stone” and refers to a ceramic piece, usually squared with one side glazed.

First, the wikipedia definition of Azulejo:

Azulejo is a form of Portuguese and Spanish painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. Azulejos are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, restaurants, bars and even railways or subway stations. They are an ornamental art form, but also had a specific functional capacity, like temperature control in homes.

There is also a tradition of their production in former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in North America, South America, the Philippines, Goa, Lusophone Africa, East Timor, and Macau. Azulejos constitute a major aspect of Portuguese architecture and Spanish architecture to this day and are fixtures of buildings across Portugal, Spain and their former territories. Many azulejos chronicle major historical and cultural aspects of both Portuguese and Spanish history.^[3]

After the museum we had time to go for lunch. We just walked into a restaurant called Gelo Cafe off one of the main squares. Aubrey and I tried two types of cod: one was prepared a traditional Portuguese way with string potatoes, scrambled eggs and crispy onions all mixed up together, and the other was cooked like a fish steak with garlic, tomato, herbs and garlic and leeks.

Teva of course had a steak. He eats constantly and wants beef at least once a day if he can. The restaurant has a long history connected to rebellion in Portugal. Although it was initially connected to the collection of ice from the mountains (hence the name “gelo” meaning “ice”) up north to cool the royal palace, the two men who assassinated King Carlos II and the royal prince started their journey from the restaurant. Carlos’ younger son assumed the throne for two years, until the fall of the monarchy in Portugal. His mother lived the rest of her life in exile.

Our friend Shari just returned from Portugal a couple of weeks ago and highly recommended a tuktuk driver, Silvia. They took a tour of the Belem area, so we booked her for this afternoon, as our previous plan was to do the tour on our own.

We passed by the famous Pink Street again, this time during the day:

Unfortunately, both major attractions in Belem were not open, due to weather and/or maintenance, but we could still admire them from the outside. We learned a lot of interesting things about the city and street art on the way there, and then our first stop was at the original pastry shop for the Pasteis de Nata. The original recipe was from the monks who lived at the Jeronimos monastery. Traditionally, the monks would use an egg white mixture starch their robes and habits while ironing them, and so they always had a plethora of egg yolks in the monastery. They developed a custard recipe with those egg yolks. The monastery was also selling them before getting shut down in 1834, as a result of the religious orders being expelled during the Liberal Revolution.

To continue their production, the former clerics from the monastery sold the recipe to a confeitaria close by, which quickly became the most famous bakery of Lisbon and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today, the iconic Pastéis de Belém (not “pastéis de nata” as they are called in the rest of the country) can be prepared only by six master bakers who know the original secret recipe from the Belém’s monks. We were told that there are three different chefs making the dough and the filling, and each only knows their own part. So, no one but the family has the original recipe. Since then, the Pasteis de Nata have become a traditional Portuguese food enjoyed throughout the country, not just in Belem.

I had tried them at home before, but the tarts here are really next level. We were able to tour the bakery, hear about the history, and then, of course, buy them from their vintage counter. Our guide told us that every day they make at least 20,000 tarts at that location, and on the high season the number explodes to 50,000!

As you may imagine, several other bakeries sell tarts in the area, but these are the OG tarts. Personally, I haven’t found a tart this week that I didn’t like, but I think I would agree that the OG are slightly better, but maybe it is psychological.

From there, we continued on to the Jeronimos Monastery and Church. The church was designed by King Manuel in his mixed architectural Manueline style. It took almost exactly 100 years to build, and it was his grandson who finished the project. It is closed for renovation and cleaning right now, but I think it is worth it. Comparing the church outside, now cleaned for the first time in 500 years, with the uncleaned monastery walls, the difference is substantial. I guess we will have to come back to eat more tarts and see the inside another time 🙂 To clean the outside, it took four years for six people to do the painstaking work, one section at a time, as to not have to close the monastery to tourists. Now they have a crew of 40 working on the inside, and are trying to complete it in 4 months. They do not want the attraction to be closed during high season this summer.

We drive by some more of the “trash wall art” of Bordalo II:

Our last stop was the Belem Tower. The three most popular attractions in Portugal are: the Pena Palace, the Belem Cathedral, and the Belem Tower. The idea of a fortress at the mouth of the Tagus River was initially conceived by King John II, but he died before the plans were made. Twenty years later, King Manuel I revisited this plan and commissioned military architect Fransisco de Arid to build a fortress in the shape of a boat in the river, on a tiny island right at the mouth of the river from the ocean stocked with cannons. It was very effective in deterring pirates, who were a big problem at the time, looking for Portugal’s gold and people to take for slaves. If the pirates dared come too close, they would be sunk with a barrage of cannon balls, or by soldier attack, before they entered the river and came close to the walled city.  Lisbon was very well protected from the ocean and a huge part was due to this fort. Over the last two hundred years, after the fort was decommissioned, landfill was used to bring parkland right up to the fort walls. When the tower was active, access was only by boat, even for the soldiers who worked there.

In front of the Belem Tower, there is a gigantic map gifted to Portugal from South Africa with a compass and map of the world inlaid in the floor. This giant map lies in front of a monument commissioned by the dictator Salazar to honour the Portuguese Explorers who went on expeditions to “discover” the new world. Silvia showed us, on the map, the sailing routes the explorers took and the locations of the Portuguese colonies.

By the time Salazar was finally overthrown, the new government gave all of the colonies their independence from Portugal. Salazar was a dictator, and nowadays there is a saying that explains that Salazar did three really good things: 1) He commissioned the new “Golden Gate Bridge” 2) He commissioned this beautiful monument to the great marine explorers and those that supported them and 3) He died.

After our wonderful tour, Silvia dropped us off at what I thought was the address of the synagogue, but I think it was the office of the Jewish Community. We ended up having to frantically figure out how to get to the address of the actual synagogue. Luckily, it was a short subway ride away.

I will continue this in another post specifically about the synagogue experience.

March 12, 2025

We were looking into some tasting tours, but all were fairly expensive and we couldn’t find one to work with our schedule or dietary restrictions. We decided to do our own tasting tour. First off we had a slight sleep-in. We have been burning the candle at both ends and have also been walking more than 20,000 steps everyday.

We headed into town to take the famous Tram 28.

It is a vintage tram that is actually still used for routes through some of the old neighbourhoods with too tight turns for modern buses or streetcars. It connects the Graca and Prazeres neighbourhoods, on a route that passes historic sites, palaces, cathedrals, crosses the Baixa neighbourhood, climbs up to Chiado and ends in Campo de Ourique. Lisbon is a very hilly city and some parts of the tram route barely could fit the tram because the streets were so narrow. We did see a couple of locals on the tram, but most were tourists.

Before we got on the tram, we stopped to eat Pasteis de Nata – the famous Portuguese tarts. We have sampled these from many different Pastelerias and were on a mission to find the best one. This version was excellent.

After the tram ride, we spent the rest of the day walking around in the rain, tasting things along the way. Teva did some souvenir shopping as well in shops as we passed by. Here is a list of some of the interesting things we ate on the street.

Pistachio Croissant – There are Pastelerias on every corner, and they are filled with both savoury and sweet pastries to die for. This croissant was exquisite.

Pastel de Bacalhau – a type of fish “cake” with melted cheese inside – A traditional food of Portugal. Glad we tried it. Koren liked it.

Teva decided he had to try McDonald’s in Portugal to see if they had anything different from home, as Japan had a lot of different options. Most of the things that were “new” were definitely not Kosher style (not that McDonald’s is Kosher), so he settled on having a spicy McCrispy, which we do have at home, but he said it was much better in Portugal.

Here are some photos from the hours we were walking around while tasting things we came across

We wanted to check out the Mercado Campo de Ourique. It is billed as a “market” of restaurants with a common eating area. Many places were closed, but we managed to try food from all different corners of the world.

Salmon Ceviche from a Japanese food vendor – It was a true fusion dish with salmon and toasted corn and root vegetable chips, like Japanese sweet potato and beet chips. It had a surprising flavour profile of all of the 5 tastes.

Tofu Bao – From a place called Banzai Kitchen. Small, soft Bao filled with delicious tofu, seaweed and other things, also was surprisingly delicious covering all the 5 tastes.

Parmesan, and truffle Ravioli with fresh herbs – Teva thought he had died and gone to heaven – delicious.

Chicken Empanada – Portuguese Style

Dolce da Lece crepe with whipped cream – no explanation needed – as as good as it sounds 🙂 And very sweet!

On the way to the bathroom in the Mercado, I stumbled across a small exhibit called “Lightness”. It was a strange side room, flooded with fluorescent light.

Our friend Aidan was literally coming off the plane to move to Lisbon. He dropped off his luggage, picked up the keys to his brand new apartment and met us for dinner. On the way there, we stumbled across a really cool space called MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology). We walked on top of the roof. It was a really cool building. Here is one photo from the Internet, but I will include a link – worth clicking on to see the building during the daytime.

Here is the link to the other views:

https://divisare.com/projects/341188-al_a-piet-niemann-maat-museum-of-art-architecture-and-technology

For dinner with Aidan, I chose a restaurant called O Frade which has been on the Michelin list of restaurants for four years in a row.

Check out their listing on the Michelin site:

https://guide.michelin.com/ca/en/lisboa-region/lisboa/restaurant/o-frade

Surprisingly, we were able to get a reservation the same day. They offered us seats at the counter, but they had some tables on the patio, and we figured we had a lot of catching up to do with Aidan, so it made more sense to sit outside. The food was quite fantastic – It is a family owned restaurant featuring food from the Alentejo region of Portugal. (We will be going to that region when we visit Évora on Friday).

We ordered many things off of their small menu and it was all delicious! We unfortunately forgot to photograph it but here is what we ordered:

Tapas:
Tuna Muxama with Eggs
Aged beef tartare
Creamy eggs with asparagus
Portuguese cheese selection

Mains:
Frade’s Duck Rice
Frade’s octopus and beans stew (Aidan)
Creamy mushrooms rice (veggie)
Fish Xerox with coriander and lemon

Dessert:
Dom Roderigo Lemon and Meringue

The dessert was unlike anything I have ever tasted. I did take a photo:

After I ate it, I did some research and this is what I came up with…

“Dom Rodrigo is a Portuguese dessert that is traditionally associated with the Algarve region, where it’s been made since the 18th century. It is prepared with a combination of egg yolks, sugar, ground almonds, cinnamon, and fios de ovos – a traditional confectionary product consisting of thin egg threads.”

The meringue was unlike another meringue – and I don’t know what kind of nuts those were, but they were fantastic, and that crumbly brown sugary stuff was also great.

Our tasting tour of Lisboa was a success, but for me, the highlight was seeing Aidan. It was so great to hear all of the fascinating things he is doing, and how he is thriving. I can’t wait to hear about his future adventures. We closed the place down at 11:15pm and made a late ferry and then got home around midnight.

After the Jewish Tour of Lisbon, Daniel recommended a traditional Portuguese restaurant called Bom Jardim. Although they served a variety of different foods, the are known especially for their rotisserie chicken with Peri Peri marinade. We ordered chicken, grilled sea bream, potatoes, rice, salad and creamed spinach – it was all great. While we were there, we realized this narrow alley, which was mostly taken up by the restaurant patio, was a high traffic area. Two buskers came by: a singer with his guitar, and a breakdancing troup. There were also several people begging for money, and a man with his two dogs. He would take the plates when people were finished their meals and feed the bones to his dogs. It was unexpectedly a very lively environment to eat lunch in.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city on foot, giving our calf muscles a workout walking up and down all of those hills. We headed over to an area called the LX Factory. It reminded us of a cross between Granville Island in Vancouver and the Distillery District in Toronto. There was a large building with just over 30 concept shops, as well as studios that people in the arts community could rent out to work in.

There were also a ton of restaurants and bars and clubs, and it was hopping at night. We bought some locally made artisanal soaps and shampoo bars, and we really enjoyed seeing the artwork that people were creating.

 

We especially loved this one artist named O Gringo. He is originally from France, but lives in Portugal now. He incorporates tiles, images of people and superimposes traditional Atelejos (traditional Portuguese tile) design patterns over the bodies of the human images.

From Artsper:

O Gringo, aka Bastien Tomasini, is a contemporary mix media artist born in 1988 in Nice on the French Riviera. Throughout his travels, he discovered a passion for preserving the memory of iconic places, magnificent settings, and historical pieces. He draws inspiration from the ancestral tradition of Azulejos, those small hand-painted enameled tiles that adorn the facades and interiors of Mediterranean buildings. O Gringo’s mosaics incorporate the patterns he encounters during his various expeditions in the land of Azulejos, revealing fragments of his history. He often employs the human body as a canvas to express his art, weaving tales of love in which spiritual evocation, history, and modernity converge.

O Gringo’s artistic process always begins with thorough historical research, during which he carefully selects titles for his works to tell meaningful stories and convey emotions through his art. He immerses himself in historical locations that inspire him, such as the splendid National Azulejo Museum in Lisbon, where he memorizes every detail he uncovers on the walls to graphically and historically enrich his love story.

After the LX Factory, we headed to a restaurant our Airbnb host recommended called Santa Bica. It was up a funicular path up a steep hill. We tried some interesting cocktails and mocktails, Teva had one of the top 5 beef dishes of his life, and we enjoyed all of the amazing dishes that we tried. The server was very chatty, as it wasn’t too busy, and he inevitably started talking about politics. The government of Portugal actually fell that day and he explained to us how the Portuguese governmental system works. There was a non confidence motion because it was discovered that the prime minister was caught for a second time in a corruption scandal involving conflicts of interest concerning companies he owned with government contracts. They will go to the polls in May. He figures the same guy will be re-elected in spite of the charges of corruption. It seems almost everywhere is becoming like this now. I will be watching for the outcome of this election with interest now. I am curious to learn more – as if I need to get invested in another broken political system to make me furious; I already have more than I can handle with Israel, Canada and the US.

Great food, great conversations with the two servers, and at the end of the night they brought us some small shots of some traditional Portuguese alcohol – Ginjha (the cherry liquor we were offered after the bike tour) and a Portuguese version of Cognac.  I was not crazy about the latter, and I think I had a bit of a reaction to the former – not too bad, but I wasn’t eager to try it again. Aubrey is bringing a bottle home from duty free so I may try it in my own house when I have nowhere else to be in case I have a reaction.

On the way home, we stumbled upon the famous “pink street” with the suspended umbrellas. Pretty kitschy and fun.

Another great day in Lisboa 🙂

March 11, 2025 (also known as Noam Day in our house since 2006)

Our dear friends, Harriet and Shelly highly recommended this tour, as they did it a couple of years ago, with a guide named Paulo, the only Jewish certified tour guide in Lisbon. When I went to book, I found out that his tours book up sometimes months in advance, and there was no space for the dates we were available.

We were fortunate their other guide, Daniel, was available. While not Jewish himself, he was extremely knowledgeable and we learned so much from him. We did not cover a lot of physical ground from a sightseeing perspective, but it was really a masterclass in the role of the Jewish Community through the history of the land that is now called Portugal.

The Jewish presence in the Iberian Peninsula can be traced back over 2000 years to pre-Roman times, although there have been several waves of arrivals, departures, and then returns at other times over the last two millennia.

In general, the Jewish Communities in Europe were able to survive due to several important factors: literacy, numeracy, resiliency, multilingualism, and risk tolerance. In Portugal in particular, many Jews basically existed as a middle class at a time when a middle class did not really exist. They were not really allowed entry to the aristocracy, but because of their particular skill set, they were often found in places of influence as advisors, physicians, treasurers, or navigators to the elite class.

Most Jews were merchants and deeply connected to the trading of commodities of all kinds. For example, when the sea channels were opened up by the Portuguese explorers, Jews were at the forefront of moving spices and other goods and bringing them to market.

Generally, the Jewish community thrived under the Portuguese royalty, under Muslim rule, and at first, under the Catholic Monarchs, by being helpful to whomever was in charge. As merchants, they were able to maintain financial independence, operating outside the system, but still contributing taxes to the ruling power. They had skills the rulers needed and could pay people in high places for protection if it became necessary. Their situation changed radically at the end of the 15th century with the fall of the last Islamic Kingdom. The new Catholic Monarchy were more extreme. In 1492, the Jews of Spain were told to either convert or be expelled. In 1496, when King Manuel I married the daughter of the Spanish King to cement their alliance, Portugal had to follow suit and issue the same ultimatum. Of course, even though thousands of Jews were converted, the new office of the inquisitor was charged with surveillance and torture of “New Christians” who were constantly under scrutiny and were often called in to name others who were secretly still practicing their faith.

In spite of this practice, Jews (New Christians) were able to put their skills to good use and tried to make their way in the church. They were not allowed to become priests, but we learned of several people who made significant contributions as New Christians, especially the Jesuit order, who similar to Judaism had a strong mandate for education. The Jewish Community members who stayed and converted assimilated into the fabric of Portuguese society. In fact, in 2008, a genetic study was done and almost 20% of the Portuguese population was thought to be of some percentage of Jewish descent.

We also know that many of those enthusiastic New Christians were actually practicing Judaism in secret, holding onto some of their most cherished traditions. As a result, when or where it was safe to do so, many Jews publicly returned to their faith, even hundreds of years later.

The Jewish population in Portugal had significantly dropped, but there was a synagogue built around 1904. It has been renovated a couple of times but still stands as an active synagogue today. We will actually be going there to hear the Megillah (scroll of Esther) read on the Jewish festival of Purim on the evening of March 13th (see that blog post after I have a chance to write it).

During World War II, several Portuguese diplomats secretly issued visas to help Jews escape the Nazis and occupied Europe. The most famous of these diplomats was Aristides de Sousa Mendes. As the Portuguese consul-general in Bordeaux he defied the orders of the dictator Antonio Salazar and issued visas and passports to thousands of refugees fleeing the Nazis, including thousands of Jews. When he was discovered, he was fined and removed from his post. They still continued to pay him a small, but adequate pension, but he was forcibly retired. In 1988, after the carnation revolution when his dictatorship was toppled, Sousa Mendez was vindicated. In 1966, a tree and plaque was dedicated in his honour at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem as a “righteous among the nations”. In July 2024, a museum was inaugurated in his name in Cabanas de Viriato, Portugal, recognizing the fact that he saved thousands of immigrants during the war.

In addition, there is another story of an operation led by Leite Pinto, former minister of education in Salazar’s cabinet. They smuggled thousands of refugees, mostly Jews, in sealed train cars. High ranking people in the government were aware but kept it quiet. Once they arrived, several Portuguese service assistance associations, sponsored by the government, were tasked with the integration of hosting of these newcomers. Many people were hosted by regular Portuguese familes.

There has been a recent rise in the Jewish population. In April 2013, Portugal followed Spain’s lead and passed a law of return. This allowed descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled in the inquisition to claim Portuguese citizenship provided that they ‘belong to a Sephardic community of Portuguese origin with ties to Portugal’ without a requirement for residence. At one point the Jewish population had been reduced to a mere 600 people, but now there are an estimated five to six thousand people.

This was just a small sample of what we learned on this tour, plus some research I was prompted to do on my own after the tour. Daniel is writing a book, we will look forward to reading it when he finishes it. This was a long post so I will write about the rest of the day in another post.

Today was a very long, very full day. So full that I am still processing all the sights and information I encountered today. We were running a bit late, so we opted to splurge on an Uber to take us the hour ride to Sintra. Unfortunately for us, we got stuck in terrible traffic and ended up being delayed by 40 minutes. We would have been better off taking the public transit after all! We did get a chance to chat in French with our driver: Teva’s face was classic when the driver asked if we could speak French, when he realized that we did not speak Portuguese. Teva was so excited that he could understand someone!
We arrived in the centre of the old part of the city of Sintra. The town has a labyrinth of narrow, windy, hilly cobblestone streets with quaint shops and pubs and restaurants (quite touristy of course), but very nice to walk around. This part of the city has at least 16 major tourist attractions. Because we were only there for part of a day, we managed to see three of the major ones, and took our time. As it was, it was too much information to cram into my head for one day anyway.

Our first stop was the National Palace of Sintra. It is the best-preserved medieval royal residence in Portugal, being inhabited more or less continuously from at least the early 15th century to the late 19th century. It is a significant tourist attraction and is part of the cultural landscape of Sintra, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. The artifacts were so interesting, with a mixture of architectural and decorative styles. The history behind the residents of the Palace was also fascinating. We were able to walk through the entire palace, including a couple of winding staircases up or down from turrets. There were several open courtyards, designed for interactions between royals and the court or guests; back staircases for servants to get around undetected; amazingly ornate royal bedrooms (floors, ceilings, walls, furniture); some quite plain royal bedrooms; and some quite fancy bedrooms of the lady in waiting. We spent about an hour admiring the rooms and certainly could have spent more. We were also very impressed with the gigantic kitchen (complete with three storey open white chimneys) that was able to feed hundreds of people at any given time. We all took so many pictures, so here are a few highlights…

Our next stop (after a long bus up the hill) was the famous National Palace of Pena. It is so unique with colourful turrets, beautiful tiling and sculptures, and gorgeous grounds. The only downside is that it was packed with people – you had to buy timed tickets, and we were just crammed in, moving very slowly though the building, waiting for our turn to look through the rooms. We did really enjoy the grounds though. It was the opposite of the experience inside. There were many trails you could follow through the lush vegetation and find some peace and quiet. We found several stone benches and thrones for the Queen, as well as a series of created ponds with small waterfalls connecting the water as we descended back to town.

After a long walk in the rain, our final attraction for the day was the Quinta de Regaleira. The property consists of a small romantic palace and chapel, and a luxurious park that features lakes, grottos, wells, benches, fountains, and a vast array of exquisite constructions. The palace is also known as “The Palace of Monteiro the Millionaire”, which is based on the nickname of its best known former owner, António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro. The palace was designed by the Italian architect Luigi Manini.

This barely scratches the surface of the amount of photos we took. There were so many beautiful things to witness.

We could have stayed there for much longer but we were absolutely soaked and it was getting dark. We wandered through the cobblestone streets and found a tiny pub tucked away called the “Lord Byron”.

The food was delicious – we sampled more of the local cheese and olives, as well as eating a panini made of cod and tomato and cheese – not a combination I would have thought of, and it was great!

We also tried some Portugese Bandido cider

The pub slowly filled up and a variety of languages could be heard. It was a wonderful way to end our adventure in Sintra. By the time we finished dinner, Teva was hungry again. So, once the ferry had us back in Almada, we bought a snack pizza after 10 pm. It was loaded with veggies. This was the first of many late nights, always home after dark and with dinner later and later each night.

We really enjoyed our time in Sesimbra, but we were looking forward to our time in Lisboa. I managed to move our Monday E-bike tour to today. We set out early to start our transit adventure. It would not be a Kassirer family vacation without some running for a bus or train, so of course we ended up running for the first bus. Today was the Lisbon marathon, so the regular route was changed as the bridge from the south to Lisbon was closed. Instead of taking two buses, we had to take a bus, a train and then another bus, although it turns out the last method of transportation was actually a metro, but we didn’t realize that until we looked at the bus stop and realized we were supposed to go underground to take the metro instead.

Interestingly, the main bridge in Lisboa (called the 25th of April bridge) is actually a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, made by the same architect, thirty years after the original was built in San Francisco. That is the bridge where the runners were running, so it was closed to traffic, but the train could go under the runners on that same bridge 🙂

We arrived at the bike shop quite early, so were planning to go for lunch before the tour at 2:00. The shop had graciously agreed to let us store our bags for us during the day. As we were unloading, we noticed a group arriving for the noon tour. We asked and there was room, so we joined the earlier tour.

There were 9 people in our group – 6 from the Netherlands, 2 from Germany and the three of us. Lisbon is a very hilly city, so I was very happy that we had electric assisted bikes. Even on the craziest, steepest hills, we were able to get up very easily. On turbo mode, pedalling uphill felt no different that on flat ground! What a dream! If only I had one of these at home!

The tour lasted over 3 hours, and we covered most of the city. Our guide Jwan was excellent, and we learned so much. He gave us a lot of historical context which we really appreciated. Here are a few highlights from the tour:

After the tour we took a bus and then a ferry to check into our condo in Almada, a neighborhood right across the Tagus river from downtown Lisbon. After loading up our ferry transit cards for the week, we decided to eat at a restaurant right outside the ferry terminal. We ordered the grilled mixed fish plate. Wow! It was really something!

Tomorrow we are heading to Sintra for a day trip…

The weather today was weird. At times, rainy and blustery, at times calm and sunny, and other times everywhere in between: cloudy, windy, or something else. We were never sure what would happen next. Luckily our tour was in a Range Rover.

We started off the day with a beautiful rainbow.

We walked about half an hour to the meeting spot for the tour. The sea was really rough – good thing we were not kayaking. We met our guide Francisco and he brought along with him three trainees. Francisco’s English was excellent, and he was very knowledgeable. Our first stop was to see some dinosaur footprints. He told us a story of the Avelino Quarry that unearthed evidence of footprints in between layers of the sedimentary rock; specifically, Sauropod footprints.

We spent three hours driving through the Arrabida Nature Park. Two of our stops were looking over sheer cliffs with stunning beaches below. Unfortunately when we went out of the car to look at one of them, we were pelted with rain and wind, but it was still beautiful. Here are a couple photos.

Francisco taught us a lot about the local plants, especially once he realized I am a plant nerd. I was particularly fascinated by a flower that starts out as a beautiful yellow flower but then later turns purple.

We then visited an interesting monument, dedicated to “Our Lady of the Cape”. Here is the official description from the site itself:

”The origins of the cult performed at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Cape Espichel dates to the 15th century. Most of the buildings centre about the sanctuary, except for the Memory Hermitage, also known as Nossa Senhora da Pedra Mua Hermitage. The sanctuary and its associated buildings date to the 17th and 18th centuries, a period of pilgrimage which received royal attention and protection, especially during the reign of King José I.
The origins of the sanctuary are connected to a legend, which relates that two elderly people – one from Caparica (on the south bank of the River Tagus) and another from Alcabideche (near Cascais) – dreamed about Our Lady appearing on top of the cliffs of Cape Pedra Mua riding a gigantic she-mule. Inspired by their dream they followed their calling and met at the top of the promontory where they found the miraculous image of Our Lady. The footprints of the she-mule left on the stones of the promontory continue to bear witness to the veracity of the legend, although in reality these are footprints of two types of dinosaur (one being the largest footprint of this type).

Source: [https://explore.museumwnf.org/countries/c-pt/l-154/m-234/lan-en]”

This complex had the chapel, long rows of accommodations for pilgrims in the past, as well as the ruins of an Opera house and other buildings that housed the royal family at the time as their vacation home.

Our last stop on the tour was Castelo de Sesimbra. There was of course another chapel, but also many ruins of buildings, and a large border wall.

After our tour we went to a restaurant recommended by our guide called Lobo do Mar. It had amazing grilled fish with a host of side dishes. We tried Black Scabbard fish, Grouper and Stone Bass. Delicious!

We waited to leave the restaurant until the rain cleared up again and had a lovely walk along the beach without the rain and wind we were dealing with earlier. Note the black rocks more familiar in Canada, here from when the continents were connected.

We were so full from dinner, we decided to go to the closest mini mercado to buy ingredients to make some nice pasta at our home away from home.

Sesimbra was an interesting and low key start to our Portugal adventure. We are looking forward to our next phase of our adventure in Lisbon starting tomorrow 🙂