Algarve Portugal - Prince Henry Disappoints Me

There are some very attractive destinations to visit in Portugal, so let us begin by naming four of them. There is Estoril, a coastal resort near Lisbon. Estoril was a popular destination for royalty who had been forcibly retired by their subjects. If former kings and queens decided to spend their exile in Estoril, it must have had something going for it.

Then there is Oporto in the north of Portugal, the city that port wine comes from. There are dozens of different companies in Oporto producing port wine, and even more opportunities to taste and compare their various blends.

Then there is the university city of Coimbra, midway between Lisbon and Oporto. Founded in 1290, at about the same time as Oxford and Cambridge, the university dominates the area. It has filled the city with medieval monuments and writers and artists, not to mention tens of thousands of students.

Finally, there is Lisbon itself, the capital of Portugal, sitting on the banks of the Tagus just where that river flows into the Atlantic. One of the largest cities in Europe at the time, it was almost entirely destroyed by earthquake in 1755 and 35,000 people were killed.  Although there was a record of prior earthquakes in the area, what seems to have hit Lisbon then was a tsunami.  At the time of this destruction, huge waves were hitting the coast as far south as Morocco and as far north as England and Ireland. Yet, Lisbon was the center of the devastation. It has since been beautifully rebuilt.

Christo-Rei in Lisbon

What catches the eye on visiting Lisbon is the Christo-Rei  statue, facing Lisbon on the opposite bank of the river. It was built to thank God for the neutrality of Portugal during the Second World War and is based on a similar statue, which overlooks Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The statue is a figure of Christ, with outstretched arms, rising to a height of several hundred feet and appearing to embrace Lisbon.

With such glorious sights to see in Portugal, I hesitate to tell you where I always finished up.  Certainly I did visit all the fine cities mentioned above but, on my trips to Portugal every August in the late 1960s, I would always head for the Algarve.

Click on video below for more information on the Algarve.

The Algarve is the southern region of Portugal, the coast of which faces across to Morocco.  The name derives from the Arabic words, Al Gharb, which means “the west”.  The area was conquered by the Moors in 711 AD and remained under their occupation for the next 500 years.

Cape St. Vincent

The coast of the Algarve runs for about 100 miles in an east-west direction.  Then it makes a right angled turn at Cape St Vincent and continues for 35 miles to the north.  Cape St Vincent is famous for many reasons.  It is the extreme south west tip of Europe.  It was the burial place for many centuries of the Christian martyr, St Vincent.  It has a tall lighthouse visible for many miles.  It was the scene of two major naval victories by the British over the Spanish in 1780 and in 1797.  In the first battle, the British fleet was on its way to end a siege of Gibraltar by the Spanish.  In the second battle, Nelson participated.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Long before those battles however, Prince Henry the Navigator was based at Cape St Vincent.  In 1419, he built himself a fine villa there and had Daddy (King John I of Portugal) appoint him Governor of the Algarve.  Now I have always admired how explorers of that time, based in Portugal, undertook risky voyages to open up the sea routes of the world.  There were Magellan and Columbus and Vasco da Gama and many others.  I always believed that Prince Henry the Navigator was part of that brave tradition.  In fact, he never went to sea.  He never even left Portugal.  He arranged for others to take the risks and the hardships, while he kept the comfort and the glory.  Even though, he was a good man who led a long and happy life, am I alone in feeling a little disappointed by Henry?



Click on video below for more information on Prince Henry and his accomplishments.

Fishing boats in Monte Gordo

The south facing coast of the Algarve begins in the east at the Spanish border which is marked by the River Guadiana.  The Portuguese border town on the banks of that river is Vila Real de Santo Antonio, next to which was a little fishing village called Monte Gordo.  I say “was”, because in forty years it has much changed.  It is now a bustling resort, but it was Monte Gordo that I would visit every August.  In that area, the land is flat and the beaches are wide and sandy.  Thanks to the waters of the nearby River Guadiana, the sea is warm and it’s the sunniest place in Europe.  Moving along the coast to the west, the beaches become far rockier and much more fashionable.  One passes Olhao, Faro (with its international airport), Albufeira, Portimao, Lagos, Sagres and finally Cape St Vincent.  Compared with these resorts, nobody knew Monte Gordo.  Yet, all those years ago, it was bliss to sit on the beach there at twilight and watch the lantern-lit fishing boats bobbing their way home. It was bliss to be working one’s way through a plate of grilled sardines, washed down by the local vinho verde or by a Sagres beer. It is no surprise to me that this little fishing village has now become so popular.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on April 21, 2009.

Madeira - Dreamers Get Lucky

Reid’s Hotel

Arriving by ship at the Atlantic Ocean island of Madeira, it is Reid’s Hotel that commands one’s attention. It’s perched high on a cliff, overlooking both the ocean and Funchal, the capital city. It demonstrates that dreams can come true. William Reid was a 14 year old cabin boy from Scotland, when he first stepped ashore on the island in 1836. He was penniless, so he entered the wine trade and made a fortune exporting Madeira wine. He bought the present rocky site of Reid’s Hotel and had it covered with many tons of rich soil. Nature went to work and eventually the site was a magnificent sub-tropical garden instead of a bleak rock. Finally, he started building a grand hotel on the site in 1887, over half a century after he first arrived on the island. He died before its completion, but his sons finished off their father’s dream. Reid’s Hotel opened for business in 1891 and has long been recognized as one of the world’s finest.

When someone chases a dream with determination, unforeseen events so often conspire to help. In other words, you get lucky! In the 1880’s, huge quantities of gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa, thereby creating some very wealthy people needing to travel regularly between South Africa and Europe. At that time, air travel was something for the future. Wilbur and Orville Wright’s earliest contraption did not take off until 1903. Therefore luxurious ocean liners began to ply the route between the port of Southampton, England and the port of Cape Town in South Africa. That’s a voyage of over 7000 miles. There had to be somewhere for these ships to break the journey and there, midway between the two ports, sits Madeira. Ocean liners began to deposit wealthy people on the island for a visit of a few days. They all stayed at Reid’s and loved it….which was just as well, because it was the only place in town to stay, while their ship re-supplied itself.

William Reid

Now my point is this. When William Reid was spreading rich soil over the rock he had just bought and planning his hotel, he could not possibly have foreseen the existence of those wealthy customers. The gold and diamonds had not even been discovered. Gold mining in South Africa did not even start until 1886. Why did he even expect a demand for a five star hotel on a tiny island in mid-Atlantic? However good a businessman he may have been, where did he expect his hotel customers to come from? Madeira is 360 miles off the North African coast and 583 miles off the south western tip off Europe. It’s on the same latitude as Atlanta, Georgia. The island is only 30 miles long by 13 miles wide. Who on earth would want to go there, particularly before the days of air travel? And how did William Reid know about the future discoveries in far away South Africa that would make his dream succeed? Yet succeed it did and the list of celebrity guests over the past century or so is formidable.

Terrace at Reid’s Hotel

Long ago, I enjoyed afternoon tea on the terrace of Reid’s Hotel, overlooking the ocean. It helped compensate me for a disappointment. We all know that only one tenth of an iceberg emerges above sea level. Madeira is just like that. The surrounding ocean is extremely deep, but volcanic activity has thrust upwards from the ocean floor a slim finger of material. The top of the finger broke the surface of the water and became the island of Madeira. The highest point in Madeira is over 6000 feet above sea level, but the ocean floor is several miles below sea level. When I visited Madeira, I donned my mask, snorkel and flippers and drifted along the surface looking downwards at the miles of ocean between me and the ocean floor. Now surely that should be a spectacular view? It’s not. It’s just dark. So I retreated to the terrace of Reid’s Hotel. That was a spectacular view.

This piece, written by Bob, was originally posted on our website on October 16, 2008.