Portugal. Part III

January 10–17, 2014

The great thing about Portugal is that it’s possible to see the entire country in ten days.

Braga

A small, charming town that reminds me of Riga in some ways.

The anti-parking barriers are very elegant.

There are underground garbage containers on every corner.

A parking meter.

If you’ve come all the way here, it makes sense to take the funicular up to the cathedral, then make your way back down the completely deranged stairs with fountains sprouting from muses’ eyes and ears.

Vila Real

Vila Real.

A one-hour town.

A parking meter (attentive readers will have noticed that the model is different in every Portuguese city).

Cheerful underground garbage containers (attentive readers will have noticed that the model is different in every Portuguese city).

A typical local trash can.

Viseu

Winter here is like fall in Russia.

Viseu is situated on a hill, as a small Portuguese town should, with a cathedral at the very top.

A free municipal cable car runs up and down the hill every 15 minutes.

Underground garbage containers.

A street cleaner.

Guarda

Guarda ended up being the thousandth city I’ve visited. The seafood is celebrating.

My recollection of the city is quite foggy.

But even with fuzzy vision, it’s obvious that it’s nice here.

Original trash cans that, again, don’t clash with their medieval surroundings.

Evora

Ancient Roman ruins (a rarity for Portugal in and of themselves) coexist peacefully with the water tower.

The streets are archy.

The predominant color scheme is mustard yellow and white.

Sometimes with a bit of blue thrown in.

The city is nice, but you can’t shake the feeling that it had been completely forgotten for ages and was dusted off and cleaned up only recently, in the hopes of attracting tourists. It’s like the difference between Dubrovnik and Venice.

Water valve covers.

Street name plaques.

There’s still cleaning up to be done here.

Street cleaners.

Evoran underground garbage containers.

A parking meter.

Setúbal

The city is cute, but that’s about it.

A street cleaner.

Underground garbage containers.

A street sign.

A pile-up of eras.

* * *

There are some mysterious Neolithic stones not far from Evora. While scientists continue to wonder how they ended up here and why, I can safely advance my own hypothesis: there were things to do in Portugal as far back as two thousand years ago.