After the chicken, we carefully made our way back over the slippery tiled cobbled streets back to our hotel for a chicken filled ‘guts up’.  This is our hotel on a slightly inclined street…

It was lovely to sit inside our room and watch the rain come down as we dined on our hotel room made pingos and pastries.

Then it was see ya round Lisbon and later alligator Portugal.

So what have we learned about Portugal?

• A number of civilisations lived on or tried to overtake the Iberian Peninsula over the years, like the Phoenicians, the Celts, the Vikings, the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors, the French had a crack, the Spanish – you remember the inquisition?
• 1147 – King Alfonso I and the crusaders took Lisbon from the Moors and as long as the Moors promised the they would convert to Catholicism they would be allowed to live, but they’d need to build another city of their own – which they did – just on the other side of the city wall.  It wasn’t all as friendly as that though if you so a bit of research into it.
• 1200s – the Church of St Dominigo was built in Lisbon
• 1308 and again in 1537 – The university was transferred to Coimbra
• 1500s – a Portuguese explorer accidentally came across Japan and did a bit of trade – they claim that they shared their recipe for ‘tempura’ with the Japanese…. funny you don’t find much tempura on Portuguese menus.
• 1750 King José becomes King and he appoints the Marquis of Pombal as his chief minister and luckily because in…..
• 1755 – Lisbon had an earthquake followed by 3 huge waves – a tsunami if you will then a fire that destroyed 90% of the city and killed 40,000 people and the Marquis of Pombal was instrumental in rebuilding the city
• 1834 – Organised religions were abolished
• 1910 – Portuguese Republic was formed and the last king flees into exile in the UK
• 1933 – 1974 – Portugal was ruled by a dictator – Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (as in HP’s Salazar Slytherin!)
• There is a bridge called ‘April 25th’ in Lisbon named for freedom after that date in 1974 – when the dictatorship ended

obrigada e adeus!

xxx