Thoughts: Walid and I picked up the van and drove out to the coast today.  We chose to visit the Atlantic coast west of Lisbon, which is sort of the Palm Beach or Beverly Hills of Portugal.  The Royal family’s winter palace is there and so are many other palaces from Royal family members.  It is a spectacular place and worth a visit on another trip.  The coastline in this area was formed by the “Sintra Massif,” a large piece of glacial ice from prehistoric times that has since retracted to the Arctic.  The ice left sheer limestone and granite cliffs that fall 200 fete or so firectly into the ocean.  The Atlantic is quite turbulent, green, and loud, so the whole place makes for an impressive site.  We first traveled to the Costa de Roca, the western-most point of Portugal and then south to the resort town of ?.  The palaces and houses of the resort town were immense and ornate. There is also a thriving maritime industry in the area and the cuisine is largely sea-based.  We ate in a small restaurant in the town center and it was excellent.  Looking around, it seems there is also good shopping that a resort town would offer.

Pulling out of town we drove through an area that seemed like public housing Portuguese style.  Not much different than American style, really, with large monolithic concrete structures.  We found two walls with incredible artistry in the graffiti work and stopped to take pictures.  Truly amazing.

Thoughts: I had some time to walk around a part of the city today to which I have never ventured before, the Praca de Espagna (Spanish Plaza).  The reason for originally going to the Praca was that a museum of modern exists there that was founded by an Armenian oil magnate named Gilbenkian.  Gilbenkian grew up in the Armenian portion of present day Turkey and negotiated a deal with the American and British oil companies and the Turks.  For his work he was given 5% of the newly formed company that made him rich immediately.  With his new money he quickly started collecting antiquities, contemporary art and modern art.  During the second world war he moved from his home in Paris to Portugal, a declared neutral country.  For his refuge he left the Portuguese people his collection of art after he died.  They now house the collection in Lisbon.

The collection is quite nice, with one exception.  The building in which it is housed breaks the collection into three separate facilities with three separate entrance fees.  We thought the antiquities building collection was the entire one and would have preferred to save the money and go straight to contemporary and modern art.  It was still a very nice collection which would wow most.  By the time we finally got to the Modern art building we found out it was closed for renovations.  There is a Gilbenkian Society that also conducts research and symposiums on current societal and scientific issues.  They publish interesting collections of symposium papers as well.

Found some great Graffitti on a side street next to the Museum of Modern Art!

The 12th and 13th centuries were the time of European conquest of the middle and southern parts of Portugal.  The Order of the Knights Templar were instrumental in driving the Moors from the Iberian peninsula and were rewarded for their hard work with land and Castles.  Many of these Castles were built as well by locals who lived on the lands given to the knights.  The Knights Templar apparently amassed so much wealth and power that Pope Clement V outlawed the order.  The knights were therefore required to go somewhat underground.  Under King Denis of Portugal, the Knights Templar became the Order of Christ and the king granted them (the same members as the Knights Templar mostly) the same lands and Castles as before, ensuring that their power would remain.  It was the Grand Master of the Order of Christ, named Henry the Navigator, that pooled the monies of the members to found a school of navigation in Sagres, Algarve.  This school began the "Age of Exploration" which brought considerable wealth to Portugal until other empires defeated the Portuguese.  The image to the left is the sign of this order, originally form the Knights Templar, and can be seen across many castles in Portugal.  image source: www.sinj.com/.../order-christ-caravella.gif

I am leaving today for Lisbon and will take the students around the southern portion of Portugal, called "Algarve."  Algarve means "the west" in Arabic, as it was once the western-most portion of the empire.  It has always been treasured as a gateway to both kingdoms, Europe (for the Arabs) to the north and Africa (for the Europeans) to the south.  The area's climate benefits from the warm air and currents that arrive from northern Africa. 
The many strategic waterways have attracted explorers since the Phoenicians.  The water seems to be much of the central theme to its history as well.  The Moors came across the water from north Africa in AD 711 to conquer parts of Portugal and Spain.  They were eventually completely driven out in AD 1249, leaving quite an influence on the culture, science and built world.  Algarve further became known for water as it was in the town of Sagres that Henry the Navigator set up his famous school of exploration and navigation that began much of the world exploration movement.
image source: www.destination-algarve.com/images/da-01.jpg