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Connected International Meeting
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Site Inspection: Portugal
I have seen the past and it is the present. I have seen the
small and it is grand. I have seen Portugal. Portugal is one of the oldest and most historic countries
in Europe, having been established as an independent kingdom in 1143, yet
present-day Portugal offers visitors pretty much the same convenience and
experience as Spain--its more popular neighbor to the east and north.
Portugal’s culture had been influenced by Christians who ruled
beginning in the 1500, by the Moors before that, and by ancient peoples that
included the Celts, Visigoths, Romans, and Arabs, before that still. Portugal
was a dominant world power in the 15th and 16th centuries
when Portuguese explorers were first to discover ocean routes to India, China,
Japan, and Brazil, and established settlements on the African coasts. With such vast influences and a language (Portuguese)
spoken by more than 200 million people across the globe, you would think
Portugal is some super sized country teeming with people.
Actually, Portugal is slightly smaller than Indiana (even when you throw
in the Azores and Madeira), and populated by just 10 million people.
What? Yes! If that’s not
enough, consider this: Portugal is 97% Catholic and its people have an
astounding life expectancy—over 76 years on average.
From all these, I can only conclude that the Portuguese do not reproduce
religiously. Sure enough, the CIA
Fact book tells me the birth rate is less than 0.2 percent. I sought to know more about Portugal.
For five days in October, 2002 I visited the country for the first time. This is my story. Lisbon – First Impressions
It is Day 1. We’re making the final approach to Lisbon Airport after a mere five-hour flight from Newark, courtesy of strong tailwinds. The flight aboard TAP Air Portugal had been a delight so far—the crews, both ground and air, were pleasant and attentive, the Portuguese wine served at dinner was outstanding, and the aircraft still smelled new and had extremely spacious business class seating. It’s past 5 am and still dark. From the air, Lisbon is aglow from the streetlights and lights from some of the buildings, including churches. I would learn later that Lisbon has 102 catholic churches, 92 palaces, 56 fountains, and 51 museums. After a short cab drive from the airport where Idalia from
CPL was kind enough to meet me, I’m checking in at Lisboa Marriott.
It is a newly restored property with high ceilings and superb
accommodations. The night
supervisor walks me to my room, and regales me with the hotel’s history and
architectural treasures. I spend
most of Day 1 catching up on sleep and acclimating to the five-hour time
difference. At 2 pm, I walk around
the neighborhood, from the Catholic University across the street to the hilly
neighborhoods dotted with outdoor cafes. Lisbon
is a city of seven hills, but for those of us who are cardiovascularly
challenged they might as well be seven Mt. Everests. Getting back to the hotel, I ask a staff for directions to the dining room. Instead of just pointing me to the place, he escorts me to it. Impressive. It is just past 3 pm, and I just miss what looks like a sumptuous buffet. I order soup and a burger—tasty and humongous portions. Later in the evening we attend a hotel reception with an incredible selection of Portuguese seafood. Now I understand why the Portuguese is second only to the Japanese in seafood consumption—they take maximum advantage of the waters surrounding them, and they make wicked seafood meals. Day 1 ends with two lessons easily learned: (1) The
Portuguese are friendly and helpful, and (2) It would be impossible to get a bad
meal from Lisboa Marriott. Mafra
Next day we head off to Mafra, a town just a few kilometers north of Lisbon. The attraction here is the Palacio de Mafra (“the Convent”), a huge building with a corridor that measures over two and a quarter football fields. It is one of the best-kept secrets in the Lisbon area—larger than Versailles (but without the magnificent gardens) and with a collection of historic furniture and artifacts that is just as impressive. Built during the glory days of the monarchy, in no small measure fueled by Brazilian gold, it was also Brazilian gold that funded the building’s construction. Although the interior furnishings today are awesome by most standards, I understand that most of the original furnishings were spirited away to Brazil when the Portuguese royalty fled from the invading French. There are more than 4,500 doors and windows and 114 church
bells in the complex which also includes a hospital, a pharmacy, and an
impressive library with better than 36,000 volumes. The library is devoid of any special temperature and humidity
control equipment, yet the books are in excellent state. How do they do it? With
bats—the mammalian ones, not the wooden ones. The bats take care of any vermin that would do harm to the
paper. I do not ask who cleans up
after the bats. The Royal Family used the Palace as home when they went hunting in the surrounding woods. It was last used by King Manuel II as an overnight resting place before he escaped to England during the revolution in 1910 that ended the monarchy. The Palace has separate royal suites for the King and Queen located on either end of the 666-ft long corridor to allow for plenty of warning when either party was entertaining a private visitor. Your Palace guide would have all the lurid details. |
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The
Palacio consists of a monastery, a basilica, and, of course, a palace.