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Its twelve million people speak their own language, Portuguese, and follow their unique cultural traditions. Portuguese is the third most widely spoken European language after English and Spanish in the world and is an important language on all five continents. Portugal is about the size of Scotland and has tremendous variety both geographically and in its ways of life and traditions. Along the coast around Lisbon, and on the well-developed Algarve in the south, there are highly sophisticated resorts, while the vibrant capital Lisbon has much going on. But in its rural areas this is still an underdeveloped country with plenty of opportunities to experience smaller towns and countryside regions that have changed little in the past century. |
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 Between the north and south, there are striking differences in population
and customs. North of the River Tagus, the people are of predominantly Celtic
and Germanic stock. It was here, at Guimaraes that the "Lusitanian" nation
was born, in the wake of the Christian reconquest from the North African
Moors. South of the Tagus, where the Moorish and Roman civilizations were
most established, people tend to be darker-skinned and maintain more of
a "Mediterranean" lifestyle. More recent events are woven into
the pattern. The 1974 revolution came from the south - an area of vast
estates, rich landowners and a dependent workforce - while the conservative
backlash of the 1980s came from the north, with its powerful religious
authorities and individual smallholders wary of change. |
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 The Portuguese are very conscious of themselves as a seafaring people;
mariners like Vasco da Gama led the way in the exploration of Africa and
the Americas, and until less than thirty years ago Portugal remained a
colonial power. The colonies brought African and South American strands
to the country's culture: in the distinctive music of fado, sentimental
songs heard in Lisbon and Coimbra, for example, or in the Moorish-influenced
and Manueline architecture that abounds in coastal towns like Belém and
Viana do Castelo. |
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| Portugal unveils forgotten civilizations; and epic events lived by a people with eight centuries of history. From North to South you will find testimony to the past, providing memories that will enrich you. | |||
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Since Portugal is so compact, it's easy to take in
something of each of its elements. In the north, one can find the more
scenic view: the Minho, green, damp, and often startling in its rural
customs; and the sensational gorge and valley of the Douro, followed
along its course by the railway, off which antiquated branch lines edge
into remote Trás-os-Montes. For contemporary interest, Lisbon and
Porto
are the stops. And for monuments, the center of the country, Coimbra
and Évora - retain a faded grandeur. The coast is virtually a continuous
beach, and apart from the Algarve and a few pockets around Lisbon and
Porto, resorts remain low-key and thoroughly Portuguese, with great stretches
of deserted sands between them. The most beautiful are along the northern
Costa Verde, around Viana do Castelo, or, for isolation, the wild beaches
of southern Alentejo.
