Travel Traditional tiles, trams and tarts Geometric-patterned, painted-and-glazed ceramic tiles (azulejos)decoratemany Alfama buildings. Some are homes. Others house shops and tiny restaurants where fadistassing melancholy Portuguese folk songs. Called fado, the songs are laments about heartbreak and lovers lost at sea. The pink-and-white Fado Museum is also located in the Alfama neighbourhood. Many visitors ride to Alfama on the turnof-the-century, yellow-and-white number 28 tram. The antiquated streetcar screeches and clanks its way up and down the narrow streets. Before leaving Alfama, we entered one of the small bakeries that bake and sell pasteis de nata, also called pastel de Belém. These custard tarts are tastiest when served warm from the oven with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon and icing sugar. Bakers make the tarts from a secret recipe that originated with the monks and nuns who first made them.They were a delicious way to use up leftover egg yolks after using the whites to stiffen nuns’ habits and other fabrics. Quaint fishing village We regretted having insufficient time to retrace our 1974 trip north of Lisbon to Porto. Our route brought us past Cabo da Roca − a windswept promontory that’s the westernmost part of continental Europe − on the way to our favourite fishing village, Nazaré. We arrived in time to watch fishermen spread 30-metre-long nets in the Atlantic Ocean. Rows of men, women and children then grasped the ropes attached to the heavy net and strained to pull it in. Afterwards, we photographed fishermen dressed in dark tartans and long, black woolen toques mending their nets on the beach. We walked to the village market, where many women wore long, full-skirted black dresses and shawls wrapped over their heads and around their shoulders. We’re happy that we saw Nazaré when it was a quaint fishing village. It’s now a busy seaside resort, filled with surfers, souvenir stands, restaurants and an aquatic amusement park. Memories of our visit to Nazaré flooded back 45 years after our visit. One of our nieces, Jeanne, married Decio, the son of a Portuguese immigrant family that made their living in Ontario, fishing in Lake Erie. After seeing our honeymoon photos of Nazaré, Decio showed them to his mother, whose family originated in the village. She was surprised to recognize her uncle in one of the photos. “If the camera view was moved just one metre left, you would have seen me and my mother at our stand in the market,” she said. For us, the ties between Portugal and Canada are significant. We can’t wait to retrace the rest of our honeymoon route on another trip to Portugal. Resources Findmaps, brochures, smartphone/tablet travel guides andmore information about Portugal at www.visitportugal.com/en. For information about TAP Air Portugal flights from Toronto to Lisbon visit www.flytap.com. Barb & Ron Kroll publish the trip-planning website www.KrollTravel.com 1974 1974 CSANews | SUMMER 2019 | 23
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