Carolina Comments: Mostly Vacation Books

VACATION READING

Rossio Square, Lisbon

When I’m on a long trip like our most recent one, I usually do some reading, but I don’t attempt any serious long fiction.  Mostly, I read lighter fare, some of it fluff, which is diversion for those scattered bits of downtime.  Here are several of those titles.

SWEET NOVEL

A Shoe Story by Jane L. Rosen

Esme’s life is thrown off track when her mother dies, and her father needs constant medical care.  She gives up her boyfriend, her plans to move to New York, and spends seven years in her small hometown.  When her father dies, she finally gets to Manhattan and ends up being a live-in dog walker for a woman with a fabulous collection of designer shoes.  How Esme revisits her past love life, makes new friends, and sorts herself out for the future make for a fun and affecting novel with a satisfying ending. 

GARDENS AND INTRIGUE

The Restoration Garden by Sara Blaydes

Master gardener Julia is hired to restore an English manor garden outside London to its 1940 glory.  Her clients are the owner, Margaret, and her godson Andrew.  With little in the way of drawings or recollections, Julia must ferret out what Margaret wants and what is driving her obsession with this garden.  

The novel fluctuates between the present day and Margaret and half-sister Irene’s life with their scientist father and gentle mother in 1940.  The father is based in part on a real government scientist, while secrets and deception lurk beneath the surface.  A fascinating historical novel!

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY

These Summer Storms by Sarah McLean

The title, These Summer Storms, is a pun on the raging Storm family.  Estranged from her ultra-wealthy family for five years, Alice returns to their summer home for her father’s funeral.  Demanding and difficult, her father has set up a crazy contest between the five children which will determine what they inherit; all of them must participate.  Alice has developed a career as an artist and must decide whether to stay or go.  This was not a happy book to read, but I was rooting enough for Alice to finish it.

FINDING OR RE-INVENTING YOURSELF 

Her Lisbon Colors by Cynthia Morris

Morris (amazon.com)

When Her Lisbon Colors popped up on a recent book list, I was intrigued mostly because of the Lisbon setting, a city I was going to for the first time.  So, I kept it to read while in Lisbon and very much enjoyed the main character’s explorations of venues I too was discovering.

At 41, Darla is unhappy as a project manager in Boulder.  She doesn’t like her job, doesn’t love Boulder, and when a very close friend dies, she forces herself to get out of her rut and travel.  She is wary about new situations and new people, but she carries a sketchbook everywhere she goes and derives pleasure and satisfaction from sketching the scenes and colors she observes.  A relationship with a rock climber and the development of her art start her on a path to finally becoming her own person.  

I liked many aspects of this novel, which is partly based on the author’s own experiences. (Morris is a visual artist and writer.)  But I was frustrated by Darla’s lack of concern for obtaining the proper documentation for her longer stay, her unfocused approach to the future, and her occasional whininess.  Nonetheless, I cared enough about her delayed maturity to see her through to the end.  Recommended for the setting.

WATCHING

The Diplomat, Season 3 (Netflix)

Kate & Hal Wyler (Netflix.com

In the latest season of The Diplomat, Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell are back as Kate and Hal Wyler, married dueling diplomats.  And they are joined by the inimitable Allison Janney as Vice President Grace Penn.  When the series opens, Kate is U.S. ambassador to the U.K., and Hal is the trailing spouse.  

An ongoing political crisis with the Brits, Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge, in particular, turns everything topsy turvy and the hijinks continue.  As much as this series is about politics, it’s even more about the marriage between Kate and Hal.  The cast overall is superb and, one never knows from where the next curve ball will come.  Recommended!

Spain & Portugal: The Last Bite

I’m milking this travel experience for all it’s worth.  I decided to share additional notes about food and also something about flamenco.

DANCE IN SEVILLE

Flamenco originated in the south of Spain and is particularly associated with Seville.  Performances are usually in small halls seating around 50 people, and there are numerous venues around the city.  We went to one venue that offered several one-hour performances that day.  It was our first real exposure to flamenco.

Chairs at the ready on the stage or low platform

Seating was in 2 rows around three sides of the stage or tabla.  We were in the first row very close to the performers.  Five people in all: a guitarist who played or beat the entire time; two singers, a man and a woman who alternated singing or providing percussive sounds with their hands and feet; and two dancers, male and female.  The show was dramatic, moving, and fascinating.  

Taking bows; the dancer with three of the musicians

The man and woman danced together in one number, and then each danced separately with a lot of fancy footwork and emphatic facial expressions.  She used castanets part of the time, while he swaggered and expressed a full range of emotions. 

Male dancer on the right with part of the troupe

 Like Irish dancing, the footwork is fast and loud.  We didn’t understand the lyrics, of course, but we still caught the mood.

DINING

For Americans, the later times for meals in Spain can be challenging.  Lunch, eaten sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 pm, is the big meal of the day, with dinner at 10:00 or later.  Spaniards will sometimes have a drink or snack in the early evening around 5:00 or 6:00.  

We were pleased when we arrived in Lisbon to discover that even though our hotel didn’t serve breakfast until 8:00 am (late for us), lunch began at 12:00 or 12:30, and many restaurants started serving dinner at 6:30 or 7:00, some even as early as 6 pm.  These times were much more to our liking.

FOOD

In our travels around the world, the Chief Penguin and I have frequently enjoyed food tours with a local guide. They are a great way to sample the particular cuisine of a city or country. In Hanoi, we savored warm bowls of pho in a small cafe on a cold morning; in Rome, we queued for pizza slices at a wildly popular place and ate them perched outside against a wall.  And, as you know from my earlier posts, we had a marvelous pinxtos tour in San Sebastian, a tapas tour in Seville, and finally have ended with another tapas tour in Lisbon.  This army “travels on its stomach.”

With Federico, our engaging guide from Eating Europe, we made stops in several neighborhoods in Lisbon.  It was easily one of the more unusual food tours we’ve done anywhere with a wide variety of tastes.

Chicken skewers with peanut coconut sauce
Firemen’s sardines
Caldo Verde

The chicken skewers were our first stop with white wine to accompany them. We tasted sardines that had been doused in grappa (or the equivalent) and then lit, at a tiny grocery market cum cafe. I tried the local beer with my one sardine.

Our third stop was a rustic bar and restaurant in a church basement. Caldo verde is green soup made from collard greens or kale and onion in water thickened with potatoes and topped with several thin rounds of chorizo. The soup was excellent and, along with it, we had a pork steak sandwich with piri piri pepper sauce. Here, I sampled the local hard cider which had a slightly sour taste.

Our last stop was a fancier restaurant where we each sampled a cod cake and a croquette with some Portuguese white wine. Meanwhile, our guide went out to the pastry shop and brought back their famous pastel de nada or egg tart. It was custard sitting in a croissant-like shell.

Cod cake and Jewish sausage croquette
Egg tart

For the record, I didn’t finish every bite and certainly not every drop of alcohol!

SUNDAY LUNCH

On Sunday, our last full day in Lisbon, we opted to try one of renowned Portuguese chef Jose Avillez’s restaurants.  

Interior, Cantinho do Avillez

Based on reviews, we chose his more casual Cantinho do Avillez, which was a short walk from our hotel and not in the trendy section.  It was a delicious meal with fried green beans and croquettes to start, followed by a lovely shrimp dish topped with cashews for me and codfish cakes and tomato rice for the Chief Penguin.  

Deep fried green beans with truffle tartar sauce

We ended with an everything hazelnut (hazelnut ice cream, foam, and crumbles) dessert that was called “life-changing.”  That with a bit of sherry topped off the experience. 

Toasting at Cantinho do Avillez

We ate very well throughout our entire trip, so much so that I must quickly get back to some vigorous exercise.

Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Portugal: More Lisbon

SQUARES, SHOPS, & TREATS

In our two days plus in Lisbon, we explored four major neighborhoods with Tiago, a guide who is also a former architect. He was brimming with facts and enthusiasm for his city.

Rua Augusta Arch at end of Commerce Square. This arch stands where the royal palace was before the 1755 earthquake. The square is very large abutting the Tagus River at the other end. It was “the door to Lisbon” and where commercial ships used to dock to unload their goods.

We learned about the history of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake, visited several traditional shops (sardines, anyone?), walked some of its most famous and beautiful squares, and saw numerous monuments to historical figures from politicians to poets.

For tourists, Lisbon’s most famous square is most likely the one known informally as Rossio, but officially Plaça Dom Pedro IV, after the column of this king in the center.

Feel the motion?
Rossio Square

Its cobblestones have a wavy pattern which makes it look like they are rolling or moving. The square has been in existence since the Middle Ages. Today, it is surrounded by cafes and shops and is a meeting place for locals and tourists.

Pillory of Lisbon, national monument, 19th c.
Shop selling only tins of sardines and other fish
Facade detail, Rossio train station, 1891. Was central train station, now only goes to Cintra.

There were surprises like the pink street overhung with multi-colored umbrellas. There’s also a street with blue painted pavement, unusual, but not so colorful.

“Pink” Street
Looking toward the cathedral

Later, we stopped at a hole-in-the-wall, but well marked, counter for a taste of ginjinha, a deep red liqueur made from small somewhat sour ginja berries.

Facade of ginjinha shop

You can get it with or without a berry in the glass—extra cost for any berries! The drink was fine, the berry sharp almost bitter.

TILES OLD & CONTEMPORARY

When you wander in Lisbon, it’s inevitable that you will see ceramic tiles. Old ones on building facades, contemporary designs on a restaurant wall, and tiles on signs or floors. Patterns range from the familiar blue ones to elaborate abstract designs to more representational styles with faces on them.

Classic tiles, Fado singers
Floor, chapel Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcântara
Delft style on walls in Miradouro de Sao Pedro…

Note that the chapel floor is flat, but appears to be 3-dimensional. This church was one that survived the 1755 earthquake.

Below are several contemporary tiles by the French mixed media artist, O Gringo.

Eye in blue Delft-like style
Horse
Veiled woman

Lastly, here is another set of contemporary tiles, one political.

Skelton, Barrie Blue
Flowers, Anne Rolskaya
”Facism Nevermore” for 50th anniversary of overthrow of the dictatorship. Carnation was the symbol of the uprising.

Note: Photos ©by JWFarrington and GCFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Portugal: Traveling to Lisbon

SEVILLE TO LISBON

Spanish countryside

We traveled to Lisbon by car, and for Europe, it was a long distance, about 6 hours total which included one stop in a picturesque hill town. We passed olive trees, groves and groves of cork trees, and also pine nut trees. Some of the cork trees were very old and still producing. Every 9 years, the bark is stripped of a tree and the number of the year, 25 for this year, is put on the tree to be an indication of when it will be ready to be “harvested” again.

Monsaraz

About halfway to Lisbon, we stopped at Monsaraz, a village perched high up built on stone with small shops and restaurants. The shopkeepers and restauranteurs don’t live here, making the town a tourist attraction with no full time residents. It was stunning with its white-washed buildings, dark lattice-like stone streets, gates, and views of the fields below.

Arch and gate
Detail of thick stone layers
Path to the fields below

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Lisbon suffered a major earthquake in 1755 which destroyed buildings and caused fires. Many buildings one sees in the older part of town, consequently, were built in the late 18th century or early part of the 19th.

Once we had checked into our hotel, we took a short walk around Chiado, the neighborhood in which we were staying. We noted the archaeological museum, buildings in the French bourgeois style with balconies at the windows, and of course, the mosaic patterns on the stone sidewalks.

Museum in Chiado
Typical building facade
Sidewalk pattern, square black and white stones laid on the diagonal. In parts of Lisbon, the stone squares are basically cream colored and, some might say, even more attractive. When it rains, the stones get slippery, making sneakers a must. In this city, you are always either going up steeply or coming down slowly. Lisbon is built on hills and not flat.

After our day of travel, we dined at a fish restaurant nearby up the hill. We enjoyed a salad of chunks of tomato and lovely fresh sea bass and grouper, simply prepared and delicious.

Fresh sea bass, Lisbon

Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)