Insead Reunion in France and week in Portugal

Almost as soon as we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport, the memories came flooding back.  Fiona's year at INSEAD had been a wonderful experience for both of us, and so it was with much fondness that we stood for 30 minutes waiting for our bags, then another 20 trying to get a rental car.  We ended up with a Renault Clio which ran on gazole, making the nostalgia organ hit overdrive.  That car rocks.

After bumping into Patik and Tracy, we made our way to Samois sur Seine, using the  same maps that got us around five years ago.  The Hotel Country Club  was gorgeous, an old three story building right on the river, in a very quiet and secluded area.  We crashed out right away.

First stop after that was Fontainebleau for some coffee, a walk down the main street and past the chateau.  Then off to INSEAD where we found a crew of old friends, poked our heads in the lecture halls and stayed all the way until the cocktail party.  The night ended with a fabulous feast with 20 friends at le Country Club, which made it really easy to enjoy the wine and stay up till the wee hours.

Saturday was spent exploring campus some more, and listening to the fund raising speeches by the dean and assistant dean.  A promotion photo and a crummy lunch, and then we snuck off to get in a nap before the big ball.  Pre-ball we had dinner in an old favorite pizza place in Bois-le-Roi near our old cute little house.  Many of the gang was there so lots of laughs and memories.  All preparations complete, we headed off with Kate for the extravaganza.

The night, as usual, lived up to the hype.  It was at the Fontainebleau Chateau  itself, although most of the party was housed in a tent in a side square, away from the priceless antiques.  It rained most of the night, making the sprint from the tent to the one indoor room a bit tricky.  The rather impressive fireworks over the garden and pond were also hard to catch without getting a little wet, but it was totally worth it.  We chatted, explored, danced and snacked the night away, and managed to sneak in some crepes at 3 AM, fresh off the hot plate with chocolate sauce and everything.  We lasted until 4:30am which for us is quite a feat.  Many of the Europeans thought at this point that the party was just really starting.

The next day was a write-off, as we only woke up at 4 PM - the jet lag finally caught up to us!  Wow, that was a sleep.  We decided to surge into Paris in the Clio for the night though and spent a lovely evening strolling past familiar landmarks, eating on the left bank in the rather touristy 5eme and then finally headed home at midnight.  Man, we love Paris.

The week in Portugal was wonderfully relaxing and interesting.  We shared a house with our friends Kate and Noah, and their little one Isabella, which was about a km outside of the magical ocean town of Azenhas do Mar, pictured here and everywhere else on the internet when you search for photos of Portugal.  We could actually see the ocean from our third story bedroom window, and were over 15 minutes on insanely windy roads away from the closest supermarket.  Peaceful, tranquil and comfortable, we even had a pool that we never used as the weather was a wee bit cooler than we had been anticipating.

As usual I was keen to hit the sites, the older the better as my fascination with castles and any other sort of human assembled piles of rocks that haven't moved for centuries steams on unabated.  Our first day would be our most ambitious, with a road trip to no less than two monasteries and an old fortified city on the docket.  In fact, each one surpassed my expectations, making the 5 or so hours in the car totally worth it. 

Obidos was our first stop, which was so pretty that each King of Portugal has given it as a gift to his queen since Dom Dini's wife Dona Isabella fell in love with it in 1228.  They have done a stunning job restoring and maintaining the village perched on the hilltop, and it was a real treat to walk along the city wall and descend into the narrow village streets for beer and lunch. 

The next stop was Batalha, home of a flamboyant Gothic/Manueline monastery built in the 14th-16th centuries, and founded after Dom Joao of Avis had his prayers answered and defeated a Spanish army of 30,000 with only 6500 men.  The carving in this place was incredible, in particular the octagonal Capellas Imperfeitas that never got a roof put on it, but was a dizzying experience of stone knotwork and vines all magnificently carved.

The triad was completed in Alcobaca, with yet another monastery founded after prayers were answered for Dom Afonso Henriques in 1147 when he defeated the Moors (North African Muslims who arrived and took over in the 700s).  The outside has been redone in the 17th and 18th century, and it hides an incredibly stark and ominous interior, not a single embellishment on a cavernous interior that reaches 26m in the air.  Once completed in 1178, the adjoining cloister is said to have housed 999 monks who held mass non-stop in shifts.

Need to mention the short stop we did at the Museaum of Wine - the museum was forgettable, but at least we got some cool photos.

With all that history in one day, we decided to hightail it back to our villa for the night and had a relaxing dinner with Kate and Noah.  The babe was asleep by the time we got in, so it was a lovely night for us wild ones and the parents alike.

The next day it was time to explore our surroundings in more detail.  The entire town of Sintra, (along with each of the three items from the day before) has been declared a World Heritage site, due to the many, many castles and buildings that Portugal's elite have added to the hillsides over the centuries.  In the end it took us two full days to see about half of it all, and there were so many interesting little gems that we could have spent much longer at.  I particularly enjoyed trying to use the map that had no one way indications on it to navigate around the back streets.  We ended up on cobblestone paths so narrow and steep I was checking both side mirrors for clearance while using the parking break to get in gear.  Clearly meant for horses.

We started our day at the Covento dos Capuchos, the convent of the long hooded friars who lived in insanely small and minimalist conditions.  The ceilings and doors were lined with cork to damp the sounds and the cold of the stone walls, and the 12 men lived a very simple life indeed.  It was all started in 1560 by St. Francis of Assissi (of San Francisco fame), and was disbanded only in 1834, when all religious sects were disbanded en masse on order of the king.   We ended up getting a personal tour from a really nice Portuguese curator, who didn't speak a word of English but managed to convey all the stories on our piece of paper with hand signals and nods.  At least that's what we think he was talking about.

We then joined up with Kate and Noah in Sintra centre for a lovely lunch.  I had the pork literally served with white bread mush (apparently that's a local dish).  I didn't starve.  Noah had the bacalhau, or salted cod (also a local favorite) and fared much better.   Next we got lost on our way to the Moorish castle, but finally met up with Kate and Noah at the top, where yet again we roamed perfectly restored millennium old walls and took about a hundred pictures in every direction of the Sintra area.  Hilltop castles abound, as do red roofs and whitewashed houses in little clumps all the way to the ocean.  It was a wonderful spot to stroll and gaze and we took full advantage.

Fiona and I, sticking to our three items a day routine, squeezed in yet another castle, the Quinta da Regaleira.  This bizarre, ornate, theatrical masterpiece was creation of a 19th century opera set designer at the request of a wealthy mining and coffee tycoon, Antonio Monteiro.  The crazy part was really the garden, which had its own manmade grottos that we could run around in from one element of the garden to another.  The deep ends ran toward two separate wells with spiral staircases that symbolized the ascent to heaven, and the shallow end would flow out to little ponds with numerous entrances.  The whole place was so over the top it was overwhelming, and I went giggling through the grottos from one end to the other while Fiona rolled here eyes and waited at the entrance.

That night, we zipped off to Azenhas do Mar for a romantic dinner at the cliffside restaurant, where we watched some crazy surfer play in massive and gnarly waves until the sun went down.

Day 3 involved a quick jaunt to the largest and most expensive monastery and palace in all of Portugal, followed by our first non-historic site seeing stop, a trip to the Oceanarium in Lisbon.  Mafra was a bit of a letdown, yes the place was massive, over the top in its use of marble sculptures in every nook and cranny, but something about the 30 foot ceilings and lack of remaining decoration made it feel cold and boring.  This is perhaps why  of the entire royal family only a single prince lived there for a single year in 1807 before it was abandoned for cozier settings.  That was some way to blow all the gold stolen from Brazil, employing 45,000 builders at its peak.

The Oceanarium, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise.  After missing lunch with Kate, Noah and Isabella and finally finding it (we did not really jive with the Portuguese road signage), we weren't expecting much as we've been to many a world class aquarium both home and away.   But they have done a really nice job, with a huge central tank that has way too many sharks and schooling hordes to be dull for a second, as well as smaller tanks in the four corners with the requisite penguins and otters (who were eating), jellyfish and more.  They also had some amazingly exotic fish, including one that really looked like mobile seaweed that we won't soon forget.  Little Izzy was a dream for most of the adventure, until she had some business to take care which she did all over the changing table. 

That was enough driving for us, so we hit the supermarket on the way home and had another casual night in the quinta.

For day 4 we decided to cut down on driving and spend more time in the Sintra area.  There was still a lot to see.  We started with the majestic mountaintop Palacio National da Pena, created starting in 1840 by the artist king Ferdinand.  This bizarre, multicolored, ornately decorated castle still has a lot of the great furniture and decor that was in it when abandonned in 1910 at the formation of the republic.  A lovely garden of ferns, and many exotic species of plants helped make this a World Heritage site in its own right.  We wandered and frolicked, then headed back down into Sintra for lunch at the HOCKEY cafe. 

The next stop was Cabo de Roca, a must see for every tour bus in the area and the most easterly point of all of continental Europe.  We had a beautiful drive where we got lost yet again on backroads through impossibly small and steep towns in the rolling hills.  Finally at the Point, it was worth about 5 minutes and a few photos, but Fiona was soon cold and I was ready for my one and only dip in the ocean!  We stopped in at Playa de Macas, I stood there for a while as a British guy was told not to swim due to dangerous riptides.  He translated for me so we stayed put and watched the waves crashing for a while.  Finally got up the courage, dunked the body, and bolted out of that frigid ocean.  It was clearly time for a beer in the sun.

Our last day was to be spent in Lisbon, where we found a lovely little abode in the Casa de Mamode just outside the Barrios Alto area.  We hit the public transit for the day, and visited Belem, site of yet another massive monastery that nearly bankrupted the country and resting place of Vasco da Gama, who found an ocean route to India in  1497 which allowed Portugal to impose a 5% pepper tax on all of Europe and become insanely wealthy.  Having seen a few cloisters already, we opted to skip the detailed tour and headed back to downtown for lunch.

In 1755, Lisbon was rocked by a massive earthquake that flattened the entire downtown and caused nasty fires that raged for days.  With militaristic efficiency, the entire downtown was immediately rebuilt and the perfectly symmetric streets have become a wonderful pedestrian shopping area with tons of restaurants and patios.  We then took the "historic" cable car to the top of the Castello hill, where we yet again walked around ancient walls guarding a lovely city park and mini-village.  We then ventured on a walking tour through Alfama, a super old neighborhood almost entirely inaccessible to cars, but the place was abuzz with construction for the upcoming Festivals of the Saints, and we ended up getting lost again!  That was enough touristing for one day, so we paused for a beverage in the downtown and headed home for  a rest.  Our last night out was spent exploring the Bairro Alto, famous for its restaurants and nightlife, of which we only made it through the former before running out of steam.  The place was really cute and authentic Portuguese, with three of the hardest working waiters I have ever seen, but the food was a bit dull.  It was time to call it a night on a fabulous trip.

Another great trip comes to an end... Sunday was spent travelling home.  The most exciting part was getting through US Customs unscathed :)

For more photos of our trip, go to http://photos.steveandfiona.ca