My dear Geraldine woke up very early in the morning to take
me to Paris Orly airport, which is quite distance from Treil-Sur-Seine. We left
at about 5 am, and even taking advantage of the fact that the roads were empty,
and that the maximum highway speed is 130 km/hr, it was close to 6 am when we
got to the airport. Saying goodbye is always such sweet sorrow, but I know that
our paths will cross sooner or later, so here more than ever the correct
expression is A bien tôt (hasta
pronto, see you soon).
The flight to Lisbon
was uneventful, and by 10 am I was stepping out of the airport, wondering what
would be the best time to spend the 7 hours of layover. I soon discovered that
the metro came all the way to the airport (what a civilized notion!), so within
half an hour I was at the wharf, walking among crab fishers (DJ will be glad to
hear this), bicyclists, and other forms of tourists. Maya and I will spend two
days exploring this city in a bit over a week, so I didn’t want to jump the gun
on her and had to concentrate on something that she might not be interested on.
I decided to go looking for the Instituto Hidrografico (the Navy Surveying Institute)
because I figured they would have a good museum. They did, but not at the
location of their offices, so after walking like a dog I was told I had to take
the train to get there. I used the opportunity to sit down and drink a “caňita”
of beer (a tall, skinny glass of beer) and had a lunch of bacalao al mojo de
ajo (cod fish with garlic). It was delicious, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as
would have liked because my tooth started hurting.
A short train ride brought me to Belem and the Monastery of Jeronimos, by the
side of which was the Museum of the Navy. Portugal has, of course, a
centuries long tradition of being daring explorers and merchants, with their
Golden Age starting with the Hydrographic Institute established by Prince Henry
the Navigator in the mid 1440’s. Henry himself never went very far from Lisbon , but he amassed an enormous library of charts and
captain reports, which were the stepping stones of the great events of
Portuguese discovery, such as sailing along the west coast of Africa, turning the
Cape of Good Hope, reaching India ,
and the discovery of Brazil .
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese himself, although he sailed for the Spanish
King, and some believe that he knew about the passage that now bears his name
in South America from Chinese charts collected
by Prince Henry.
The exposition has hundreds of ship models from the smallest
coracle to some rather modern vessels, but of course the bulk is from the
1400’s to the 1700’s, when Portuguese mariners plied the waters of the world
(the museum never mentions slavery, which was one of the trades the Portuguese
specialized in). I also learned about some Portuguese explorations of Africa that I had never heard before.
Thoroughly satisfied with my escapade I returned lazily to
the airport, in plenty of time to take my 7 pm flight to Sao Miguel, where I
landed at 8:30 pm (it was a two and a half hours flight, but the time zone
changes). I would have enjoyed the trip a lot more if my tooth had not been
bothering me so much. It is not “pain” as much as it is discomfort, but it
worries me that it could get a lot worse.
A quick taxi ride brought me to my hotel. Wow! A four star
hotel called the Royal
Garden
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