The age of Discovery

Lisbon, Sunday 25 October

Whoever remembered that it was the Portuguese that can take credit for discovering much of the East – well the Portuguese and Colombus maybe, but let’s not add in the friendly competition. Vasco de Gama is a name I don’t even recall from school (I should though)he was a legend - he found the sea passage to India and was responsible for Portuguese control of the spice trade into the west… back in 1500 that is…before the earthquake…and after brainy (Prince) Henry the Navigator (who I had also never heard of but I love that he never sailed even on a lake and just threw his money into sea exploration) had already set in play the pillaging of the West African coast for gold and for slaves but that’s another story. Then came Magellan, l do remember him, he circumnavigated the globe first. And what about Gasper Corte Real who reached Newfoundland or Pedro Cabral who discovered Brazil? I doubt I will remember them in a few months so it is lucky then that the locals were a step ahead and able to help me at least try.

The picturesque Belem Tower was built as a fortress in 1512 and was the starting and finishing point for those who set out to discover the trade routes. It is a mix of Arabic, Gothic and Castle with a bit of Italian thrown in. It stands on the edge of the river Targus which meets the Atlantic a little further down the coast (Pic 1).

A few hundred metres away is the more modern and very striking Monument to the Discoveries. This was built in 1960 to celebrate the death of Henry 500 years ago (!!!!!), interestingly it was commissioned by the Salazar regime (the 20th century dictator, which doesn’t make sense to me but nevertheless I like the monument). One side shows 15 statues of the heroes of the time (the other side shows more heroes I just forgot to count that side. know there were a lot) the whole thing is in the shape of the Portuguese boat/ship used in the times of discovery - a Caravel. I wish it was a clear blue sky day my pic (2) would look awesome. Still it wasn’t.

My own discovery this afternoon was the shopping Mall called Colombo. I stopped walking for a bit, and a very nice change it was, opting for the Metro. Why oh why do we not have a useful Metro in Auckland at least? An underground - airport to city - would be brilliant (and let’s not forget the North Shore, the rate payers there are already paying heaps for everything they can’t use - I know this I am informed). It would have been a much handier thing in Welly than a bloody silly $40 million by-pass. I digress, back to Colombo - very Bangkok, but not as elegant as my favourite Emporium. Still I managed to do some further damage to my luggage allowance and so have spent part of the evening re-packing to try and move the weight around and see how much room I have left for Honkers. Enough to squeeze in a little fritter at the shops :-) but only just.

As of tomorrow I am on beach time.