Features
The Winter Adventure In 16 Countries – Part B
CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY
By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
FRANCE
We left Paris just before midnight in a train to Bordeaux. Due to the bad winter weather, the train was late by an hour. We could not get any sleep in the freezing compartments. There was no running water in the washrooms as the taps were frozen. After moving from compartment to compartment, finally around 3:00 am, we found a relatively warmer place to get a few hours of sleep.
Bordeaux
We reached our destination for the day around 7:00 am. Having recently completed the Higher Certificate program in Wines and Spirits at the world headquarters of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) in London, I was particularly pleased to be in Bordeaux. It is the hub of a famed wine-growing region in the world. As the taps in the station were also frozen, we were compelled to have an expensive, quick wash with a few bottles of Perrier Sparkling Water. After leaving our backpacks in a locker and having a quick breakfast at a café near the railway station, we commenced a day of exploration of a very interesting city.
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwestern France. Apart from some of the best-known wines, it is known for its Gothic Cathédrale Saint-André, 18th century mansions and notable art museums such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. With around 650,000 residents, Bordeaux was the sixth-most populated city in France after Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lille, and Toulouse.
Bordeaux is home to the world’s main wine fair, Vinexpo. Bordeaux is also one of the French centres of gastronomy and business tourism for the organization of international congresses. Bordeaux is an international tourist destination for its architectural and cultural heritage with more than 350 historic monuments making it, after Paris, the city with the most listed or registered monuments in France.
We then boarded a crowded train for a 30-hour ride from Bordeaux to Porto in Portugal travelling right across Spain. Due to high demand for sleeping berths, with some difficulty we managed to obtain two sleepers in a car occupied by an old Portuguese couple travelling with their little granddaughter. They were very kind and hospitable. They shared their snack dinner with us. Pão com chouriço (yeasted dough rolls that are filled with the famous pork sausage known as chouriço) were delicious. We shared our bottle of sweet Madeira fortified wine with them.
Up to the time we crossed the French-Spanish border passing a Spanish railway station in a small city, Irun, our train was punctual. After that we experienced several long stops and delays. As we were very tired, we went to sleep soon after sunset and got up long after sunrise to find that the winter storm had continued. The scenery was diverse and breathtakingly beautiful. Unfortunately, we were not comfortable as all the taps were frozen and the train toilets were not functioning. We eventually reached the Spanish-Portuguese border near a small city, Fuentes de Oñoro and finally reached Porto, after a six-hour delay.
PORTUGAL
Portugal is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. It features the westernmost point in continental Europe. Its Iberian portion is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain, the sole country to have a 1,232 km long land border with Portugal. Its territory had been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. It was inhabited by Ancient Greek traders, the Romans, Germanic peoples, the Moors, among others.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first, global maritime and commercial empire, becoming one of the world’s major economic, political and military powers. During this period, today referred to as the Age of Discovery, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration with the discovery of what would become Brazil. Portugal acquired great riches by exploiting the trade in spices, slaves, sugar, textiles and other goods.
Arriving in Portugal, I thought of the many influences (culture, customs, cuisine, words, religion and names) of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka through a period of around 150 years. The first Europeans to visit Sri Lanka in modern times were the Portuguese in 1505. The Portuguese built a fort in the port city of Colombo in 1517 and gradually extended their control over the coastal areas of the island.
In Sri Lanka, the Portuguese used incentives, as well as brutal methods of terrorising residents to force them to change religions, culture and names. Many modern Sri Lankan names can be traced from the Portuguese, and 6% of the population of Sri Lanka today, are Catholics. Many friends I grew up with, have Portuguese family names such as Perera, Fernando, Mendis, De Silva, De Alwis, De Almeida, etc. Resulting from a treaty the King of Kandy made with the Dutch, the Portuguese invaders were gradually eliminated by 1658.
Portugal has left a profound cultural, architectural and linguistic influence across the globe, with a legacy of around 250 million Portuguese speakers around the world. It is the ninth most spoken language in the world. Indian troops invading Portuguese occupied Goa in 1961 and the handover of Macau to China in 1999 marked the end of what can be considered one of the longest colonial empires in history. I wondered how a relatively small country with a small population made such an impact around the world.
Three 20th century revolutions in 1910, 1927 and 1974 have shaped modern-day Portugal. The first, the October 5, 1910 revolution, brought an end to the Portuguese monarchy and established the highly unstable and corrupt Portuguese First Republic. In 1985, Portugal had just reached a population milestone of 10 million. Out of that national total, over 25% lived in the capital, Lisbon and over 10% lived in the second city, Porto.
Porto
On entering Porto, we were impressed with a massive bridge over The Douro, the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula, where it flows to the Atlantic Ocean at Porto. It is a beautiful view. Porto is a coastal city in north west Portugal known for its stately bridges and port wine production.
We found a room for the night in an old hotel for only £5 and walked in the medieval riverside district founded in the 12th century. The narrow-cobbled streets, merchants’ houses and small cafés were all very quaint. The next day we did a three-hour city tour by bus. Before catching a train to Madrid, I told my wife, “Our friends were correct. A short visit to a city like Porto is not enough. We must return here for at least a week to further explore the region.”
Twenty years later, I returned to Porto, as an invitee of the National Portuguese Hotel Association. I was very happy to get that opportunity in 2005, to spend a week in this beautiful city and taste varieties of the best Port Wine and do many tours of the region. I delivered a keynote address on the topic, ‘Branding of Hotels’ at the XIX National Congress on Hotel and Tourism Industry.
I am seated in the middle of the stage before my keynote address in Porto in 2005
Lisbon
Most of the Portuguese expeditions of the Age of Discovery departed from Lisbon during the period from the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century, including Vasco da Gama’s expedition to India in 1498. The following years of the 16th century started off Lisbon’s golden era: the city was the European hub of commerce between Africa, India, the Far East and later, Brazil.
The express train from Porto took only three and half hours to arrive in Lisbon. Portugal’s hilly, coastal capital city was very impressive. We enjoyed a three-hour city tour by bus, which covered the imposing São Jorge Castle, de Abril suspension bridge and the National Azulejo Museum. We also visited the 16th-century monuments, Belém Tower and Jerónimos Monastery, which were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in later years. Just outside Lisbon is a series of Atlantic beaches, from Cascais to Estoril. After the tour we had a long walk in the city centre, and watched a beautiful sunset.
We boarded a night train from Lisbon to the Spanish capital, Madrid. In out compartment, we chatted with a few young Australian travellers. They were travelling like hippies for a year in between their university studies. They were friendly and we shared some common adventurous attitudes about world travel. I taught them to play the popular South Asian card game, 304. We played several rounds of this game, until it was bed time.
SPAIN
Although we travelled from France to Portugal, right across Spain, we did not detrain in any Spanish railway station. This was our first visit to this historically significant country. We planned to see the two main cities of Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, and a couple of smaller cities en route. Compared to Portugal, Spain was much larger. In 1985, it had a population of 38 million.
We were excited to visit Spain as Spanish art, music, literature and cuisine have been influential worldwide, particularly in Western Europe and the Americas. As a reflection of its large cultural wealth, today Spain has the world’s fourth-largest number of World Heritage Sites (49) and is the world’s second-most visited country. Its cultural influence extends over 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world’s second-most spoken native language.
Madrid
We reached Madrid by mid-morning. In 1985, Madrid had a population of 4.5 million. Up to that point of our six-week trip, Madrid was the second largest city we visited, after Paris. Our plan was to spend the full-day in Madrid and catch another night train to our next destination. Unfortunately, the luggage storage facility in the train station was full, so we had to carry our bags with us during our tours.
In Madrid we did a long city tour and visited many key attractions, including Gran Vía (the main tourist and shopping artery in the centre of the capital), the Royal Palace, the Prado Museum, and Plaza Mayor, which was considered the iconic spot in the heart of the city’s historic district. We also visited the largest university in Madrid, La Universidad Complutense de Madrid. It had over 80,000 students, including many from other Spanish-speaking countries, who were on scholarships.
The heating in the next night train was not very effective. Now experienced winter train travellers, we were quick to move from compartment to compartment until we found a relatively warmer place for a good night sleep. As we travelled closer to the southern tip of Spain, Algeciras, the weather became a little warmer.
Ship from Algeciras to Africa
Our voyage from Algeciras in Spain to Africa took less than four hours. We met three university students on the ship, and had lunch together. Robert and Fritz were from West Germany, and were travelling with their Moroccan university mate, Kalik, who had invited his friends to his family home in Casablanca.
Our plan was simply to visit the port city, Tangier in Morocco for the day and then take a ship back to Spain. After some persuasion by our new friends, we changed our plan. In London, my wife and I had recently seen the 1942 movie classic ‘Casablanca’, and loved its famous song, ‘As Time Goes By’, played on the piano by a character in the movie, Sam.
Stealing a line from the movie, I said to my wife playfully, ‘Play it again, Sam!”. We then decided to extend our trip to Morocco by going to its commercial capital, Casablanca.
Will continue in next week’s article:THE WINTER ADVENTURE IN 16 COUNTRIES – Part “C”,
with adventures in Morocco, Spain, and France …