Portugal is around the size of Scotland with twice the
population and has tremendous variety both geographically and in
its ways of life and traditions. Along the coast around Lisbon, and
on the well-developed Algarve in the south, there are highly
sophisticated resorts, while the vibrant capital Lisbon has enough
going on to please most city devotees. But in its rural areas this
is still a conspicuously underdeveloped country, and there are
plenty of opportunities to experience smaller towns and countryside
regions that have changed little in the past century.
In terms of population, and of customs, differences between the
north and south are particularly striking. Above a line more
or less corresponding with the course of the River Tagus, the
people are of predominantly Celtic and Germanic stock. It was here,
at Guimarães, that the "Lusitanian" nation was born, in the wake of
the Christian reconquest from the North African Moors. South of the
Tagus, where the Moorish and Roman civilizations were most
established, people tend to be darker-skinned and maintain more of
a "Mediterranean" lifestyle. More recent events are woven into the
pattern. The 1974 revolution came from the south - an area
of vast estates, rich landowners and a dependent workforce - while
the conservative backlash of the 1980s came from the north, with
its powerful religious authorities and individual smallholders wary
of change. More profoundly even than the revolution,
emigration has altered people's attitudes and the appearance
of the countryside. After Lisbon, the largest Portuguese community
is in Paris, and there are migrant workers spread throughout France
and Germany. Returning to Portugal, these emigrants have brought in
modern ideas and challenged many traditional rural values.
The greatest of all Portuguese influences, however, is the
sea . The Portuguese are very conscious of themselves as a
seafaring race; mariners like Vasco da Gama led the way in the
exploration of Africa and the Americas, and until less than thirty
years ago Portugal remained a colonial power. The colonies brought
African and South American strands to the country's culture: in the
distinctive music of fado , sentimental songs heard in
Lisbon and Coimbra, for example, or in the Moorish-influenced and
Manueline architecture that abounds in coastal towns like Belém and
Viana do Castelo.
Since Portugal is so compact, it's easy to take in something of
each of its elements. Scenically, the most interesting parts of the
country are in the north: the Minho , green, damp, and often
startling in its rural customs; and the sensational gorge and
valley of the Douro , followed along its course by the
railway, off which antiquated branch lines edge into remote
Trás-os-Montes . For contemporary interest, spend some time
in both Lisbon and Porto , the only two cities of
real size. And if it's monuments you're after, the centre of the
country - above all, Coimbra and Évora - retain a
faded grandeur. The coast is virtually continuous beach, and
apart from the Algarve and a few pockets around Lisbon and
Porto, resorts remain low-key and thoroughly Portuguese, with great
stretches of deserted sands between them. Perhaps the loveliest are
along the northern Costa Verde , around Viana do Castelo,
or, for isolation, the wild beaches of southern Alentejo
.