Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

Redundancy, Retirement and Readjustment:

The end of April 2011 marked the end of thirty-five years working in Local Government and more than a quarter of that time in my final job.

I worked there for ten years and in truth it was a wonderful place to work, it was satisfying and rewarding and in the time but the last three months had been difficult.  Obliged to work an extended notice but obviously not part of the future, increasingly excluded from the present and the past all but air-brushed away as ten years work left the building in green recycling bags or suffered the ultimate indignity of going through the shredder!

And so began a different life starting with a ‘gap year’.  Except for a five week break in 2000 when I was made redundant in a previous job I have worked continuously since I left University in June 1975 so I  belatedly took the break that most people now seem to take immediately after study.

The following week I became an unemployment statistic and didn’t need that old suit any more!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

Foreign Currency:

The euro is useful because it has simplified travel to Europe but I miss the old pre-euro currencies. To have a wallet full of romantic and exciting sounding notes made you feel like a true international traveller. I liked the French franc and the Spanish peseta and the Greek drachma of course but my absolute favourite was the Italian lira simply because you just got so many.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Detail

Shell on a Beach:

Just south of Santa Clara was the beach of Azuraia where we parked the car and walked over the golden sand that had been washed clean by the high tide and went down to the waters edge.  There was a good clear view back to Vila do Conde and the fort that we hadn’t had time to visit. The beach was deserted and instead of people we were outnumbered by the seagulls that stood at the edge of the water but paid little attention to us as we walked along the sand.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Detail

Fishing Nets…

The harbour was in a mid afternoon stupor, the metal fish stalls were empty, the fishing nets were repaired and neatly stacked and the men who would go out in the boats later were resting in their boats, some sleeping, some drinking coffee and some just idly chatting with fellow sailors.  I imagine this is a treadmill sort of life where every day follows the same pattern as the one before and the one that will follow.

The next morning we took a stroll along the harbour to watch the last of the fishing fleet return one by one where family were waiting to take the catch, clean and gut, grade and sort and put out on iced beds under the shade of umbrellas for sale whilst keeping vigil and waiting for customers.

Out all night but there was no immediate rest for the fishermen because whilst this was going on there was more work yet to be done untangling, repairing and storing the nets, cleaning the pots and clearing down the decks.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward

Leif Erikson contemplates a Voyage of Discovery…

There is no real evidence that Eiriksson discovered America but his statue faces to the west as though in expectation of belated recognition for his achievement.  Today he looked out over Viking skies full of Nordic drama with mountainous clouds as big and as grey as a medieval cathedral.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

British Submarine Crew Arrive Home:

Not my picture obviously so perhaps considered cheating but there is a good tale to tell:

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Love

I was struggling and didn’t think I could find something for this week’s challenge until I read Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal and I was reminded of the town of Amarante.

It took us about forty-five minutes to drive to the interesting little town from Vila do Conde and after parking the car we walked through unremarkable streets until reaching the river and in an adjacent square declared it time for the first refreshment of the day. There was no sign of the sun but even under white overcast sky it was still warm enough to sit outside and we ordered drinks and sampled the local speciality of “papos de anjo” (angel chests) which is a traditional sweet egg pastry made from whipped egg yolk that is baked and then boiled in sugar syrup.  They were quite nice but we didn’t call for seconds!

Amarante is an interesting little town and the annual festivities, which take place in early June, are known as the Festas de São Gonçalo, and perhaps because of the romantic-sounding name (Amar is the Portuguese verb to love), one of the traditions of this local celebration is to give a phallus-shaped cake to the one you desire.  Luckily this was May so there was no embarrassing exchange of inappropriately shaped gifts this morning!

Perhaps because of this association with love, Amarante is famous for being the birthplace of an unnatural amount of artists, painters and writers and later we walked around the pretty town with its sixteenth century convent and an attractive eighteenth century bridge across the river Tâmega.  We wandered down streets of seventeenth century mansions with colourful balconies of painted wood brightly decorating the narrow streets and past restaurants with elegant terraces overlooking the river and the beautiful bridge of São Gonçalo, which leads directly to the great monastery that bears the name of the same saint.  Away from the main street we walked through twisting back alleys with cobbled streets, past washing lines full of clothes outside tiny houses with only the most basic facilities and in need of urgent repair and attention.

Finally we reached the bridge across the river where on the 18th April 1809 during the Peninsula War that a small band of Portuguese soldiers held the crossing against the might of the invading French army for an incredible fourteen days. Needless to say the French troops weren’t too pleased and afterwards took their revenge on the local inhabitants and set the buildings on fire before moving on towards Porto.

If you want the recipe for the cakes then go to http://www.maria-brazil.org/papos_de_anjo.htm

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Beyond the Alleyway and the Door 

As Fiskardo is the only place that escaped the damage it is consequently the only village to see examples of the old Venetian architecture.  The buildings around the harbour however had had a very heavy makeover and didn’t feel especially genuine but those in the back streets leading off the harbour were much more authentic.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Beyond The Doors – The Forbidden Mosque

The Mosque wasn’t open for business at this time but we wouldn’t have been allowed in even if it had because non-believers are forbidden from entering a Muslim Mosque at any time.

In another post I wrote about how we were unwelcome in the holy city of Moulay Idriss, so much so that Abdul, the taxi driver wouldn’t stop for even a moment or two for a sightseeing walk through the intriguing streets but there were other exclusion zones in both Fez and Meknes.  These were the Mosques and although we could look through the open doors and windows we were certainly not allowed to step over the threshold. 

I find this difficult to understand, apparently even the prophet Muhammad invited Christians to pray in a mosque before meeting with them but it seems that attitudes have changed and intolerance has become an unwelcome religious characteristic.  I am forced to compare this with our own balanced approach which certainly (I hope) wouldn’t exclude a visitor of a different faith to the UK entering, for example, Westminster Abbey or any other religious building.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

Sunlight through Stained Glass Window – Carmona, Spain