Portugal

One great thing about learning Spanish is that it helps you understand the related languages and cultures of many other countries.  My hosts took me to Portugal for the day, to a city called Porto (Oporto in gallego).  There I saw many things common to Spanish culture. Like Santiago, Porto is a medieval city with winding, narrow streets.

 It has a big cathedral on a hill in the middle of the city, and it lies on the River Douro (in Portuguese), which you Spanish IV students know as el Duero.

Between 1580 and 1640, Spain and Portugal were actually the same country and the royal families of both countries were closely intertwined for centuries.  However, Portugal became a country well before Spain did (1149), and the Portuguese are very independent.  One thing they are known for is there beautiful tilework, or azulejos.  The paintings are put on the tiles before they are fired, and then the individual tiles are assembled on the buildings.  The word azul is part of the name for them, because frequently the color was blue on white tiles, but they were actually done in many different colors as well.

Here is a picture of a mosaic in the train station. Sra. Dopico, an English teacher who is one or our hosts, says the station has over 20,000 tiles!

These are not paintings on the walls -- everything is tiles!