Fingering the Lace-Bones, Roads Not Taken, a Scrape with the Law
Thursday, July 20th, 2006Before I left, I knew that there would be surprises, and that some would be unwelcome. Every journey has those. The trick is using those skillfully. Today I ran afoul of the Metro police and was threatened with a 77 Euro fine for my ignorance. Roads not taken: two places I wanted to visit were Obidos, the beautiful walled city that appears in every travel brochure on Portugal; and Tomar, where the Luso-Hebraic Museum is, a tribute to Jewish history in Portugal. I thought I could make them day-trips from Leiria, but it turned out that Leiria is in a different “district” and although each place was an hour or less from Leiria by car, it was impossible to get to them and get back in one day because of the bus schedules. On the other hand, Leiria was the home of the first Jewish printing press in Portugal, where books were printed in Hebrew. I know that from a book, not from finding any vestige of it in Leiria. Instead I found what I found, let go of the desire to see Obidos and Tomar, and had the adventures I could not have had if things had gone according to plan. Since meeting Paula Luttringer yesterday I have been letting myself enjoy taking pictures of walls–the textures, colors, interruptions, shadows, and shapes that appear on walls. In addition, I have finally been to the Atlantic, and I think it´s the first time I´ve ever been to an unpolluted stretch of the Atlantic. It smells just like a plate of fresh oysters. It´s clear, clean, icy cold, and it smells so wonderful I was tempted to drink from it. [read on]
Kendall