Category: Portugal

  • Portugal and the Age of Exploration

    Portugal and the Age of Exploration

    Portugal’s path to becoming a world power started in Porto, an outpost of the Roman Empire, on the Douro River in Northern Portugal, and the origin of the name “Portugal” is likely Porto’s combined Celtic-Latin name, Portus Calee. But while locals refer to it as Porto, others call it Oporto, which leads to quite a sense…

  • Lisbon Was Our Introduction to Portugal

    Lisbon Was Our Introduction to Portugal

    Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, introduced us to the idea that most myths share a common pattern — the hero’s journey — a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory that transforms him or her. As we traveled we found another common pattern, this time not in a story,…