Social Programme

Dinner and Fado Singing
(Sunday, 26 September 2004, including bus to the restaurant and back to hotels)

Departure to Páteo Santana, a traditional restaurant in one of the ancient areas of Lisbon, where a full Portuguese dinner will be served. During dinner, there will be a performance of Fado, the traditional Lisbon type of song. Some say that Fado originated in the melodies imported by Brazilian students who, from 1860 onwards, came to Coimbra to study; others claim that this form of song was invented by students in Lisbon, while others still connect its origin to the love songs and other tunes sung by the troubadours from Provence in the Middle Ages, which were brought to Portugal by the court of knights and minstrels who accompanied the weddings of princes and princesses. Regardless of its origin, however, even those who do not speak Portuguese are usually moved by the deep feelings inspired by the melody. Sung either by a man or a woman, Fado lyrics focus on lost love, or the beauty of Lisbon and “her” eternal lover, the Tagus river. The singer is always accompanied by two guitar players, one of them being a twelve-string Portuguese guitar.

Price: € 52,50

Conference Dinner
(Monday, 27 September 2004, including bus back to hotels)

The Conference dinner will be held at the Reitoria building of the University of Lisbon, facing the Faculty Building where the congress takes place.

Price: € 44,50

Old Lisbon Half-Day Excursion
(Wednesday, 29 September 2004)

Monument to the Discoveries		Jerónimos Monastery

On the right bank of the broad Tagus river estuary, the capital of Portugal stands elegantly on rolling hills. This is a spectacular location and does much to explain the cosmopolitan history of the city. Its exceptional natural light, which has long inspired writers, photographers and filmmakers, the brightly coloured buildings straddling the slopes, the striking ochre of the roofs, the tiling on so many façades and the narrow twisting alleys of the medieval districts bestow Lisbon with the peculiar atmosphere of a city somewhere between the European north and the Mediterranean south. Over thousands of years, the superb natural harbour of the Tagus was used by traders and seafarers. Lisbon´s long history began under the Phoenicians as Alis-Ubbo, before becoming the Roman settlement of Felicita Julia Olisipo in the second century. With the arrival of the Moors from the 8th century onwards, it was renamed Aschbouna. The city fell to the Portuguese in 1147, when conquered by the first king of Portugal, Afonso Henriques. It became the national capital in 1255. Much was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. A regular, symmetrical plan was established for the "Baixa (city centre)", opening it up both to the light and to the river. There is also the seductive appeal of Chiado, a neighbourhood that evokes the bourgeois tastes of 19th-century Lisbon.

The tour will take the group through the city to Belém, one of Lisbon’s historical areas, where the group will take a tour of the Coach Museum. This boasts the largest and most important collection of carriages in the world, dating from the 17th to the 19th century. Next, the group will visit the Monastery of Jerónimos (1502), the finest example of the Gothic-Naturalist (“Manueline”) style.

Then the tour will proceed on to the Belém Tower, a 16th-century fortress, and to the Monument to the Discoveries.

Price: € 20

River Boat Half-Day Excursion
(Wednesday, 29 September, including cocktail and bus to docklands)

Enjoy the beauty of Lisbon aboard the Albacora!

Designed for business purposes, fashion events, conventions, conferences and river cruises, the Albacora-Rio is an elegant and versatile yacht which offers comfort, magnificence and quality. Crusing the Tagus gives visitors a whole new perspective on Lisbon and its unique relationship to the river. Cocktails will be served during the trip.

Minimum of 100 participants
Price: € 65,70

Post-Conference Full-Day Excursion to Queluz, Sintra, Roca Cape, Cascais
(Thursday, 30 September, including lunch)

Queluz Palace		Sintra Palace

The tour will begin with a visit to Queluz, a densely populated area in the municipality of Sintra, about 12 kms from Lisbon. In the early 18th century, the idyllic country estate and hunting lodge of the royal family was converted, by Infante Dom Pedro, son of King Dom João V, into a Summer Palace. The conversion work between 1747 and 1760 was supervised by the Portuguese architect Mateus Vicente de Oliveira and his French colleague Robillion, who added a new west wing (known as the Robillion Pavilion) to the initial plan, and worked on the decoration of the finest rooms, such as the Throne Room, the Music Room and the Ambassadors´ Room. The palace, predominantly in the "rocaille" and Rococo style, contains an important collection of decorative art – Portuguese furniture, painting, carpets, porcelain and tiles. The geometrically designed palace gardens with their lakes and sculptures are well worth a visit.

The tour will then continue to the delightful town of Sintra, located at the foot of the mountain range of the same name, and whose unique characteristics have led UNESCO to classify it as a World Heritage Site. In fact, a special category – that of "cultural landscape" – had to be created for the purpose, taking into account the area’s natural riches as well as the historic buildings in the town and mountains. Endowed with luxuriant vegetation, the mountains are part of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. In the 12th century, Dom Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, captured the Moorish Castle, and his successors later built their summer residence on the ruins of an Arab palace, which is now the centrepiece of the town – the Palácio da Vila. Many reminders of the Moorish presence can still be found in the palace, but the most striking features are the two enormous conical chimneys built in the Middle Ages. Much appreciated by kings and nobles as a country resort, and praised by writers and poets like Lord Byron, who called it "glorious Eden", Sintra has a wealth of cottages and manor houses. The palaces are also outstanding. They include the Pena Palace, built in the Romantic period on one of the mountain peaks, the 18th-century Seteais Palace, now converted into an elegant hotel, and the Monserrate Palace, famous for its beautiful gardens, with exotic species that are unique in the country.

There will be time to discover Sintra at leisure and to shop, as the town is well known for its handicraft. Lunch will be taken at a local restaurant.

The tour will then descend from the ever-green mountains of Sintra to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of Continental Europe, where a stop will be made by the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

We will then follow the coastline via Guincho beach and Boca do Inferno (“Hell’s Mouth) – a recess of the coast surrounded by craggy rocks and caves, which offers a fantastic spectacle of the sea dashing itself against the rocks on stormy days – on to Cascais. Traditionally a seaside fishing village, Cascais underwent significant development in the 14th century, when it became a busy port of call for ships on their way to Lisbon. But it was in the late 19th century, when bathing in the sea became popular, that Cascais was transformed into a very fashionable seaside resort. The chief architect of this transformation was King Luís I, who converted the fort into the summer residence of the Portuguese monarchy. His example was soon followed by the nobility, who built mansions and fine villas, where they would spend the hottest part of the year, completely changing the face of the former fishing village. Cascais then became a cosmopolitan town, attracting visitors who gained greater access when the railway between Pedrouços and Cascais was opened in 1889. Cascais nowadays is a lively, cosmopolitan place which retains a certain aristocratic atmosphere.

The tour will include leisure time in Cascais before returning to Lisbon via the marginal, a coastal road.

Price: € 52

Post-Conference Full-Day Excursion to Évora, Monsaraz
(Thursday, 30 September, including lunch)

Temple of Diana		Giraldo Square

The tour will take the 25 April Bridge over the Tagus via Montemor on to Évora. Topped by an imposing cathedral, Évora sprawls over a gently sloping hill rising from the vast Alentejo plain. Its historic centre is surrounded by a massive outer wall and is a valuable cultural legacy that UNESCO has classified as World Heritage. The city, with its narrow streets of Moorish origin that contrast with sunlit squares, has a two-thousand-year long history. Known to the Celts as “Ebora”, it was conquered in 59 BC by the Romans, who named it "Liberalitas Julia". Little remains from the Visigoth period (5th-8th centuries), which was followed by the Moorish period, begun when Tárique conquered the city. The town was reconquered in the 12th century by the Christians. Yeborah, as it became known, had already received an indelible Moorish influence, most clearly seen in the Mouraria neighbourhood. From the Middle Ages on, the city welcomed the court of various Portuguese kings from the first and second dynasties, and it was enriched with various palaces and monuments, particularly during the reigns of João II and Manuel I (15th and 16th centuries). The Roman-Gothic cathedral (1186), the Church of St. Francis, including the Chapel of Bones (1480), and the ruins of the Roman Temple of Diana are well worth a visit.

Lunch will be at a regional restaurant.

The tour will then proceed to Monsaraz, an extremely beautiful mediaeval town which has succeeded in preserving its own distinctive characteristics over the centuries. Walking through the streets of Monsaraz is like going back in time, for it is a truly unique place. The most immediate visual impression in the town is that of the whitewashed houses and buildings.

The tour will continue to Arraiolos, where the group will visit a factory that produces the world-famous hand-made carpets.
Return to Lisbon.

Price: € 52

Pre- or Post-Conference Three-Day Excursion to S. Miguel Island, Azores

With their sapphire-blue and emerald-green lakes, fertile meadows, hydrangeas, azaleas, 16th-century churches, manor houses and a mild climate all-year round (between 14º C and 22º C / 57º F and 71º F), the Azores are a guaranteed paradise for all visitors.

São Miguel, the largest island in the archipelago, is composed of two volcanic massifs separated by a lower altitude central ridge. The highest point, called Pico da Vara, is 1,080m high and is situated in the eastern massif. The large craters of Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas contain large lakes of crystal clear water.

São Miguel is renowned for its beautiful and peaceful landscape, its transparent lakes that hold legends of ancient kings and cities, and the unforgettable experience of meals cooked in the very depths of the earth itself. São Miguel also boasts magnificent golf courses in spectacular natural settings.

For more information, please go to: www.drtacores.pt

Price: Single € 955 Double € 835

Pre- or Post-Conference Three-Day Excursion to Madeira

The island of Madeira is filled with trees and flowers, a place where the summers are agreeable and winters are mild – an island of sun and pleasure, of history and beauty. Discovered by Portuguese navigators in 1420, Madeira is an exquisitely beautiful island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean opposite the African Coast. Covered with a thick endemic vegetation, to which the navigators added various unknown species that they brought back with them from the newly-discovered lands, Madeira has always been an exotic destination and one of Europe´s natural paradises. Nature-lovers must visit the island’s Laurissilva forest, the biggest evergreen forest in the world and entirely set inside in the Madeira Natural Park, which has been classified by UNESCO as World Heritage. Madeira has a surface area of 459 square miles (35 miles long and 13 miles wide). The island is 310 miles off the African coast and 620 miles from the European continent, which is the equivalent of a 1 hour 30 minute flight from Lisbon. The archipelago is made up of the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo and the uninhabited islands of Selvagens and Desertas.

Funchal, the capital of Madeira, is a picturesque town with a tempting choice of restaurants along its sea-front. Nowadays, the island not only exports its fine wine, but also delicate hand-made lace and embroideries, wickerwork, tropical fruit and exotic flowers.

You can enjoy golf, tennis and the chance to scuba dive around underwater caves and wrecks of sunken ships. A thrilling “toboggan ride” will take you down the mountain from Monte to Funchal. Or you can venture further by going by boat or plane to spend a few days in the island of Porto Santo, known for its 8 km of beaches with white sand.

For more information about the island, please go to: www.madeiratourism.com

Price: Single € 950 Double € 755