It can get very flower laden around here at this time of year, so today I’m going to take you on a stroll around Almodôvar, a little known village in the Alentejo. Why? Well, just because I can, and also because I was intrigued by these red shoes. Seriously, don’t you ever want to go somewhere just to see what’s there? I do it all the time.
It’s not the easiest place to get to, and after an hour and a half of rocking and rolling along switchback country roads, car sickness was beginning to threaten. I knew that, once over the border from the Algarve, the land would begin to flatten out. Still, it was a relief to step out of the car. An elderly lady was pegging out her washing and regarded me with some curiosity. Visitors from out of town are obviously a rarity.
It’s an ordinary enough place, the likes of which you will find throughout Portugal. The charm lies in wandering the quiet streets, simply observing life. It was just before Easter and preparations were underway in Igreja Matriz de Santo Ildefonso, the imposing 16th century church which dominates the main square.
A map on a nearby wall points out places of interest in the village. Just what’s needed! Number 2 is the clock tower, or Torre do Relogio. In the 8th century, Almodôvar (literally ‘place in the round’) was rebuilt by the Muslims, with a surrounding wall. No trace of this exists today. A clock tower, served by an outside staircase, would typically have been part of the ramparts from the 17th century. The clock was housed in the right tower of Santo Ildefonso, but was removed in 1889 when the parish church was struck by lightning.
As so often in Portugal, the smartly modern sits alongside the shabby and forlorn. A pedestrianised shopping street comes as something of a surprise, but I am no longer surprised by wall art. Meet poet Fernando Pessoa, and friends!
Still loosely following the map I headed along Rua do Convento, the convent of Our Lady of Conception inviting me closer.
What to make of this? I hunted high and low for an explanation of this fanfare of an art installation. Why red shoes, I was at a loss to know. No clues inside either, but the interior was a show stopper. All that glitters…
I did solve the mystery, though. Close by the convent there’s a 6 metre high sculpture of a cobbler on a roundabout. Marked ‘Aureliano, 2001’, in researching it I discovered that Almodôvar had a history of shoe making. Between the years of 1940 and 1970 there were around 200 manual shoe makers working in the town, and selling their wares at fairs throughout the county. This sculpture, made by Aureliano Aguiar of Coimbra, from cogs and recovered bits of metal, is in their honour.
I strolled back to the sleepy little square with a fountain, and found a cafe opposite the museum. In the shade of the trees, sensible villagers idled to pass the time of day. This place would be like a furnace in full summer. I was melting in March. So when I was offered a half litre bottle of vinho verde (they didn’t sell it by the glass) there was nothing to do but sit and watch the world go by. Of course, I needed a substantial amount of food.
Back in the car, we rolled down the N2 towards the coast, passing the village of Ameixal with its Thursday morning roadside market. The stalls were all but empty. A venue for another day? I had been thrilled by the wild irises, dusting the kerbside, on our way north. Worth a last quick leap!
And that was Almodôvar. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I do like a wander. Sorry about the lack of cake again. I was too full after that enormous toastie. Speaking of which, it must be time to put the kettle on.
Cuppa to hand, it’s time for this week’s wonderful shares. Thank you all for your company and the great support I receive on here. If you’d like to join in at any time, details are on my Jo’s Monday walk page. You’ll be made very welcome.
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Look where Lexi’s landed! Doesn’t it look fine? You just might be surprised :
I love a sing-a-long, and where better than the charms of Paris? (and Drake) :
From one magical city to another! So lucky to have Debbie show us the heights :
There’s always something to be thankful for in the company of Lady Lee :
52 Weeks of Thankfulness- Week 43
Geoff’s lessons on life, ably assisted by Dog :
Brecon Beacons- a lesson in green living
Jackie’s not quite so exuberant this week, but then, look at the weather!
It’s not every day that I’d go walking around a complex, but Sedona surely makes a stunning backdrop. Thanks, Marsha!
Resort Walk Reveals 15 Top Things to Love
Woolly wins it for excitement this week. Up, up and away!
Jo’s-Monday-Walk-Wk16-Hot-Air2
Amy goes hunting for wildflowers in Texas, and finds boots and saddles!
But Dawn is more than happy with her finds :
WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge : Surprised and Delighted
I went looking for wood sprites or elves with Denzil, in Belgium :
And then I really struck lucky when Gilly found me a baby dragon!
And finally, what did Carol find at the top of a hill?
My English walk today has been rained off! And it’s not even a Bank Holiday. That’s next Monday, isn’t it? See you then!
restlessjo 
Of course I like going somewhere just to see what’s there, you never know what’s over that hill or around the next corner! You were lucky here, what a find. The shoes are amazing and the street art, a little town full of contrasts and always that unbeatable Portuguese sky. I’d probably like the coffee in Bristol if you’re likely to be at all lonely! x:-)x
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I thought you might see that, Gilly! I’ve been dithering since the weekend, when I got the invitation. I’ll email. 🙂 🙂 The shoes just kind of reeled me in along the street and when I got there I gawped. Most flattering! 🙂
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What a lovely stroll! Loved the cobblers, the red shoes, the interior of the church, the wild irises! Definitely worth a wander.
Alison
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Surprising what you can find in somewhere small and sleepy in the middle of nowhere much. 🙂 🙂 It’s home to somebody! Thanks for your company, Alison.
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What a lovely town, Jo. Thanks for taking us along. I am curious… What are those white berries in IMG_9244?
Have a wonderful day.
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Forgot to say… I love that church with red shoes!
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Starts husband and wife debate… Mick is the garden ‘expert’ and he says maybe acacia but I have my doubts. 🙂 The trees that we were sitting under had wispy branches and lots of the white berries. No, he’s changed his mind but he can’t remember… too early in the day for him. 🙂 I’ll get back to you if it comes to me. Thank you!
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Ok- we’ve decided! It’s a Pepper Tree or Schistus. 🙂 🙂
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Thank you so much to all of you!
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Wandering off to see what’s there is one of my favourite things (used to do it as a child, much to my mother’s annoyance) so thank you for the tag along. I’ve enjoyed the sunshine and blue skies on a day that is grey and wet here. I don’t mind about the cake. With a recent birthday in the house, we’re a bit caked out.
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Ah look, you’ve got me singing Happy Birthday already and it’s not even breakfast time yet… 🙂 Hope it was a good one. And you’re always welcome to tag along with this happy wanderer. 🙂 🙂
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…going to a place just to see what’s there.. Love this 🙂 And after all, what you found was remarkable. Lovely walk – thanks!
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I seem to remember that that’s your style 🙂 🙂 And yes, sometimes there are lovely rewards. Thank you! Have a happy week 🙂
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I love your thinking: “just going to see what’s there”. I’m more of a find out what’s there and go traveller, but there are always surprises nonetheless. This town has some beauties: the tiled house front; the pink cherub flesh amongst the gold; the spectacular street art (there’s something about faces enlarged that is unexpectedly charming); the berries on the red tablecloth; the shoemaker statues; and of course that cascade of red shoes. It’s certainly not an ordinary town. Then there’s the two photos of dilapidation – are you being converted?? A question that just occurred to me: do you speak Portuguese? Thank you for a Tuesday morning pleasure, and take a probably-rainy-day-and-I’ve-just-put-on-load-of-washing hug or three to show my appreciation.
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Bright blue and bitter cold here with snow flurries expected! Would you believe it? But yesterday I sat in the garden with a book and watched the flowers burgeoning (between showers! I didn’t bother to put the washing out 🙂 ). I do tend to research before I go because I hate to miss anything. In this case I couldn’t find much about the place so had no expectations. I knew there was an old bridge, but we couldn’t get near that for roadworks. Typical! 🙂 🙂 Dilapidation- I kind of ‘get it’ but I tend to take the photos because I know that others will appreciate them. Portuguese is probably even more minimal than my Polish. Sigh! 😦 But when….if… we live there… 🙂 🙂 Hugs wrapped in a fleecy dressing gown!
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We were promised rain but it didn’t happen. Washing dried, and I burnt my baking: haven’t learnt the new stove yet. Snow eh? What’s with this weather.
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Scones or pies? I don’t mind them well done 🙂 🙂
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Quiche and pasties! Still eminently edible.
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Kettle on! Over I pop 🙂
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What do you mean kettle? I baked. That deserves something alcoholic I think. Name your tipple.
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Thick grey clouds are encircling me. Maybe it should be something stronger 🙂 I keep meaning to ask, how’s J these days?
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Everything around him collapsing: knee, chimney, water jacket on fuel stove. But he’s extraordinarily cheerful: “Gives me something to think about.” It was this practical stuff he missed in Warsaw. I usually on see him for the Saturday evening Skype. Thanks for asking.
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Cheerful is a great state of mind. Good for him 🙂
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I thought you must have been to the ballet when I read your title. We’re going to The Red Shoes next month. Love the red shoe sculpture, and the church is amazing – all that bling in such a small place!
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It’s a funny old world, isn’t it, Annabel? 🙂 I do try to make my walks more of a story than simply a travelogue. It feels like ‘proper’ writing that way, and it keeps me entertained. As did those red shoes 🙂 🙂
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What a unique place. Thanks for sharing!
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You never know what you’re going to find, do you? 🙂 🙂 I did enjoy it.
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Ah, you take us on the most enchanting walks Jo, what would I do without you! I once had a pair of red court shoes which I loved. Those were the days when I also wore suits for work! So I was drawn to the shoe sculpture – maybe it is also connected to the shoe makers? And the cog sculptures are very interesting. Not so keen on those murals though. And I am a huge fan of going somewhere, just because. You just never know what you might discover 😀 😀
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Shades of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz/Hans Christian Anderson/even Stairway to Heaven? All good entertainment value. I do work hard to keep you folks interested. All that sitting under a tree… 🙂 🙂 And there’s definitely something about red shoes!
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I know you work hard Jo, and we do appreciate all the trouble you go to. [trying hard to keep a straight face]. Even to the length you go to having to eat toasties and cakes and scones and drink white wine… SUCH a hard job 😛
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Every town tells a story – Almodôvar’s tale of two hundred cobblers fashioning hand-made shoes is fascinating. It’s sad to think that now all shoes (unless you have serious funds) are all, including the designer brands, mass produced. 😉
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I’m the world’s worst for buying cheap shoes! I’m so heavy on them that they never last me long anyway. I do like pretty red ones though. 🙂 🙂
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Admire your “noise” for finding all these wonderful walks.
So inspiring, not following your footsteps, but looking over your shoulder as we do.
Here best of all in my eyes the old window still a bit colored blue and still a bit red frame.
But all wonderful captures… 🙂
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It amuses me how many people like a bit of dilapidation, Drake. 🙂 I always used to avert my eyes, but these days it’s good camera material. Like so many other things 🙂 🙂 Thank you for always being there to look over my shoulder.
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I always want to go somewhere just to see what’s there! Now the question will haunt me: why are red shoes streaming out of a convent?
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A few suggestions have been offered, including a link to Hans Christian Anderson’s story. My own is a stairway to heaven 🙂 🙂 I should have gone to the museum. Maybe there…?
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Nice work👍
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Thanks a lot 🙂 🙂
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“Seriously, don’t you ever want to go somewhere just to see what’s there? I do it all the time.”
I’m not sure why this sentence captivated me so much, but it did. 🙂 And now I’m tempted to skip work and go somewhere just for the fun of it.
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Bit naughty… 🙂 🙂
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“Seriously, don’t you ever want to go somewhere just to see what’s there? I do it all the time.”
I’m not sure why this sentence captivated me so much, but it did. 🙂 And now I’m tempted to skip work and go somewhere just for the fun of it.
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I loved the cobbler statue and the artwork with the red shoes is interesting too, although a bit strange coming out of the church…
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It’s been suggested it might have a connection with the Hans Christian Anderson story, Sami. If I’d gone in the museum I might have been able to verify that but I was too busy having fun. 🙂 🙂 How’re things with you?
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Jo, I am a big fan of red shoes, so your opening photo caught my eye. Very shabby chic kind of place, loved the sculpture. To finish the walk with nice food and some vinho verde it is just perfect 🙂
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It caught my imagination from the second I saw it in the distance, Gilda. It kind of ‘reeled me in!’ 🙂 🙂
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Hans Christian Anderson wrote a fairy tale about red shoes at church. I was wondering if that could have something to do with it.
A peasant girl named Karen is adopted by a rich old lady after her mother’s death and grows up vain and spoiled. Before her adoption, Karen had a rough pair of red shoes; now she has her adoptive mother buy her a pair of red shoes fit for a princess. Karen is so enamored of her new shoes that she wears them to church, but the old lady scolds her: it’s highly improper and she must only wear black shoes in church from now on. But next Sunday, Karen cannot resist the urge to put the red shoes on again. As she is about to enter the church, she meets a mysterious old soldier with a red beard. “Oh, what beautiful shoes for dancing,” the soldier says. “Never come off when you dance,” he tells the shoes, and he taps the sole of each with his hand. After church, Karen cannot resist taking a few dance steps, and off she goes, as though the shoes controlled her, but she finally manages to take them off. One day, after her adoptive mother becomes ill, Karen leaves her alone and goes off to a ball in town in her red shoes. She begins to dance, but this time the shoes won’t come off. They continue to dance, night and day, rain or shine, through fields and meadows, and through brambles and briers that tear at Karen’s limbs. She can’t even attend her adoptive mother’s funeral. An angel appears to her, bearing a sword, and condemns her to dance even after she dies, as a warning to vain children everywhere. Karen begs for mercy but the red shoes take her away before she hears the angel’s reply. Karen finds an executioner and asks him to chop off her feet. He does so but the shoes continue to dance, even with Karen’s amputated feet inside them. The executioner gives her a pair of wooden feet and crutches, and teaches her the criminals’ psalm. Thinking that she has suffered enough for the red shoes, Karen decides to go to church so people can see her. Yet her amputated feet, still in the red shoes, dance before her, barring the way. The following Sunday she tries again, thinking she is at least as good as the others in church, but again the dancing red shoes bar the way. Karen gets a job as a maid in the parsonage, but when Sunday comes she dares not go to church. Instead she sits alone at home and prays to God for help. The angel reappears, now bearing a spray of roses, and gives Karen the mercy she asked for: her heart becomes so filled with sunshine, peace, and joy that it bursts. Her soul flies on sunshine to Heaven, where no one mentions the red shoes.
Andersen explained the origins of the story in an incident he witnessed as a small child. By his report, his father was sent a piece of red silk by a rich lady customer, to make a pair of dancing slippers for her daughter. Using red leather along with the silk, he worked very carefully on the shoes, only to have the rich lady tell him they were trash. She said he had done nothing but spoil her silk. “In that case,” he said, “I may as well spoil my leather too,” and he cut up the shoes in front of her.
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I had envisioned it as a kind of stairway to heaven and you’re probably exactly right with your source of inspiration, Kirsten. Thank you for taking the time to recount it here. 🙂 🙂 Have a great week!
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Have a great week yourself, Bridget
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So sorry, Bridget! 😦 I can never get your name fixed in my head. Now who can Kirsten be?
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I am so bad with names. Please, don’t feel bad, I mix and match as I please. 🙂
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🙂 🙂
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What a cute town. It looks so quiet and peaceful, perfect for a sunny stroll, indeed. I could feel your surprise about the red shoes when looking at the photos, Jo. How bizarre, yet intriguing and charming all at once. I love it when people are creative and when art gets a chance amongs history.
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It was like stepping back in time and yet with a modern twist, Liesbet. If I’d gone into the museum I might have come up with an explanation (but I was too busy eating and drinking and it was closed by the time I thought about it 😦 )
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