Portugal [antikvár]

PREFACE Facing the Atlantic, Portugál listens to the sea as to a long-standing friend in whom we have become accustomed to confiding, one who speaks to us by signs, knowing that these will be readily understood in the unique language understood only by oursetves. This retationship goes back a long way since the life of Portugál has always revolved around the sea, a fishing people in elose contact with the waves, storms and ocean currents. The climate results from sea-bornet winds and the heat which the privileged south enjoys in abundance. An invariably pleasant, Mediterranean atmosphere. The fresh winters are followed by days of alternating sun and rain, prelude to the later, hotter days typical of mid-year. Portugál's isolation from the rest of Europe has been a constant factor, with the plains of Castile and the Pyrenees constituting virtually insurmountable obstacles in days of yore when neither 3