Country Article / Postcards

Fragrant Snow in Portugal

Date: 03/07/2005

Dear International Living Reader,

Spring comes early to Portugal's Algarve. The first signs are the almond blossoms that begin to appear at the beginning of January. When flowering reaches its peak between mid-January and mid-February, the blossoms are so dense that in places the land appears to be covered with a light dusting of snow. By March, the show is over.

There is a story that long ago in Al-Gharb (as the land known today as the Algarve was called when the Moors ruled the Iberian Peninsula), a Moorish prince took a Nordic princess as his wife. One winter's day the prince found his beautiful wife crying because she was so homesick for the snowy landscapes of the north. The prince immediately ordered the planting of thousands of almond trees throughout his realm. Since that day, through January and February, Portugal's Algarve is covered with the snowy white blossom of almond trees. Needless to say, the Prince and his Princess lived happily ever after in this mild-wintered land with its short-lived, perfumed snow.

If you are in the Algarve at this time of the year, tear yourself away from the golf course for a day and head out into the countryside for a beautiful and fragrant show.

Alan Phillips
For International Living