Millions know the Portugal of sunshine, beaches, excellent dining and people of unique charm. Look a little further and you find a history dating back to Biblical times, a country already sophisticated when the Romans invaded. Its natural beauty and fertility, its inviting climate and its Atlantic coast attracted tradesmen and settlers from the earliest times. Only now are some of its earliest treasures being discovered. Only recently has it been realised that the lost city of Atlantis, thought to have been a strange fantasy of Plato s probably had a very real origin just where he said by the Pillars of Hercules, i.e The Straits of Gibraltar in ancient Portugal. In the fifteenth century it began the explorations that would make it the richest country in the world and one of the most influential. Then it fell rapidly to become the poorest country in western Europe. This book records several visits to different parts of this small but varied country. I enjoyed the modern pleasures of the sun, the food and the charm but was just as captivated by what I learned of the rich and exciting past. I was delighted to see increasing evidence that it may at last be recovering to build a new and exciting future.