Pedro

Woke up feeling normal, today, and went for a ride to check out the RARET. Even though this didn't create the photo content I was looking for I have just recently found about this bit of history and it interested me, so here it is. RARET is short for portuguese RAdio de RETransmissão (Retransmission Radio). At the time Portuguese leader (dictator) demanded that this station only retransmitted content created elsewhere, and no person worked there that wasn't a sympathizer to his party, the Estado Novo, to do this his political and censorship state police went through every worker with a fine tooth comb. (PIDE - Police for Investigation and Defense of the State) Portugal wasn't really a place of free speech or liberty back then, which is quite ironic since this station started to retransmit the american "Radio Free Europe / Radio Free Asia" mostly trying to convert people on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Salazar's phrasing very roughly translated by me, it's a difficult speech to convey in English: "A big number of European countries, threatened in their life and liberty, are now counting with the aid of the United States and with the help of each other for the defense of divulging their patrimony. It seems difficult, in such circumstances to be absent from this." The content transmitted would in languages very much foreign to most portuguese residents, so people from the Eastern block were in charge of monitoring them to make sure they wouldn't be retransmitting Russian programes. Mr Pasqualino (an Italian), a guy who was fluent in 12 languages was the master linguist, often pointing out they were receiving the Russian transmission which arrived here in far stronger signal than the American. It's very recognized that without him this station would frequently be transmitting the Russian signal, and that would be most inconvenient. He would receive transmissions from Germany in Vila Franca de Xira, record them, and then drive them over to Glória do Ribatejo for broadcasting those recordings. Strange times. Eventualy, this was streamlined... The engineers brought from the armed forces to work the radio and electronics eventually got into a groove and found themselves with plenty of free time, hence they were put to use in a Technical School that was built in Gloria do Ribatejo (name of the town translated to Ribatejo's Glory). This school was open to whoever intended to enroll, and was responsible for a big increase of kids from this village to get a quality education and a substantial increase in their progression to Universities, not much of an occurrence before that. The RARET obviously had a medical facility to care for it's staff, this was quickly put to use and open to the community, their ambulance and maternity ward made a big difference in the lives of those people back then. The RARET transmited from 1951 until 1996, which quite surprised me. Upon shutting down, some building were donated to the community, some were converted to the local council management, some modified and converted for community groups to use. All the now obsolete radio equipment was dismantled and donated to the local council, who having no alternative use sold it for scrap. The whole thing was a big positive influence in the quality of life of this village, and it stopped with the best impact it could have. The main buildings are currently abandoned just a couple of kms out of town, and I went to have a look. Unfortunately I couldn't really get a close look at the thing, I rode around the entire compound searching for an opening but it would have involved climbing over a fence or forcing a gate, and I wasn't going to do that. Main entrance: A glimpse at the compound homes, now unused, apparently 70 homes used to be occupied by people working here. The main building in the distance, Typical local broken road around the fence, plenty of houses around though. Rear entrance, also pretty shut On the edge off the Village, a few posters with period pictures were posted this year, celebrating the 70 years of the first transmission in 4th July 1951. Popped to the village for a pick me up expresso, old builders' homes converted to a new community building and park, named after the Radio Free Europe president: During this RARET operation, Portugal went into war in Africa and Asia over it's colonies independence, the last country in the EU to have colonies is not the proudest moment in our history, but even worse is that the way we left was very damaging for those countries's future. A small memorial to a couple of local soldiers who died overseas. It started getting warm, and I headed home. I was a little disappointed that access to the buildings wasn't easy but I did stop on an abandoned crumbling building for your delection So here: Exiting, the property owner stopped by me on his pickup and was apparently very irritated that I took a couple of pictures of his crumbling building, even though it's door was wide open and I didn't go in. As I asked why he was getting so aggravated he started to get more and more irritated, and proceeded to move his pickup a few meters forward to write down my plate number, which he did over a thick cloud of dust when I got on my merry way, what a twat he was. A brief stop over my favourite bridge on the way home, Ponte Rainha D. Amélia: Plan was to pull some weeds in the afternoon, but it's too hot and I'm not feeling that right now. This report turned into too much of a history lesson for my taste, sorry about that, but if you're up for more here is a link to a page with some old pictures of the radio station: https://restosdecoleccao.blogspot.com/2014/07/raret-radio-retransmissao.html

I am almost afraid to ask what that is after the description of that night.

I think I've posted a picture or two of that bridge before, maybe with the 1150 or XR, maybe not on this thread though. It is completely my favourite bridge, quite small but it's close to home and I ride through it to get over the Tejo River when going out on a big ride to the Alentejo via back roads. It was inaugurated in 1904 for railway use, back then at 840m it was considered the longest in the Iberian Peninsula for train use. In 1996 a new bridge (the ugly concrete one on the right) was built next to it, and it was then converted for road use in 2001. Funny, construction first started in 1901, the work converting it to road use was in 2001, a full century later.

I was going to take it while riding but the grid makes the bike slowly drift to the right a few inches at a time if I don’t touch the bars

I feel sorry for her having to have you drive her and whining all the way

All pictures or video of it imply you only hang off it though, and don’t ride it…

An over 40º ride through the Alentejo is always a nice adventure.

That looks so tempting! And easy terrain on the big bike too, not sandy How far do you figure are the hills in the distance? 30 or 40km? Apart from that, before this it seemed a properly cold and grim ride

a long term investment

like that specific cockney, yes

Yes, you do sound like you're John Wayne's deputy in an old western. In a nice way.

That guy doesn't sound like Pete at all, to me. I think you're focusing on the accent and not the guy's voice. That, or you all sound alike to me, which might not be wrong.

Rob Brydon sounds similar to you in short words like "Rob", "what", but to me that comedian does sound very much like you.

That guy is hilarious, and he sounds like Pete.

Funny enough, like most cars' auto boxes with the same up (forward) and down (back) buttons, it seems opposite of what is intuitive to me. On race cars it's pull back for up and push forward for down.

That's interesting, but there is one definitive chapel that is the blue roof room. The blue one is quite small, this bigger one is on a 90º to the other one but built maybe after, maybe as an addition to the original building. But then again it could be a canteen of sorts as this was quite the farm with probably a lot of workers. On thing the original text made sure was that it was to belong to a powerful family, but mandated to keep a church mass going daily, with some other obligations towards the church and the community, so providing proper meals and that kind of ambience could be the way of life there.\ Then the rich royals would probably gather after the hunts for a nice old fashioned Indian or Brazilian spice fueled orgy on the first floor

Thanks! I've done a couple of reports last year in which you really see the differences between north and south, and the countryside.

Too many to name, the guy looking at the inside of the barrel, or the police guy showing off in a room full of kids, I don't know... If there ever was well timed advice was the one guy that told her to put her tongue inside her mouth, as he clearly knew what was going to happen

They're not really Lara Croft, are they, those guys? What is the point of an abandoned sanatarium?

They were taken away from their owners during the revolution in an excuse by profiteers to give the people management of what was in the hands of “fascists”, all those people fled and the now "managers" ran everything into the grounds, farms, factories, rich houses, etc Then a few years later when they came back all the stuff wasn’t theirs anymore, and what was reclaimed is often stuck in a legal battle over heirs claiming against each other. The legal system being a joke, things get passed on from generation to generation in said legal system … It would be easier if it was to go for an organisation like you say, but I don’t see that working properly here. Maybe even better if sold for charity and used for businesses like small hotels, restaurants, etc, it would make a kickass brothel too!

This farm was operative in 1974, so all the damage happened since …

I don’t think so, the door was human sized and facing the entrance of the building, I suppose a barn would face the inside and be amongst the ones more in ruins. It could be a bigger church, though, I have no idea.