Visiting Portugal and Yellowstone

“Portugal” (Traveloguer Collection, 60 minutes, 1991).

This is a travel film in its purest sense. Beautifully photographed and well-narrated by noted traveloguer Frank Nichols, it covers the country from northern border towns to the southern beaches of the Algarve, plus three islands of the Azores and the island of Madeira.

Its essence is captured in scenes of charming villages embellished with Moorish architecture, ancient ruins, the distinctive azuelos (blue-and-white tiles) and continual reminders of its ties to the sea and its golden age of navigation and exploration.

The Lisbon tour includes the old Elfama district, with its winding, narrow streets, St. George’s Castle and stone cutters, who create the colorful mosaic sidewalks. Nearby stops include the 18th-Century Queluz Palace, the architecturally whimsical Pena Palace and the beach resorts of Estoril and Cascais.

North from Lisbon are the fishing port of Peniche, Moorish heritage of Obidos, religious shrine at Fatima, fishing village of Nazare, Roman ruins at Conimbriga and university town of Coimbra, with the luxurious and historic Bucaco Hotel.

Aveiro, the “Venice of Portugal” with its salt-farm-lined canals, is along the way to Porto, home of port wine.

South of Lisbon, travel is through the Alentejo Plains, with stops at Portalegre and the Roman ruins at Evora.

Along the Algarve on the southern coast, the film visits the resort towns of Faro, Albufeira and Sagres, and the Prince Henry School of Navigation.

The tropical islands of Sao Miguel, Faial and Terceira, “the peaks of Atlantis,” are visited in the Azores, and the final stop takes viewers to Madeira, where a tour of the city of Funchal includes a tourist must--a guided sled ride down steep, cobbled streets.

A tape is available from Traveloguer Collection, 3301 W. Hampden Ave., Suite N, Englewood, Colo. 80110, (800) 521-5104. Price: $29.95, including a reference booklet.

“The Story of Yellowstone National Park” (Questar Video, 65 minutes, 1991).

Excellent camera work that shows spectacular panoramas and close-ups offers viewers the grandeur of Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, the oldest (1872) and largest (2.2 million acres) national park in the continental United States.

The park has 10,000 thermal geysers, including Old Faithful, plus bubbling mud pots, painted pools and gurgling hot springs, including Mammoth Hot Springs with its delicate limestone terraces. Also, a hauntingly beautiful wilderness with a petrified forest, huge Yellowstone Lake, waterfalls and the 20-mile, 1,200-foot-deep, yellow-tinted Grand Canyon and Yellowstone River that gave the park its name. Dramatic scenes of wildlife at play and competing for survival are shown.

Final scenes offer the park in winter, less the crowds of summer--pristine and quiet under a blanket of snow.

This video is one of a three-video set that includes “Yosemite” and “The Grand Canyon,” available for $79.95. Purchase includes a free video, “Hidden Treasures of America’s National Parks.” They are also available individually for $29.95 each. Ten percent of the gross profit is being donated to park preservation. Tapes are available from Questar Video, P.O. Box 11345, Chicago, Ill. 60611, (800) 544-8422.

“The Great Alaska Cruise” (International Travel Films, 1990, 81 minutes).

In addition to a traditional cruise of the Inside Passage, with stops at Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay and Skagway, viewers sail the Gulf of Alaska coast and explore inland Alaska by train, bus, plane and riverboat, crossing the Arctic Circle to Prudhoe Bay. Between ports of call are scenes of life aboard ship.

The first stop in the Gulf of Alaska is College Fiord in Prince William Sound. The ship next heads to Whittier, where passengers board a train for a tour of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Side trips are to Matanuska Valley, where giant vegetables and musk-oxencq are raised, and to Palmer, where the Alaska State Fair is held each August.

Returning to Anchorage, passengers board a train for Fairbanks and the carving of soapstone and scrimshaw pieces, the annual World Eskimo Olympics and the University of Alaska. There’s also a side trip to Little Eldorado, where tourists can try gold panning.

Then there’s a paddle-wheeler cruise on the Tanana River to the Klondike, followed by a bus journey over the Arctic Circle along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay.

A return trip by train stops at Denali National Park, and includes a plane ride over majestic Mt. McKinley, and at Anchorage to see the Columbia Glacier before reaching Whittier to reboard the ship.

The film, originally produced for theater showing, has been updated for video release and is available from International Travel Films, Box 310, San Fernando 91341, (800) 622-0067. Price: $29.95.