Final Week in Portugal

I'm back in the US and it is great to be home. I had a really fun last week in Portugal. I finished up my job on Wednesday. Lately I had been researching Portuguese gaming laws, which was interesting. 

Thursday I went to Cristo Rei, across the river from Portugal. Cristo Rei is a sort of copy of Cristo Redentor in Rio de Janeiro. The views from The statue were incredible. 

  

Friday I headed to southern Portugal. There was a lot of agriculture that I could see on the train ride, like these orange trees.

I spent Friday in Lagos, a super beautiful town in southwest Portugal, right on the coast. I went on a boat ride through the grottoes, I went swimming at one of the largest beaches, and I strolled through the town. I must have taken hundreds of pictures, so here's a selection of them. Lagos is really incredibly beautiful. 

 The best grottoes were near a little cape called Ponto da Piedade, shown below.

Then on Saturday I took a train to southeast Portugal, to a little town called Tavira. It was quite the stressful trip because I missed the train stop for Tavira. I decided to just get off at the next stop, in hopes of getting a train back to Tavira, but after I got off the train, I realized there was no station where I was, and I was just in the middle of nowhere in southern Portugal. I was rather concerned because the next day there was going to be a train strike, and the day after that was my flight, so if I didn't figure out how to return to Lisbon that day, I would be in a lot of trouble.

I walked up the street that was near the train tracks and frantically tried to get in people's gates so I could find out if there was a bus stop or anything. Luckily I ran into a lady on the street and I told her about my predicament, and she told me how to get to the center of town, which ended up being  Tavira. It is quite stressful to be alone in a foreign country and have no idea where you are, except that you are in a very small town.

Anyway, Tavira wasn't my favorite, mostly because it was quite hot and I had a pretty nasty sunburn from my time in Lagos, but I did see a few interesting things there.

Sunday was my last day in Lisbon, and after going to church, I went to Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, which is right across the street from the church.

Then I quickly went back to Belem because I hadn't seen the National Coach Museum. On the way there, I helped some French ladies get to Belem too. I talked to them for about an hour and rode the trolley with them and showed them which bus to take because I was going in the same direction. My French was in need of practice after speaking so much Portuguese. 

After Belem, I visited a really pretty park called Estrela, I think.

Finally, I went to the Cemeterio dos Prazeres, the biggest cemetery in Lisbon. I love cemeteries, and this one was especially great. Europe has lots of cemeteries that are filled with little houses of sorts where the dead are kept in coffins above ground. Families are kept together in one of these little stone buildings.

Then their coffins are stacked like this. You can often see them through a window on the front of the building.

 It's really quite interesting to see a cemetery full of these little houses. I think they call them capelinhas in Portuguese. They're sort of a small mausoleum. They make the cemetery rather beautiful.

I finished Sunday by eating at a cafe in Rossio, the heart of Lisbon.

I will miss my time in Portugal, but I'm happy to be back!

Another Stamp in My Passport

I spent the weekend in Madrid! I actually didn't get a stamp from either Lisbon or Madrid this weekend since the EU is so friendly with each other. It's more of a metaphorical stamp.

After I dropped off some things at my once again private-room hostel, I visited the Reina Sofia museum. It houses Picasso's Guernica, among other works by Picasso, Miro, Dali and others. 

It seemed like all of the heart of Madrid was full of gorgeous buildings like these. 

 Then I took a stroll through the Real Botanical Gardens. They looked like this mostly.

And I went to the Prado, which is Madrid's most well-known museum. It has a really good Goya collection, as well as Titian, Velazquez and others. Las Meninas was one of my favorite paintings there.

This "Museo del Jamon" is a famous restaurant chain of sorts in Madrid. It is full of pig legs hanging from the ceiling, as well as other pig things. I had their most famous product, Jamon Iberico, on a sandwich for my dinner.

Before the end of Saturday night I went to Puerta del Sol, Madrid's main square. They were having a rally against bull fighting, you know, animal cruelty and such.

 Sunday morning was my favorite part of the trip. I went to see where my brother served part of his mission just 2 months ago. Here is the Madrid temple.

This is where Logan lived, right next door to the temple.

Then I went to the Palacio Real, the home of Spanish kings from 1764 to 1931. It was beautiful. 

The view was really great too. 

I stepped in the cathedral across the street for a few minutes of mass. 

 That afternoon I went to El Rastro, a gigantic outdoor market.

As I continued on to Plaza Mayor, I saw this candy shop. It was exciting. Those are filled licorice and giant gummy bears made of small gummy bears. 

When I got to Plaza Mayor, I wondered why it looked familiar. I realized it was because I have a picture of Logan there on my facebook.

I stopped by Plaza de Cibeles, which has a beautiful city hall building. And I had churros and hot chocolate.












And my last stop was the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Besides seeing the temple, this was my favorite spot. It is one of my favorite museums of all time. It has a fantastic impressionist and expressionist collection. Artists like Munch, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, and Picasso were all well represented. I loved the Pissarro pieces that were there. He is one of my favorite artists. I also learned of a few new artists I hadn't heard of before, like the impressionist Berueta. I was really enchanted by this museum.