Tchau, Portugal...

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Portugal, we loved your people, your food, your history, your beaches, your weather, your public transportation, your reasonable prices, and your beautiful women (Bill's comment). Everyone we met was so nice and helpful...and were patient with my attempts at speaking Portuguese! (Even the woman at the ticket counter in Lagos was polite when she asked me to use English since there was a long line behind me...)

While Lisboa was too crowded at times, it was fun to be in a very cosmopolitan European capital again...Sagres was wild beauty...Porto ended up as our favorite..not too crowded, great food, and the wonderful river cruise!

On our last day, we visited the market and bought a few gifts, and then took the #500 bus to end of the line in Matosinhos, at the mouth of the Douro. This bus route goes along the coast, and is a double-decker. So for the price of about $2.00, we got the tour of the coast where the Douro meets the Atlantic. We had an excellent seafood lunch, walked to the beach where I body-surfed, and took the bus back. This evening was spent packing and relaxing...

Tomorrow is another travel marathon: Subway at 6:00am to the airport, 8:30 flight to London, six hour layover in Gatwick (yes, we are having another Jamie Oliver English breakfast!), 10:30 pm arrival in NYC, overnight at an airport hotel, spent a few hours in NYC the next morning (maybe walk the Highline), train to Old Saybrook, CT and finally travel to my Mom and step-dad's home for five days...

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Photos

The facade of our building
Our apartment faced the back, and was very quiet...

Porto in a picture
Exquisite old church with a construction crane behind it...

A very unusual local legend
This structure was built in the 18th century.
It is told that the Lord of Matosinhos Statue was sculpted by Nicodemos, the man who helped Joseph of Arimathea remove Christ’s body from the cross and then embalm it. Thrown overboard at sea, it reached land in the year 124 washed up on the sands of Espinheiro, close to Matosinhos, but discovered minus an arm. Throughout 50 years nobody could manage to sculpt the missing limb in a way that fitted with the rest of the statue. Then, an elderly lady, who lived nearby, was at her fireplace. She noticed a piece of wood that seemed to be on the point of rolling out of the fireplace. Her daughter, dumb since an early age, suddenly gained use of her voice to declare that the piece was the arm for the Bom Jesus. On taking it to the statue, the piece fitted perfectly in place of the missing limb and the people now had their full and complete statue.
The site of the current statue in honour of this popular saint is either where the original statue or where the arm was found depending on whom you ask.
Beneath, there is a panel of 18th century blue and white tiles depicting Christ and the number 50 in commemoration of the number of years it took to discover the missing limb.