One of the first thing you notice in Portugal, whether you’re in Lisbon or the Algarve or anywhere else in this wonderful country, is the tile work. While not necessarily unique to Portugal, the extent to which the Portuguese use tile as an integral feature of their architecture is, at least in our experience, unmatched. Today’s post is a photo journey along a trail of Portuguese tiles (not too many words but LOTS of pictures – the way Debra likes it!). We’re so glad you’ve decided to join us!
Lao Tzu was dead-on when he said, “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” So, when during an atypical (for the Barretts, anyway) driving trip in Europe we saw some signs for Rheinfall in Switzerland (which, by the way, is the largest waterfall in Europe, according to both the Wikipedia site and the Swiss site dedicated to the falls), we decided to check it out.
At the risk of rendering the rest of the post somewhat anticlimactic, let’s go ahead and take a look at the massive rush of water:
I thought I’d give you a little taste of some new adventures coming in the not-too-distant future. So, here is a shot of one of the seemingly endless photogenic spots in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a lovely spot on the Romantic Road in central Germany.
While in Seattle a couple of weeks ago visiting our son and precious daughter-in-law (who are expecting our 1st girl grandchild!), Debra and I took in the Chihuly Exhibit at Seattle Center, right at the base of the Space Needle. If you’re not familiar with Dale Chihuly, you can find him all over the Internet – and installations of his work all over the world.
Seattle Chihuly Exhibit
Chihuly’s work with glass remains his forte (in my opinion). The Seattle exhibit is a melee of colors and shapes – a fantastic surreal fantasy, at once familiar and alien.
This post is about the pictures, so I’ll be kind of quiet. I’ve not included our customary watermark on these shots; I couldn’t figure out how to do that without insulting the images. I trust that if somebody wants to use one, they’ll give appropriate attribution.
Dan here. Today, we have a special treat: a guest post from Eliza Cochrane of Carlen Glass, located in lovely Dublin, Ireland. She has a post on the benefits of natural light. If you’re a regular on With the Barretts, you know that lots of natural light in living spaces is important to us. We appreciate Eliza sharing and hope you enjoy her post.
I recall a few weeks ago, a brief spell of troubled sleeping. I would go to bed early every night and, after about four hours, would “waken” into a light semi-conscious drift. I’m not sure what caused the spell — though it probably had something to do with the increasing temperature of the summer nights — but there was one morning in particular that struck me as peculiar. On what was perhaps the hottest night of the year, I decided to sleep with the windows open and curtains drawn, to let a draught in should it come. I woke naturally — again, after a few hours of what should have been groggy sleep, only this time to the in-pouring of brilliant sunshine.
Debra and I decided that it was past time that we took a trip to Portugal. So, in March 2018, we did just that. We spent the first week of the trip in the lovely, small Algarve-region town of Faro.
View from the Cathedral in Old Town Faro
The Algarve region is enormously popular in the summer months, notably with British tourists anxious to trade cold drizzle for drenching sunshine. Like I mentioned, we were there in March – well before the throngs hit the beaches. Which suits us just fine. We’re not really beach people (although many of our closest friends are) and we like the weather when we travel to be what some consider cool. Eighteen to 20 Celsius (64-68 Fahrenheit) is ideal.
It was a touch cooler than that most of the time we were in Faro – and we had steadily pounding rain all of one day – but we didn’t mind. Besides, we had the place practically to ourselves – from a tourist standpoint. Which is better than fine with us, particularly as the Portuguese people are almost universally pleasant and accommodating. (I even managed to think of the pickpocket who lifted my wallet in Lisbon as a nice fellow – remember? If you missed that post, you can find it here.)
So we spent much of the week strolling and exploring. This post is dedicated to some of the shots we took doing that – things you probably won’t see in the Algarve promotional material for tourists.
The cladding shown on this building is typical, reflecting an attitude of “Why paint when you can tile?” Continue reading “A Photo Journey Along a Trail of Portuguese Tiles”
