Holiday 2017In the Summer of 2017 Laura and I feel the need for lots of sunshine, which is why we choose Portugal. We stay in a cottage near the Spanish border for one week and we visit Lisbon for another (almost) week. Click on a photo for enlargement.
Apart from the Dutch owners there are three houses on the grounds. Other than that there is very little human activity in the wider area. This is our cottage, and the covered terrace.
The view adjacent to our house.
Flowering succulent plant at the terrace.
We share the pool with people from another house, but they leave after a few days. The cottages have their own water source, so we drink and swim in mineral water.
Grape on our terrace.
The landscape is much greener and less dry than we had expected.
Stairs as a street in Castelo de Vide.
The city walls of Castelo de Vide. To the left, on the road along the city walls, is the weekly market.
Laura leaning against the wind on top of the mountain of the town Marvão.
Marvão's castle gate.
Laura in one of the shooter turrents / watchtowers of the castle of Marvão.
The town with the city walls behind and a view of the surrounding country.
Rose.
Town square in Marvão.
View of the town, with terrace.
Sunflowers in between the paving stones.
Laura on the street in Marvão, next to a rock on the road.
View of the town.
Church.
I think it's nice that the castle seems to be fused with the rock.
Many birds of prey are circling around the mountain and the castle. This is a griffon vulture.
Again the castle of Marvão.
Laura and view.
Gate to the castle garden.
Within the walls of the castle.
View from the castle.
Castle.
Me on the castle wall (photo by Laura).
Door.
Portalegre.
Cat on the roof.
Town square in Portalegre.
"Icarus Fall" by Rogério Timóteo (in Portalegre).
View of the landscape in the border area between Portugal and Spain.
Cork oaks.
Cork oak trees.
Our view at half past seven in the morning (photo by Laura).
Lunch on a terrace in an alley in Castelo de Vide. There is a nice and sharp tasting garlic soup with egg on my plate.
From a balcony nearby a cat is watching us have lunch.
Castelo de Vide.
View from the castle.
Laura on the roof of the castle.
View of the village.
A rain shower in the distance.
A forest fire develops on the mountain. Sirens can be heard from the village, and fire trucks go to the fire.
This photo was taken nine minutes later; a helicopter extinguishes the fire.
Within the castle walls.
Street view in Castelo de Vide.
Pigeon.
Church.
Cat.
Laura on the city walls of Castelo de Vide.
Unpaved street in Castelo de Vide.
Flowers.
Door.
Stairs as a street in Castelo de Vide.
Church tower.
View from a terrace.
Rainbow in a fountain.
After a week we exchange the countryside for Lisbon. On the way there we drive through forest that burned down earlier this summer (phone photo from the car by Laura).
Me in Lisbon (phone photo by Laura).
Lisbon.
View of the city.
View of the Tagus. This photo looks a lot like the photo I made here in 1986, 31 years earlier. Here you'll find a page about my vacation in Lisbon in 1986.
Pigeons on a vertical wall.
Me in Lisbon (photo by Laura).
Mural.
View of the city.
A street and a curved wall.
Stairs and a tree.
The facade of the building next to our (first) hotel.
The view from the room in our (second) hotel.
View of the city.
Laura.
A visitor looks over the eaves of the Museum for Art, Architecture and Technology, MAAT, in Belém.
Because MAAT has hardly any exhibitions, we get to visit the Electricity Museum too, a former power plant.
Inside the Electricity Museum.
Inside the Electricity Museum.
Floor.
Looking up.
Light.
The car and train bridge nearby, Ponte 25 de Abril.
View of the city at night, from our hotel room.
