Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Two

Two pictures, two bridges and two gulls on a double lamp-post!

This is my entry for Cee's challenge.

Bridge

A pretty bridge over the Arade River, Portimao (Western Algarve):

There are actually three bridges in this area. When I took the photo below I was standing on one of those bridges and you can see the other two in the distance.

This is my contribution to Jake's Sunday post challenge.

I like the way they painted that bridge blue and yellow. What about you?

Porto and a road with a view, or two

The trains weren't running but I encountered other means of transport.

I passed this quaint thing on Clerigos street. It caters for tourists.

 

There are yellow and red double-decker buses. If I didn't have my little dog with me I would have gone on at least one of their tours.

Some interesting sculptures:

I had to wait to get a shot of this newspaper seller ("ardino") because lots of tourist couples were taking turns having their picture taken with this guy. And I took a fancy to this angel:

This is what I had with my coffee - it's a "broa de mel", a rich honey sweetbread.  It was so good and fresh, that I asked the waitress to let me photograph one.

This is the "Passeio dos Prazeres", with the garden below:

 

It's a pity they had to put the dumpsters right next to the sign!

And just a few metres from where I had left the car, I found this beautiful old fountain :

This is the Arrabida Bridge ("Ponte da Arrábida"). I took it to get in and out of the city.

A road with a view

Then I decided to check out the views from the other side of the river, travelling on another road with a view:

That bit of green is the garden surrounding the Rosa Mota Pavilion ("Pavilhão rosa Mota").

This used to be the customs building, now a congress centre and museum,

You can just see the Serra do Pilar Monastery and the top of the steel Luís I Bridge ("Ponte de D. Luís").

If I saw all this in a few hours, imagine what you could do in a weekend!

Related posts:
I'm the great pretender tourist
Uma turista no Porto - 1

You may also like to visit:
Porto and the Gaia Wine lodges
Porto and the north

Porto - the city

Solid

Bridge over the Aveiro Lagoon (Ria de Aveiro)

"SOLID means : Stable, sturdy, firm, established, strong, durable, rigid, substantial, strong, ..." - so goes Jake's prompt for our Sunday post this time.

I believe this bridge has all of these qualities and is also a very elegant structure, in my opinion.

It makes it possible to travel from the north bank of the lagoon (left) to the south bank without taking the long way round.

Modern structure that livens up the roundabout at the foot of the bridge

Roundabouts have been replacing traffic lights and junctions in recent years. There are many, many roundabouts now all over Portugal - some big, some grand, some in ridiculous places and some too small for trucks to negotiate them comfortably. It is also the custom to erect a sculpture or some sort of decoration in the middle of each roundabout, which can be quite useful  when giving directions. 

At the foot of this bridge (north bank) we have a roundabout with a modern, solid monument, parts of which are covered by decorative ceramic panels.

The bridge from another angle - good spot for fishing

The area around the Aveiro Lagoon (Ria de Aveiro) is another of my favourite places and I promise to write more about it in the near future.

 

If you'd like to see more interpretations on this theme, just pop over to Jake's blog.