CBBH Photo Challenge: Looking up at Portugal

August 27, 2012 · by · in , ,

I’ve been tagged by Alyson at  Algarve Blog to take part in the CBBH photo challenge, which I’m more than happy to do. Any excuse to delve into my photo folders and put my shots to some use is fine by me. As always, though, I’m limiting myself to images from Portugal.

This month’s theme is Looking Up so here goes:

This rather ornate window is in the neo-Manueline Palace hotel in the grounds of Buçaco forest near Luso. The building was originally a summer retreat for the Portuguese royal family and has been beautifully preserved. You can find out more about Buçaco in this post.

Look up at any of the monasteries, convents and churches in Portugal and you’ll find some surprising details, such as Santa Clara on an elephant on top of the Santa Clara convent in Vila do Conde. The Gothic church next door is well worth a visit.

Or you might catch a seagull on a saint’s head like this one on top of Igreja do Carmo in Porto. Most people are usually too busy looking at the beautifully painted azulejos that cover the building to notice the top of the church.

This scary lady appears anything but saintly as she looks up at her prey. You can find her, and plenty of other azulejos at the Castle Hotel in Porto.

Still in Porto, if you glance up from the riverside walkway  in the Ribeira district, you’ll see cafés on the upper level and above them, traditional houses with brightly painted railings.

The paths of the Cordoaria Gardens, aka João Chagas Gardens, in Porto are lined with trees with misshapen trunks and a series of bronze sculptures of drunken men being silly and having fun. I love this one, where one of the men has fallen off his seat and is looking back up at his friends. They’re too busy laughing at him to be of any help.

Swinging through the trees at the forest adventure park near Figueira da Foz.

Autumn at the botanical gardens in Coimbra is pretty spectacular.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my sample of what’s in store for you if you raise your eyes skywards in Portugal. It’s been fun finding these photos for you but now it’s time to pass the baton to other bloggers, although there isn’t much left of August so they may want to wait for next month’s CBBH Photo Challenge.
I’m a huge fan of Expatlogue. Aisha Ashraf is a talented writer who blogs about being an expat in Canada, mental health and inter-racial relationships.
I’d also like to introduce my friend Andrea Murch and her blog, Life on Portuguese Soil where she shares tales about doing up an old house, growing veggies and raising animals in rural Portugal. 
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