#WordlessWednesday
Category: Portugal
Art Beneath Your Feet
A city where it is impossible not to look at what is beneath your feet is Lisbon, Portugal. The endless intricate patterns of the cream and black cobbles automatically draw your eyes down. Known as calçada (Portuguese Pavements) some, like the wave pattern above and below in Praca Dom Pedro IV Square (Rossio), can even interfere with your balance and make people look as though they are floating above the pavement.
Arch to Praca do Comércio
Belem Wave pattern
Belem Astrological Sign – Gemini
In Belém coloured marble is used with the flat cobbles to create patterns and pictures including a map of the world depicting the voyages that Portuguese explorers made during the Age of Discovery.
The Discovery Map
South-westerlies
Pavement in Bairro Alto
Astology signs in Belem
Pattern
Azulejo
Azulejo is a form of Portuguese or Spanish painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tilework. There are some exquisite examples of these on the exterior of houses and other buildings in Lisbon. But sadly there are many broken tiles to be seen.
Red
Tiles
Red White and Blue
petrol pump?
Letter box
A red door
Graffiti
A Lisbon Tram
We love Portugal
Bags
How can I resist a RED challenge?
These images are all from Lisbon.
Travel Theme: Meeting Places
A meeting place is by definition a place where people meet. It can be a public landmark, a railway station, a pub, a café, a statue, a park gate or something iconic like under a well-known clock.
So how about the Praça do Comércio, Lisbon’s vast riverside square where over the last centuries numerous processions, festivities, concerts and even executions have taken place. In 1974 thousands of people assembled here during the revolution that overthrew the dictatorial regime.
The Tourist Information Centre can be found in one of the classical old buildings on the west side as well as one of the city’s legendary cafes, Café Martinho da Arcada which dates from 1782 and was a favourite of poets Fernando Pessoa and Almeida Garrett and of novelist Eça de Queiroz.
The Statue is of King Jose I showing him on horseback, wearing his emperor’s mantle, and measuring 14 meters in height counting from the pedestal.
And at the northern side is the Arco da Rua Augusta, a triumphal arch that leads to the Rua Augusta, a beautifully paved pedestrianized street.
TRAVEL WORDS 