travel

We had four glorious days in Lisbon at the start of our holiday. My son and I got there early in the day so had extra time to explore the city. We walked up the steep streets to an art store I wanted to check out, Ponto das Artes Chiado. (Ironically we found a second location about 3 blocks from our apartment in Alcantara–but more on that later.) The views looking back were spectacular. 

I fell in love with the sidewalks, seeing rug border designs everywhere. 

Our apartment was a couple of blocks from the LX Factory, a reimagined art and design space in a former industrial complex. The Ponte 25 Abril Bridge which spans the Tagus soars overhead.  Below  is LX Factory with the landmark bridge in the background and my sketch from an outdoor cafe. This is where, we found a second Ponto das Artas store.

   

This is the view of the Tagus from our apartment windows.  You can see the pillars of the bridge on either side of the photo. It totally dominates the area, in some cases just skimming roof tops. Below you can see the bridge from the distance of one of the seven hills in Lisbon.

And finally a photo of the spectacular colours of Lisbon. The white stonework set against the blue of the sky, the yellow walls and the clay-red roofs. This is the Augusta Street arch, Virtutibus Maiorum: to the virtues of the greatest. 

I’ve just returned from 11 days in Portugal, travelling with my older son and family. We spent a week in Ericeira Portugal, a small village about 45 minutes up the coast from Lisbon. And before I knew it, I had fallen in love with the place–the landscape, the food, and the warm, helpful people. Ericeira is an active fishing village with all that entails–the boats and nets, the protected harbour with the gnarly old men playing chess, the freshly-caught fish. But it is also a surfing spot with wonderful low-profile facilities for surfers from around the world. The coastline has been designated a World Surf Reserve–such a wise move on Portugal’s part. 

We stayed right in town and enjoyed what it had to offer–outstanding seafood, an excellent grocery store, surf shops, cafes, magnificent beaches.

I had lots of time to sketch and our airbnb had two (!) balconies from which to view the many red-roofed buildings and the ocean! My favourite cafe was right by the sea wall and it served a delicious Galao in a very sketchable mug–the colour of the tiled rooves, of course.  

There were lots of narrow streets with great shadows and geometric shapes. Many, many of the buildings in town were painted with blue stripes on the corners and bases. It was a hard blue to capture.

Here I am sketching on the top balcony with the Atlantic peaking through. How perfect. And below our first meal in Ericeira, octopus. Fabulous! 

We stayed in Kensington where the sketching opportunities were limitless. The charming mews in the area beckoned and the Victoria & Albert and Hyde Park were just a few blocks away. I loved the Frida Kahlo floral sculpture in the V&G garden.

In Hyde Park, we saw the Diana fountain which is unexpectedly beautiful, running like a brook over changing terrain. You could not help but feel her spirit there as the children played in the water and people sat sunning. And right there as well on the Serpentine was Christo’s latest installation, 7000 oil barrels forming a kind of pyramid. We didn’t realize what it was until I read about it in the Guardian. And finally we saw the Peter Pan statue and nearby birds and squirrels everywhere feeding out of people’s hands. I felt that Mary Poppins would appear around the next corner. It is a magic place!

And then there was the Canada Fountain in the park just behind the Canada Gate across from Buckingham Palace. I’m including a photo of the plaque so you can read the description of this moving sculpture and the sacrifice of so many Canadian lives. It was a moment to contemplate what it means to be a Canadian.

I started my trip in Glasgow and spent several days walking around this magnificent city. Glasgow was my first European city which I visited when I was seventeen. It has a special place in my heart. This visit coincided exactly with the tragic fire at the Glasgow School of Art so it wasn’t just the cloudy skies that made the city subdued. 

In spite of this sadness, the loss of the wonderful interior of the historic building, just lovingly restored after an earlier fire, the Glaswegian sense of irreverence and fun is everywhere. Across from my hotel was the Museum of Modern Art with its statue of Wellington on horseback. On his head were two traffic cones.

The city was going to raise the plinth on which Wellington and horse stand to prevent such adornments, but there was such an outcry that officials reneged, and Wellington remains with cones. 

The taxis in the city also add to the frivolity–a welcome flash of colour in an often dreary climate.

I did some sketches, sometimes dodging the showers in a café…

and sitting on available steps…

Visited the marvellous Kelvingrove for a Charles Rennie Mackintosh exhibit…

and found the Hatrack, a delightful Art Nouveau beauty wedged into the street. This article describes the building as “Gaudi-esque”… I thought Mackintosh had designed this, but the article says it was designed by his associate , James Salmon. Either way, it is a delight!

After a marvellous visit with family, I took the train for a short stop in  Edinburgh…

with a timely reminder from Sir Walter Scott in the Waverley Train Station…