T is for tower and triangle

Detail of the Belem Tower near Lisbon, Portugal, the triangles are way on top of the tower (see picture below). " It is  a fortified tower built in the early 16th century and located in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (...) because of the significant role it played in the Portuguese maritime discoveries (...) The tower was commissioned by King John II to be part of a defense system at the mouth of the Tagus river and a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon" . Source. From my archives for ABC Wednesday

 

K is for king

                        From my archives for ABC Wednesday 

K is for King:  And this is King Fernando II's legacy: the Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal. The Palace dates back to 1839, when the King Fernando II  bought the ruins of the Hieronymite Monastery of Nossa Senhora da Pena and started to adapt it for use as a residence, according to his Romantic taste. Source.  It was unfortunately very foggy the day I visited the palace some years ago, as you can see.

King Fernando II (1816 – 1885) was an Austrian lord who married into the Portuguese nobility and ruled Portugal with his wife, Queen Maria II, between 1837 and 1853. King Fernando II was a champion of the arts and shunned politics leaving his ministers to deal with the daily running of the country , this is why he is commonly referred to as the Artist King. More on the king here.

L is for lighthouse

 ABC Wednesday 

This is the beautiful Santa Marta's lighthouse, whose first historical references date back to 1693. It is currently part of The Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum, located in the bay of Cascais, near Lisbon, the first museum dedicated to Portuguese coastal lighthouses.

Another favorite picture of mine, from my archives.

P is for Porto

One of Portugal's most internationally famous products it's a drink, Port wine, which was named after the city of Porto because it was originally shipped from the area. The city has a population of 263,000 inhabitants in 15 parishes, with 1,551,950 in the metropolitan area. It is situated in the north of the country, on the northern bank of the Douro River, just in the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

 ABC Wednesday 

The tall bridge you see on the right is actually for the subway. We took it from our hotel downtown to get here (back in 2006), walked the  steps all the way down to reach the restaurant area down below on the waterside, the zona ribeirinha (but took a taxi after dinner!) On the left you see the view we had when we got off the subway. It was truly breathtaking but I posted a small picture because my night pics are often very  blurry..

Monday iMages & Meme

These are beautiful buildings found in Cascais, Portugal earlier this month. Both are old residences but the one below is currently a charming little hotel with 10 rooms. The (cropped) picture is also my current header.

Both buildings were across the street from our hotel and I simply loved seeing them daily. The details are truly amazing, click to enlarge and see for yourself.

It's meme time!! Our charming and talented Sanni has tagged me with her new meme:

The handwriting MEME

Yes, she wants to see our handwriting.

Her instructions:
1.) Go ahead, get a piece of paper and a pen. Prepared? Okay!
2.) Write a pangram in your language. A pangram, also known as holalphabetic sentence, is a sentence that contains all letters of the alphabet at least once. “The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.” is a common example in English. There are pangrams in all languages - for a little inspiration spy *here*.
Sign your paper with your first name or your nickname (not your signature!!!). You can also include your blog URL if you want to.

3.) Take a picture.
4.) Post it on your blog! Leave a comment here (or a trackback) once you have posted.
5.) Link back and tag - don’t be shy!

Yes, it is that simple!

I learned something new, since I didn't know a thing about pangrams until now! and I got to write something else other than my to-do or grocery shopping list... Which was also a nice distraction from my swollen cheek (it's a lot better, thanks for asking and thanks for the get-well wishes on the prior post) Here is my Spanish pangram, which I took from the clever net, including our particular letter Ñ , umlaut over the u between g and e to make it pronounceable, and accents:

Sanni tagged:
- Linda @ Are we there yet??
- Christie @ Baby Tea Leaves
- Vinny @ Bond’s Big Leather Couch
- Sassy Mama Bear @ Café at the end of the Universe
- Sandee @ Comedy Plus
- Tisha @ Crazy Working Mom
- Gill @ Gills Jottings
- Desert Songbird @ The Ice Box
- Rachel @ My Soulful Thoughts
- Captain Lifecruiser @ Lifecruiser
- Mar @ Maremagnum
- Queen Mimi @ Mimi writes…
- Tammy @ Mom knows everything
- Ian @ Perpetual Writer’s Blog
- Trav @ Trav’s Thoughts
- MaryT @ Work of the Poet
- Gattina @ Writer’s Cramps
- Bud @ WTIT - The Blog

and:

- you, You and YOU!
Don't forget to leave your link if you are playing along!