View from the Tundra (Minneapolis)

There was an intermittent breeze, so I thought I’d slow down the shutter intentionally to capture some of the motion…

This months Daily City Theme: No.
I saw this sign at least twice in Singapore.

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This beautiful style of sculpture is featured in Oficinadaterra in Évora, Portugal (which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Almost every piece in the store was equally beautiful, and you can watch the artist at work in the store.

The Igreja de Sao Francisco’s Capela dos Ossos (”Chapel of Bones”) rivals the killing fields of Cambodia for creepiness. It contains an estimated 5000 corpses, who were cemented into this church at the behest of a 16th century Franciscan Monk who wanted to get the message that life is short. Perhaps the only thing creepier is seeing all the missing fragments of bone (such as the lower half of the skull shown here), which have probably been taken home as a souvenir.

There’s a reason that Évora is a World Heritage Site… every street looks like this (trust me, I did no justice to the town with this shot, but every street is narrow and made of cobblestone). You know those travel photos you see with the old man or woman looking out the window at the world? I always thought those were staged… well in Évora, you see that scene every few minutes… The surrounding area has great vineyards to tour and Megaliths, and within the city can be found the best Roman artifact in Portugal, the improperly named “Temple of Diana”.

Castelo dos Mouros (”Castle of the Moors”) was built by the Muslim Moors who ruled this area for hundreds of years. True to European tourism (as opposed to places in the United States of Litigation), you can wander off any short / narrow ledge you want here. I think I saw a few tourists bodies piled up on the hillside below…

The Pena National Palace is located right next to the Castelo dos Mouros in the lovely town of Sintra, half an hours train ride from Lisbon. The whole area is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.