Beyond the Horizon: When the sky clears

After lunch I had planned a special treat for myself. As I worked in the Museum of Fado yesterday morning I was worried that skies would remain "unfriendly" to picture taking and that I would have to find something else to fill my day.

Luckily, the wind was on my side and the clouds kindly began to step out of the way.

On Terreiro do Paço they are doing a kind of Farmer's Market, as a way to show the country's great produce. There have been endless commercials on TV, sometimes even repeated three times in a row (UGH!), about this.

In the Terreiro do Paço or Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square), I had the great pleasure of visiting the new exposition of "Fado in Cinema" that is found in Pátio da Galé for the summer.

The other wonderful experience was being able to embark on a

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TAGUS RIVER CRUISE!!!!

and to see Lisbon from a beautiful new perspective.

This is the National Pantheon

where important people are buried such as Presidents of the Republic, writers, poets, and our beloved Amália Rodrigues, who is the only woman to have been granted that honor.

Some commercial ships had huge cranes, it was REALLY cool!

We sail first to the Parque das Nações, where the World Expo '98 that commemorated the Seas and Oceans of the World occurred. Each country had a pavilion to show their culture and history in.

This is the famous Pavilhão Atlántico.

The longest bridge in Europe (thank you very much), Ponte Vasco Da Gama.

and the World's second largest Aquarium, only beaten by another in...Tokyo!

a bit of scale for the cranes...

then we turned around.

We passed where we had left from and kept cruising down the Tagus River.

Castelo de São Jorge, visible on the right hand side.

This is a typical/traditional cacilheiro that serves as a river crossing, public transportation, option for those who live all the way on the other side. It holds a lot of history.

The Electricity Museum

Belém Docks, where long ago my ancestors set sail to discover the world.

And now we have the frontal views of the Belém district that I was unable to get while walking. These pictures were the missing piece of my previous post on this area.