Se, Cathedral of Faro

On our last day in Faro, we finally went inside the old city cathedral, Se. As I wrote in the last post, Mommy went first and then Jacob and I went afterward.

Jacob approaches the cathedral

Stairway to the bell tower

Climbing up to the bell tower was not so far but we had plenty of open air and uneven stairs to contend with. Nerves held true and we enjoyed being close enough to touch the bells. And the view was magnificent too!

The bell mechanism

Jacob on the roof

Jacob rings the bell

Bishop's Palace seen from above

View of the town and nature reserve

View of the old city

We headed back downstairs. In the courtyard, we discovered a bone chapel (yes, the altar is made from bones!) and a chapel to Saint Michael the Archangel (second name patron for both Jacob and me).

Bone Altar in the courtyard

Chapel of St. Michael, or Sao Miguel as he is known locally

We finally went inside the cathedral proper, where we found a great variety of amazing Renaissance and Baroque works. Here are the highlights!

18th century organ

Passion altar

Side altar

Azulejo

More azulejo

Amazing altar

Best tabernacle ever!

Upstairs was a small exhibit of sacred objects and artifacts. Jacob was becoming impatient to go, so luckily my wife took many of the following pictures.

Monstrance

Thurifer

Veronica's Veil Station of the Cross

That isn't a halo on his head, it's the scimitar that martyred him!

Less dramatic saint

On the way out, I caught this bit of mosaic on the floor.

We were glad to see the amazing variety and splendor of the cathedral in Faro.

Last Day in Faro

We did our usual routine on our last day in Faro, Portugal: early rising, breakfasting, and wandering out among the sites. The weather was better though Lucy was still suffering from her cold. Jacob and I headed out to the municipal market, a famous shopping area in town.

On the way I saw a vehicle that reminded me of my old job with the American Red Cross.

I miss you, Red Cross!

Random cool-looking house we saw--nice corner balcony!

We eventually made it to the market and did some shopping, mostly buying food for lunch. Jacob's favorite part was the escalators and elevators, which we took full advantage of.

The municipal market from the outside

The municipal market from the inside

On our way back to the hotel, we saw some interesting wall decor and an even more interesting bank.

Some saint watching over us, who was no match for...

Banco Espirito Santo? Does the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity really have a bank?

We returned to the hotel and Lucy was well enough to go out. We walked down to the old city to see the cathedral. First, mommy went by herself. I played with Lucy and Jacob on the playground just outside the main gate. Then I went with Jacob since they had a bell tower to climb. We took a lot of pictures, so I'll make that a separate post.

After enjoying the cathedral, we slowly wound our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport. Just north of the old city we heard music playing. Around a corner was a trio of musicians. Jacob enjoyed watching them and giving money. Lucy enjoyed me carrying her.

Paying the piper, as it were.

Lucy objected when I tried to dance with her.

We finally made it back to the hotel, ordered a cab and got our bags. The cab only took a few minutes to reach us. The airport was a short ride from there.

Not wanting to repeat the departure mistake that cost us our peanut butter, we packed the jar in our checked bag. We also packed the bottle of white port, carefully wrapping it and padding it with the laundry. We put our tourist books from the library and some other things in the checked bag as well. At the counter, we discovered our bag was three kilos over the 15 kilo limit, so we either had to pay or repack things. We stepped to the side and moved some things from bag to bag. The port and peanut butter had to stay in the checked bag but there was less padding holding them in. Our bag was now light enough and the airline took it without charging us.

We went over to some tables and had lunch before going through security. Who knows if they would have seized Jacob's peanut butter sandwich? The flight wouldn't leave for two hours, so we had plenty of time to kill. The meal was uneventful. So was security.

On the other side of security, we found a free stroller which meant no more carrying the sick and sad Lucy around. Jacob volunteered to push Lucy in the stroller. At first we were a little nervous about this, but they both had a grand time racing around the airport. Not only did this use up time but it also tired out Jacob so he could nap on the flight.

Lucy couldn't escape her crazy driver!

Lucy did not think it was a crisis free zone!

Our plane was called and we got in line to board. We went through the final gate check and were lined up on the walkway to the plane. That's when Jacob announced he had to poop. Mommy got out of line with Jacob and headed back to find a bathroom. The lady took their boarding passes and let them go. Jacob then went. They made it back before we started boarding, but just barely.

I can't remember much of the plane ride home. Lucy wanted to sit with me more on this flight and Jacob kept asking for my new phone which had some fun games on it. We returned to a snow covered Leeds airport. Getting our bag was no problem since we were the last ones to make it back to the terminal (again we had to walk from the plane through blustery weather). We arrived home and noticed the checked bag was wet. Opening it up, we saw broken glass all over the bag and the distinctive smell of port. The bottle broke somewhere in transit and had finally soaked through all the clothes and through the suitcase! Cleaning up was rough because of all the little shards of glass. Usually I do laundry the day after we get back, but that night we washed everything. It was a tragic end to a fun little trip to Portugal.

On the upside, we can tell which bag is ours by smell and not in a bad way!

Sunday in Portugal

Back to the Faro trip! Last time, we'd gone to bed just before Sunday with various options for Mass in the morning. We woke up at our usual ungodly early hour during a vacation and we were first at the continental breakfast. We ate all the same items we had yesterday, though I tried the passion fruit juice. It was enjoyable but I liked the orange juice better. The day outside was cloudy with intermittent rain. Lucy was still feeling poorly.

We figured out directions to Sao Pedro, the parish church of the city. It is dedicated to Saint Peter, patron of fisherman, a good choice for a seaside town. Arriving five minutes early for 9 a.m. Mass, we found quite a few empty pews. Some of the people in the first few rows were practicing hymns. Mass started. Lucy fussed a lot so my wife took her to the back of the church. Jacob stayed with me for a while but eventually wanted to be with Mom too. The Mass was fairly quick and the language was completely incomprehensible to me. The sermon's delivery was low-key. The other parishioners were very focused so it must have been interesting. The hymns were nice. I did not recognize any of the melodies, even for the parts of the Mass. Luckily, "amen" is the same in every language so I could give a proper response for communion.

After Mass was over, the kids wanted to light candles. The beggar who had been outside before Mass had come in and came up to us as we were lighting candles! We gave her some euros and she expressed her thanks. We then walked around the church a bit to admire the baroque decorations.

Altar featuring Our Lady and several female saints

Madonna and child altar

The tabernacle

Main altar at Sao Pedro

Modest Organ

Amazing azulejos around this altar

Saint Peter

Saint Paul

Back outside, it was raining more steadily so we headed back to the hotel, stopping along the way for some lunchtime supplies. We had a picnic lunch in our room and we all napped since we were all feeling a little under the weather.

After nap time, the children begged and begged and begged to go back to the playground near the mall. We finally acquiesced and took the walk north. We saw some new things on the way.

Horse-drawn cart that didn't look like a tourist-mobile

Motorcycle monument (Jacob's in mid-cough)

This slide brought to you by Renault!

At the mall, we explored the upper floor which had some interesting restaurants and a movie theater. I only recognized one of the films, the new Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We found a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. All were happy there. For dessert, we walked across the way to an ice cream shop for cone. Everyone but Jacob got ice cream. We found a cookie for him, which made him very happy.

Too tired to walk back, we took another cab back to our hotel and we all settled in for the last night's sleep in Faro. More in the next post!

Live Science Center in Faro, Portugal

The Live Science Center, or Centro de Ciencia Viva, was a big destination for Jacob. After enjoying the Edinburgh robot so much, we all were hoping for another super science experience with mechanical friends.

As you might guess from the name, the center was more focused on earth sciences and biology than on robotics and technology. In fact, no robots were immediately visible to us. Jacob was still satisfied with the variety of interactive scientific exhibits designed just for small hands.

Almost immediately, Jacob came upon a large wheel with a tube half filled with water and half with sand. Turning it was a little challenging for him but worth it to see the sand and water changing places.

Getting it to stay horizontal was as impossible as getting good focus

The next exhibit was easily the second favorite for Jacob: the earthquake simulator. A small panel let the operator adjust the level of shaking from minimal to "hang on for dear life!!!" If only that was what the label on the machine said. Of course the label was in Portuguese so it may well have said "hang on for dear life!!!" All I know is that Jacob rode it five or six times during our visit to the center.

Mommy does her worst to Jacob!

A cut-away volcano explained eruptions and other dangers of boiling earth.

This exhibit did have Portuguese and English, why not the earthquake machine?

Some show or presentation was going on up a staircase. Upon investigating, we discovered a birthday party in progress. The museum must rent itself out for such occasions because we found another party going on by the open aquarium.

Looking at small fish and crustaceans

The back part of the museum had an exhibit about DNA and some data gathering computers where you could enter general information about yourself (sex, eye color, age, etc.) and see how you compare to other visitors to the museum. Of special interest (mostly because he set off the alarm every time he went into it) was the mutant detector. You may think I'm making this up but I do have the picture to prove it:

Why isn't this linked to the data computers?

To be fair, everyone was setting the alarm off, including Lucy, whose mutant power apparently is invisibility, judging from the pictures I took.

Outside was a garden of science where various experiments could be performed. One involved a gyroscope. A small bicycle wheel was put on a handle (the gyroscope). If you held it horizontal and spun it while sitting on a swivel seat, you would be still. If you tilted the wheel, the seat would start turning! It was a cool experiment.

It also made Lucy reappear!

Another exhibit had us riding water horses. As long as the rider pedaled fast enough, the horse shot water out of its face and we could spray various wheels in the display.



Another pedal-powered exhibit was the bicephalous chameleon. The chameleon would move towards the pedaler who pedaled the fastest. This museum is easily the hardest workout you can get while relaxing and learning science.

Green wins by a head!

An outdoor staircase led to some more fun science stuff, including a sun dial that was completely accurate.

Just after 1700! In Britain, the sun would be long gone!

We also saw a train and a beautiful sunset from atop the museum.

Goodbye, sunshine!

Hello, train!

We enjoyed our visit to the Live Science Center, even if we never saw any robots.