Cathedrals, various

A slow morning in the flat till I went for another meander in the sun. Near the cathedral I stumbled across some angels, one of whom thoughtfully got out of the way of my pictures. Except that I thought he belonged with them so I waited for him to think I'd finished and step back into the frame (extra). Then into the cathedral where I watched a man try to light a tea-light to carry his prayers to heaven from one already alight. As he tipped the other candle sideways, thereby losing all its molten wax, I wondered about the ethics of depriving someone else's prayer of the fuel it needed to get to heaven. (Slightly odd to find myself defending a belief system I don't share.) He asked if I had a lighter, which I didn't, but I did remember I had a part-used match in my bag - along with one snapped birthday-cake candle (from a friend's birthday two months ago) both of which saw unexpected daylight a couple of days ago while I was looking for a pen - so I donated it to the cathedral and to the propulsion of future prayers. The broken birthday candle went back into my bag, but I made a note to dispose of it before I next go into an airport.

Then up another hill, this time to Graça. Sun, warmth, upness, views. 

This afternoon I tried to catch a boat across the Tagus to connect with another one to Parque das Nações but I'd misunderstood - there wasn't a connecting boat. Or perhaps it was the wrong day of the week. So I went by metro instead (and learnt that this will be a slow way to get to the airport when we leave). What I wanted was to see the Vasco da Gama bridge - the longest bridge in Europe - with the bonus of having a good look at Oriente station, whose cathedral structure stunned me as we came through it on Thursday. The rest of Parque das Nações's modern architecture that I'd heard was worth looking at were an unexceptional shopping centre and an aquarium, both of which I ignored, but I confess to enjoying sitting in a sea breeze gazing at the fabulous bridge for rather a long time. Then taking an unecessary cable car ride so I could look at it from a slightly different angle. It is very long, very impressive and very difficult to photograph.So if you want to see it you'll have to google it.

We tried to avoid the evening's Fado by going out for a not very good meal but it was waiting for us when we got back. Lose, lose.