Where the river meets the sea

Last weekend I went to visit a friend in Figueira da Foz on the central coast or Silver Coast north of Lisbon. I've been meaning to get there for a while but weather and commitments have conspired to keep us both busy or indoors. But since last weekend was full of sun I decided to swap the computer screen I was staring at the previous weekend for this view from a hotel balcony. Figueira is an old port and fishing village (Foz means "where river meets sea") which is now a summer retreat full of holiday homes and apartments empty for 11 months of the year. On autumn weekends like this its a little empty making it easier to find a place to have a beer overlooking the sea and watching the sunset or find a spot on the beach (theres 900m of sand between sea and the road so I wouldn't have thought it was too much of a problem!).
Perthites might consider wandering down to Scarborough on the weekend and doing a "Compare and contrast" with that photo. The sun sets into the ocean just the same. Theres the same single high-rise, the same row of apartments, the same expanse of beach, a walking path alongside it for a jog or a bike ride and the same road along the beach for people run into each other when they look at the view (sunset or joggers ;) instead of the road. Theres even the same stupid clock-tower, except the Figueira one actually chimes the hours, along with the first few bars of the regional anthem. By midnight you're ready to break the speakers. In fact it was broken for a year and I suspect the guy that fixed it has had to leave town.
Anyway lots more photos to show you from the port, from the forests, from the mountains and from Coimbra in the next couple of days. For now I'll leave you kicking back anticipating a dinner of fresh seafood and fish, then out for a few beers with the local crew in the outdoor bars and a bit of people-watching as they promenade the streets. I've worked out one problem with this daylight saving thing - there were two 1am's on Saturday night and alcohol was not solely to blame. Its very confusing, especially if you're trying to work out whether to keep drinking or go to bed. Alcohol does help somethings including lowering the language barrier, although the seagull noise associated with stealing bar snacks differs between Portugal and Australia. Some things are still lost in translation - a very drunk cousin of somebody introduced himself with "Hi I'm *****, I have a very big chicken." I could've been nice and told him that the correct slang is 'cock' but to be honest I'm looking forward to watching him try and charm some female tourists by talking about his 'chicken'......