The Chiado area is a hilly place, with fine monuments and a fashionable comercial area. The streets were quite empty last night, and everybody just kept talking about a cold wave coming from northern Europe, quite alien to our mild winter temperatures.

It's always difficult to find a place to park here, as it is an old part of town, with narrow roads. The old Lisbon trams still pass in this area.

Last night, we went out for diner at the Bairro Alto. I was trying to take pictures at night with my small digicam, but I'm afraid I still dont know how to control its settings. Most of the pictures were a bit blurred. This is a view to Lisbon's Dona Maria II theater, our main opera house, in the downtown.

A bridge, leading to a small lighthouse, in the village of Alcochete.

The river in Alcochete.

River beach, Alcochete.

Days ago, I found this river beach in Alcochete, some 40kms away from Lisbon. The river here really looks like a wide lake.

And that's what I wanted to photograph... That tower is my favourite building in the area. Built in the 1940's, it always reminds me of Kim Novak's posh building in Hitchcock's "Vertigo". If we only had built more things like these... Like other buildings in the area, it does need some restoring.

My home is near the Avenida de Roma, one of the capital's main avenues.

Heading back home, I passed near this... No, it is not a mosque, although nothing in Iberia looks more like one. It is actually a bull fights arena, the Praça de Touros, in Campo Pequeno. It was built over a hundred years ago, imitating Moorish architecture. It is now being restored, and they decided to paint the domes green, which doesn't look that much nicer...

First sky picture... Went to wash the car today and tried to photograph a saturated blue sky. I guess this picture could be from anywhere in the world.

River views... The main building in the picture is the National Pantheon.

Fishing boats.

River view, Sacavém.

The river near Sacavém. These pictures were taken with the Fuji camera and then edited to B/W.

An old ferry, in Cacilhas.

A ferry, crossing the river. The only really good thing of my new Fuji camera is the 10 x zoom, which allowed me to take this kind of picture from quite far away.

The view, just opposite the "horror" house... The more typical Portuguese architecture of late 19th century.

Here's another "horror" house. This one reminds me of American Gothic style architecture, and was built, possibly, around a hundred years ago. It doesn´t look like anything in the area, and it's amazing that something so extravagant was allowed to be built in the first place. It also seems incomplete somehow. It's located at the main square at Cova da Piedade, near Almada, and whenever I pass nearby it reminds of the house in Hitchcocks's "Psicho"...

I'm kind in a mood for ruins these days, and for scary houses and shadows. Maybe influence of all these Otto Preminger "film noir" movies I've been watching these days. Saw this old abandoned factory and captured it in B/W.

Countryside road, near Alhandra.

The countryside is not far from this part of Lisbon, so I decided to use the Fuji camera to take Infrared pictures. In the end, none was watchable, and this was one was edited in order to achieve this effect. Well, hope they'll look better next time.

Not only nice views from this river spot... Ugly suburbia, Lisbon style. Those are the kind of apartments I wouldn't like to live in!

River view, Parque das Nações, Lisbon.

The 20km long Vasco da Gama bridge.

River view.

More tree shadows.

Apartments at the Avenida da Igreja, Lisbon.

One day I'm gonna buy one of these apartments!

I guess I just love trees and spend a lot of time contemplating their beauty. And I love their shadows on a sunny winter day, like today - specially their shadows on the buildings near where I live. This was also the chance to try a Fuji 5500 camera, with a quite disappointing picture quality.