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Implantaçao da República

Posted on Friday, 06 October 2006 at 03:00.

Thursday, October 5th, a national holiday in Portugal called the ImplantaÃ§ao da RepÃºblica. The weather was beautiful for a change â€” no cold rain, but hot sunlight instead. In the afternoon I went downtown to see if there was anything going on. The birth of the republic is worth a party, after all. It was pleasantly busy, the fountains spewing water seemingly higher than usual, the water a bright white, illuminated by the sun. I decided it was time to take some pictures of water.

In case you’re wondering: except for some cropping here and there, all pictures are straight from the camera.

I climbed up the Rua de S. GonÃ§alo to the PÃ§. Mouzinho de Albuquerque where I found a statue of a noseless man, then climb eastward up the hill to a closed church on top of a cliff from which I had a nice view. I went into several cafÃ©s and restaurants and looked from balconies and roofs down onto the city, met two mime players (puppet and puppeteer), saw at least three roasted-chestnut-sellers, and walked about until the sun started setting. Braga bathed in a golden light, especially Rua do Souto, which extends exactly to where to sun sets and slopes down: it can’t get any better than that. Parts of the gardens of Santa Barbara glowed as well, as did the buildings around it, and the sun cast trees’ shadows on a fountain.

The Noseless Man.	The Great Fountain seen from the Avenida Central.	A happy Dora Explora! (Thanks to Astrid)	View from the balcony of the Celeste restaurant.
Banco de Portugal, at the intersection of the Avenida Central and Rua dos Chaos.	A lone pigeon.	Puppeteer and puppet.	The attic (fourth floor, I think) of a single tower which housed a photography gallery.
Sunset over Rua do Souto.