One of my favorites places to be, are museums. Well, I love art so its kind of natural that I love museums. Really love it and I have a couple of favorite museums, funny that they all are in London.
I love National Gallery, British Museum and V&A.

Every-time I'm in London, I have to visit at least one of these museums. And of course I follow them on facebook.
I always fell amazed by painting and National Portrait Gallery has an annual BP Portrait Award and the following video is part of that award/competition.
Look at that talent!!

Everyone looks gorgeous under that light and mastery.
I wished I could paint/draw like that. Really, really wish that.

The artist is Joshua LaRock and this video shows Joshua painting Laura, his wife.
The video is mesmerizing...


And enjoy the rest of your day!

I will be back tomorrow!
And you, what are you guys going to do this weekend?

This one was the last trip I will have for the next year... I decided to have a break and not travel so much. This year I already went to London twice, Holland twice, Milan, Athens, Copenhagen and now Brussels. I'm tired!
I'm tired of leaving my comfort zone, spending money, not resting properly... Seriously need some rest and routine. Need to take care of my dog and cats, also. Need to slow down for a while.

On every trip I know I will get out of my comfort zone, although is good to push your limits, that can be also scary. Remember I travel all alone, so if something happens I only have myself to count with. And sometimes that's scary... New places you never been and sometimes places with bad reputation... new people, well you get the idea.

Moving on... I had this trip arranged a few months ago and I had the needed time to prepare however without my guide-map from Editora Estampa I don't know how to organize my trip. Feel so lost...
I'm trying to find a good substitute, so far didn't succeeded.
This time I had lonely planet book and it was very disappointing. The map was incorrect, the review of sightseeing places were not very well organized in my opinion, of course. And I didn't know where all the museums where because I didn't had a map with all of them marked. didn't like it.

Brussels is a city that starts running a bit late. Normally museums only open at 10 in the morning, even coffee shops open late. For me, who like to start the day soon, around 8 in the mourning (!!), this reduced the museums I went, due the little time I was there.

Saw all the main attractions of the city, grand place, atomium, the cathedral, the parliament, manneken pis and the museum of fine arts, among others places.
By the way, the museum of fine arts has combined tickets at very low prices and there is a City Card with option of Hop on Hop off bus, which you can used to enter in all main museums for free. More info here: http://visitbrussels.be/bitc/BE_en/minisite_brusselscard.do

I have a few friends in Belgium so I meet up with one of those friends, Lise. She even took half day off work to go with me around the city. We had lunch at this amazing typical Belgian pub and I ate stew which I cannot remember the strange name. But it was so good! Lise, thank you so much!! Kisses.
I also discovered Belgium beers. I like strong beers and they have very much strong ones, some with 13% of alcohol. But good, like for example, Hopus or Orvel. Those two are not available in every bar, apparently... Because they are Trappists, you can read more about it, below.

The first day, the weather was a bit cloudy but with sun and it was great for sightseeing. The other 2 days the weather was better, sun and a bit warm, except on saturday... too cold in the morning.



The food
Belgium like to eat as they like to drink. They are a passionate by mussels and almost all touristic restaurants have mussels. But, myself as portuguese and living near the beach, I eat mussels and seafood all the time, so I didn't tried it. But I tried other specialties, like the stew, Belgian fried, waffles and the chocolate.
I also took a small video of our landing, specially when the aircraft was crossing the clouds. Its always fun to watch.

Because on this trip my schedule was so tight I only had a couple of hours in Windsor, but it was enough to eat a delicious slice of cake, bought a fridge magnetic and walked around the centre of Windsor. The weather was cloudy and even rained a bit.











On my way back, I got - again - a seat next to the window but on the other side of the sunset. It was ok, I saw the moon rising and when the air-plane started to land, Lisbon was full of city lights and I remembered how I love Lisbon!!

... Travelling day!

This year my journeys had started pretty early, in January.
I had an invitation to go to London for a weekend and meet up some people who want to donate and volunteer who want to came to Portugal and spend a couple of days at Bianca.
So I went!
Travelled on friday afternoon and even that I arrived at London, Heathrow airport really late (flight was delay almost one hour!!) I know I had two days to enjoy London.

As usual I manage to schedule a date with my friend Vera, who is living in London for a couple of years and we had a blast!! But that I will tell you all about it in another post... stay tune!

On saturday morning my friend Aysa took me to Great Foster for a late breakfast.



This luxurious hotel was one of the favourites sites of King Henry VIII to hunt and you truly can see the magnificent of its architecture and decoration. Every room is greatly decorated and every detail counts. Detailed ceilings overwhelmed you while you that the tour inside this hotel (see Great Foster brochure here!).
Big fireplaces, fine arts... it is beautiful!




If you are thinking about going to London and going to Windsor, take a small detour and go to Great Foster. Is quite close to Windsor and its Palace and the famous school Eton College which deserves a visit too.

Sorry about the pictures quality but I didn't took my camera and all this was shoot with my smartphone.