Sunday, May 31, 2015

A REALLLLLY Tall Bridge and a Brave Woman

The Luís I Bridge as seen from above
She stood frozen, but only for a moment. Would her fear of heights or her dread of walking a long way up a hill win? The bridge stands majestically above the Douro River at 44.6 metres (146 ft). If she didn't walk across the bridge then she would ride the metro down to a lower level of the bluff and then have to walk up to the level of the bridge on the other side.

I wouldn't describe my lovely wife, Cheryl, as a fearful person. She just has a few things that she really doesn't like. The main two - and I'm not sure which is the worst - are snakes and heights. The heights fear includes such things as flying in airplanes, driving or walking over really high bridges and poodles looking out a second story window with only a screen between them and certain death if they pushed the screen out when seeing the neighbor's cat.

Since we had walked a LOT during our visit to Porto her dread of walking across a really high bridge weighed less than the thought of walking up a giant incline.


So she took off. The normally somewhat slow walker suddenly found the energy to get off of that bridge as quickly as she could. the bridge is 385.25 meters across (421.31 yards - give or take an inch).. 



She couldn't wait for our grandson, Gibson. He would have to fend for himself. (For a Grani to leave a grandson behind is a BIG deal.)

Oh! And when walking across the upper level of the Luís I Bridge you have to move away from the yellow line and closer to the rail (where you could plunge to a scary painful death) when the metro train goes by. (Such things as being this close to a train while on a bridge would never be allowed in the USA. I suppose the European leaders believe that their people are smart enough to know to move over - or they don't have lawyers suing everyone in sight.)



After I got Cheryl across the bridge (I did help her when I wasn't taking pictures! ha!) She sent me back to rescue our grandson who at any moment could fall off of the bridge to his scary painful death. 

He and I stopped for a selfie. After all, we didn't know when we would ever be so high up on a bridge again and needed to record the moment. 

Cheryl was very excited that Gibson made it across the bridge alive and that he didn't fall to his scary painful death from the terribly high bridge.




Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.
Salmos 56:3 Quando tiver medo, confiarei em ti.

If you'd like to see what Wikipedia has to say about this beautiful bridge, 
click here Dom Luís I bridge





Porto has 6 bridges. (I have pictures of others for a later post.)

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Promise of the Rainbow

Do you still remember the meaning of a rainbow? Each time I see a rainbow I am reminded of God's promise to Noah and to mankind to never flood the earth again the way he did in the time of Noah.

Thank you Lord that you keep your promises!
Next time you see a rainbow.....give thanks for kept promises!

Trust in the Lord


I took this picture at the big rocks by castelo do queijo. The tide was high and the waves were crashing against the rocks. It was beautiful!

Monday, May 25, 2015

Photographers in a Tree


Our first post!
We want to share some of the beauty of Porto with the rest of the world. We also want you to know that God loves you. Falamos um pouco de Português, so most of our posts will be in English. But you're probably here to see the pictures anyway.