Farewell to Santos, Lisbon

It rained last night in Lisbon, a real downpour at about 3:00 in the morning. It's the first rain we've experienced since we were in London a month ago. When we awoke the bucket on the little airshaft behind our AirB&B apartment was full of water.  Time to go home I guess. Good thing we're ready with our flight and our taxi to the airport booked. After five weeks we're looking forward to Victoria. This is our elegant flat in the barrio of Santos, facing onto the neighbourhood street where kids sit on the doorstep.





Today, our last day, we finally visited the Marionette Museum, which we've walked by every day on our way up and down the hill. I'm so glad we didn't miss it. It has puppets and masks from all over the world but most of the exhibit focuses on puppetry of Portugal and Lisbon. It seems there's a tradition of puppet making that continues today.

Puppets are made of stuffed and sticked stockings, wood, papier mache and cast resin.

Really inventive puppets. These last ones are used to create an animated movie, very contemporary.  They made several faces with different expressions that they would use for the filming, as well as different props and hand gestures.  (These are for you Lainé.)

We enjoyed seeing this fellow introduce puppets to this group of entranced children.

And when we exited we found ourselves in a beautiful courtyard that was in fact the cloisters of an old convent. The building was used as a convent for a long time before it became the Marionette Museum.  What a great way to end our trip to Portugal.

Tonight one last dinner at one of the neighbourhood restaurants and then off we fly on the silver bird.