Our first day in Portugal.

We left Stockholm on Tuesday evening, and after a delay in takeoff, a long wait for baggage and a taxi, we eventually arrived in Setúbal. At 1am local time (which was 2am for us…). Anyway, we got there, and after a good night’s sleep, my nephew took us in a walk around the city. This is the view from his flat that greeted us in the morning.

Setúbal is a city where you can find Roman remains, many old buildings and a sort of quintessential Portuguese feel. It lies about 50km south of Lisbon and on the northern bank of the estuary of the river Sado. The purple building below is the town hall.

Below you can see São Julião church (with Karl and my nephew), and the black cat on the roof of what I believe is tourist office, is a sculpture by Ricardo Romero. I, of course, just love it.

We spotted these tiles of industry and commerce, with an interesting eye in the staff industry is holding. Any ideas?

After a lovely lunch (I had grilled swordfish), we walked up to a viewpoint over the water. Note the beautiful tiled seating areas and wonderful flowers.

We carried on walking around, looking at buildings, finding a statue of the first bishop of Setúbal, and enjoying some ice cream (I had a scoop of blackberry and one of strawberry).

I totally failed to get the name of this church that stood behind the statue above, but the chapel on the right is dedicated to St Francis Xavier, the patron saint of the city.