What I Didn't Do

 

I stood at the top of these steps (which is actually another good uphill stretch from this view) and I did not go down.  A big part of the reason is that the bottom of the steps at Praia do Paraiso went into the water at this high tide and beach-scape after several days of very intense waves.  Another reason is those clouds.  Not that I mind a little relief from the sun, but it didn't seem quite as enticing without it.  Maybe another day.

I'd done a bit of research into the Algarve Jewish history, and I also didn't end up going to Faro today, where there had been a synagogue or Lagos, same.  Jews were a fully vital part of the Algarve trading times until the 1400s.  In fact, the 1487 Faro Pentatuch was the first printed book published in Portugal.  It was printed in Hebrew, and published by a Jew, Samuel Gacon, after he had fled from the Spanish Inquisition.  Alas, fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition into Portugal didn't work out so well for the Jews.  And although there was a return to the county in the 1800s, the bottom line is that pretty much the only actual thing to see of Jewish history in the Algarve is a cemetery.  There is a new-ish Jewish community that has breathed life into Portugal, which does offer citizenship to those who can trace their heritage to a time when Jews in Portugal were persecuted.   Anyway, I decided not to go to historic sites where nothing was left but the one cemetery, although I did find reading about the past interesting.

Instead, I did my homework for one of the online art workshops I'm taking and I went to out to lunch (which was a few kilometers past the Praia do Paraiso).  Which was a fine way to spend the day.

Just so you know I did it, here's my homework, 2- and 3- value still lifes (the objects are from my place -- a bakery box, a tea box, a cardboard tube that held a bottle of port and a decorative vase).