Just outside Lisbon Airport we can see an old jet airliner. Nothing unusual about that, clearly - however you’d have to go a very long way to find another aircraft that has ever been converted into a strip bar, complete with DJ booth in the cockpit!¹

The aircraft is a relatively rare Convair 880 - there were originally 65 built, but today there are just 8 left in the world. Only one of these has been fully preserved: The Lisa Marie, which used to belong to Elvis Presley.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to pay this historical location a visit, as just a few weeks ago the strip bar was closed down and the plane destroyed.

So there’s only 7 now.

Thanks to Frank.

Here in Portugal there’s a forest fire burning through the landscape (Portugal’s been hit hard by these fires in recent years), but there seems to be a little more to this particular plume of smoke…

Does that not look like a bearded face at this distance? In fact (maybe I’m just getting carried away in the spirit of the season), but I think that looks quite a lot like Santa Claus!

Thanks to Ricardo Castro.

EURO 2004, the UEFA European Football Championship, was held between 12 June and 4 July 2004 in ten stadiums around Portugal. Of those ten stadiums seven are availible in high-resolution…

1. Estádio do Dragão (Dragon Stadium) (Porto, capacity 52000)
2. Estádio do Bessa Século XXI (Porto, capacity 30000)
3. Estádio da Luz (Stadium of light) (Lisbon, capacity 65000) - Thumbnail #1
4. Estádio José Alvalade (Lisbon, capacity 52000)
5. Estádio Municipal de Braga (Braga, capacity 30000)
6. Estádio Municipal de Aveiro (Aveiro, capacity 30000) - Thumbnail #2
7. Estádio Dom Afonso Henriques (Guimarães, capacity 30000)

(Algarve, Cidade de Coimbra & Dr. Magalhães Pessoa are in low-resolution areas)

Thanks: DelPiero

Whilst I was in Portugal, we crossed this very pretty bridge, just east of Portimão, on our way to Slide & Splash (I suppose we probably crossed it on the way back too, but I was fast asleep). The thing is, my Google powers appear to be failing me, as I can’t seem to find out anything about it… I’m sure you guys can help me though, right?

Anyway, we had an excellent time at Slide & Splash, which isn’t the biggest water-park in the world, but was great fun regardless The best ride was definitely ‘Banzai’, which you can see running from west to east through the park. It’s basically a straight run down an open pipe, face-first on a mat, and when you reach the bottom the aim is to skim the surface of the water as far as you can go. Our technique rocked! Slide & Splash have an official site where you can check out all the rides if you’re planning a visit.

Thanks to Kerry for coming with me

This is Cabo Da Roca (Cape Roca), Portugal, which is the very westernmost point of mainland Europe. You can see the lighthouse perched on the cliff-top, and also what looks like a viewing area on the cliff-edge.

Doesn’t look very warm there though if you ask me… which is a shame because I’m going to Portugal tomorrow! Don’t worry, I’m sure James and Olly will look after you guys Have a nice week!

Thanks to Manuel Freitas and florian.

Portugal has some pretty cool bridges!

First up is the Arrábida Bridge over the Douro River in Porto. The bridge is 493 metres long, and at the time of its construction in 1963 it had the largest concrete span of any bridge in the world. If you look closely on the eastern side you can see the curve of the arch underneath the bridge (compare with the image on Wikipedia to see what I mean).

Next up is the Ponte 25 de Abril, which crosses the Tagus river in Lisbon. It was originally named Salazar Bridge but after the Carnation Revolution, the bridge was renamed to 25 April Bridge, the day when the revolution occurred. It’s interesting to have a look at the north side of the shore, where the bridge curves spectacularly over loads of buildings before it eventually touches down (Wikipedia page). We couldn’t work out what this monument on the south bank was though… This monument on the south bank is the Monumento do Cristo-Rei, an imitation of the more famous statue in Rio.

Finally we have the spectacular Vasco da Gama Bridge, which also crosses Lisbon’s Tagus river, but at a much wider point! The Vasco da Gama has a total length of over 17 kilometres and is the longest bridge in Europe. Again, there’s a rather cool curve visible in this one and some cool shadows too (Wikipedia page).

Thanks to Manuel Freitas, Bodo Möller, Jan Brasna, grufo and Joao Ramires.