travel photography amsterdam

Amsterdam | Holland

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The first thing my friend Sarah said to me when she met me at the train station was “I have absolutely no food in the house”… so our first meal together in Amsterdam was a selection of delicious Dutch cheeses (an impromptu purchase from the duty-free section), together with the bottle of Portuguese wine I had in my hand luggage. And there is no better way to start a trip in Holland than with cheese. And wine. But mainly, cheese. The second thing Sarah said was “I´m not going to show you all the touristy things in Amsterdam, because that´s lame… I´m…

Avis | Alentejo

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And last but not least, in this series of Alentejo towns, is Avis… a quiet little place in the northern Alentejo that (I have been told) has the rather dubious claim to fame of having been, once upon a time, the capital of Portugal. This was because the king at that time was from here and he didn´t want to be bothered by moving home and family all the way to Lisbon, so he just simply declared Avis to be the capital and that was that. The joys of a monarchy 😉 However, while trying to find out if this…

Mértola | Alentejo

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Mértola was one of the first places I visited in Portugal, back in 2007 while here on holiday for the first time. I remember being fascinated by the tiny white houses and mismatched roof tiles, so very different to what I was used to back home… but the thing that made the biggest impression, that took my breath away quite literally, was the heat. So much heat. No wind, no shade, just hot white light reflecting everywhere and a cloudless blue sky burning down from above. So keeping that in mind, try not to visit in the peak of summer… not…

Évora | Alentejo

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Continuing with the Alentejo theme, this is Évora, the biggest city in the northern part of the region and a place that I have blogged about before, you can see more HERE. Things have been pretty crazy over at Piteira Photography the last few months and if you´ve been following me on Instagram you may have noticed that we´re on the road almost constantly, which is fun and exhilarating, but doen´t leave much time for beautifully descriptive blog posts… or for vacuuming the house, but that´s another story. So apologies for these short posts, I know it´s pretty much been “Here´s…

Coudelaria de Alter | Alentejo

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Another place we visited on our tour of the Alentejo was the Coudelaria de Alter (the Alter Stud Farm). This was an important stop on the “Portugal Itinerary” as my sister and my mom are both very horsey people and therefore my dad didn´t have any choice in the matter. I would never have thought to visit if my sister hadn´t insisted but it was definitely worth it, it´s a beautiful place and the horses are magnificent.

Monsaraz | Alentejo

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Over the next 5 weeks I´m going to be blogging a series of Alentejo towns… an Alentejo special! My family came to visit us in May, it was their first time in Portugal so we spent 3 weeks driving the country flat and because this is my favourite part, we spent quite a lot of time exploring the region. Monsaraz is a small hill-top town on the Alqueva lake, right on the border with Spain. Because of it´s strategic location on a hill near the Spanish border it is one of the oldest towns in the southern part of Portugal…

Travelling in Porto

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We have visited Porto 3 or 4 times over the last few months, for work and just because… so these are a collection of images from several different trips. This city fascinated me, it´s very different to Lisbon, but also similar, in some ways… as it’s also on a river, with loads of steeps hills and narrow winding roads. The biggest difference for me is the light I think… it´s much darker than Lisbon, perhaps because of the weather, but also the buildings and streets themselves. In the south the buildings are either whitewashed or tiled and Lisbon is famous…

obidos portugal

Óbidos, Portugal

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Óbidos is a medieval town about an hour´s drive north from Lisbon, on the west coast. One of my favourite things about this place is that it´s completely surrounded by old stone walls and you can walk the entire circumference of the town along them… it gives you a really great veiw over the town and the surrounding countryside.  

Porvoo Helsinki Finland

Porvoo, Finland

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Porvoo is a small coastal city in Finland about an hour or so drive from the capital, so during our visit to Helsinki (you can see more HERE) we hopped on a bus and took a day-trip to visit as we´d heard it was a really cute place. Starting out as a medieval fishing village, Porvoo was, at one stage, the second largest city in Finland. The colourful wooden houses are very typical of how people lived a few centuries ago and you feel like you´ve stepped back in time as you wander the narrow cobblestone streets, weaving between the brightly coloured…

travel photography Helsinki finland

Suomenlinna, Helsinki

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While we were in Helsinki earlier this year we took an afternoon and visited Suomenlinna, a small group of islands just off the coast of Helsinki that are well positioned to defend the city and had been used throughout the centuries as a military  outpost and first line of defence against enemies. Nowadays no-body is fighting so Suomenlinna has become a popular day-trip destination for leisurely outdoor activities like picnics and (for the brave) icy dips in the sea.