Third Week of July 2018: Part II

Sunday, July 22

Anne's flight back home was at 10:30am so we left early for the airport.  It was an easy train ride with only one transfer at Trindade station.  On the way back, I got off at the Sao Bento Station, took some photographs before starting to sketch at the front entrance.

The chance encounters and conversations outside of the Sao Bento Train Station.

I was just a few lines into my planned sketch when a lady asked "Still sketching?".  I lifted my head, stopped what I was doing and chose to have a conversation with this lady named Anne Rose Oosterbaan, "a passionate sketcher from the Netherlands", as her card says.  I reasoned that I will never have another opportunity to have a conversation with this lady but I can always come back to this same spot and sketch again another time.

Next came Inger Viklund.  She was waiting for Lars Nydahl who showed up not soon after.  Then there was Emma Fitzgerald who somehow got lost using Google Maps and showed up late for a sketch meet at this station.  Then Damaris Williams from NYC showed up and we too had our conversation.  What a productive interaction with other Urban Sketchers at this spot!  

Not too far north of Sao Bento Station is the Praca da Batalha where I made a couple of sketches.

I love this bookstore near Praca da Batalha!

The retail store across from the bookstore.  The Clerigos Tower at the distance.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the Miradouro da Serra do Pilar looking for something to sketch.  Found the cathedral to be a good subject, made the watercolor splash on my Moleskine then started the grey lines.  Guess who would show up there not too soon after - Julie Kessler and Joan Zsalay Tavolott, followed by Shawne Cooper and Marcy Singer!  Never mind the cathedral sketch I started. Instead, we waited, watched, and sketched the beautiful sunset from this great spot in Porto.