Figueira da Foz

Last weekend I visited Figueira da Foz, a town by the sea where I used to spent summer holidays in my chilhood. It´s situated at the mouth of the Mondego river. I once saw an old english print depicting the landind of british troops coming to help the portuguese fight (and defeat) the Napoleon armies, and the then small fishing village was named "Mondego Bay" by the british, which sounds fine too. I went to visit Casa do Paço, an old palace from the XVII century, famous for the Delft tiles on the walls of three rooms. Nobody knows exactly who put them there. They might have come from a shipwreck. The rooms have no furniture and the display of so many small, beautifully detailed tiles gives it an air of modernity, with the stress in repetition. Ai Weiwei ehxibition of milions of ceramic sunflower seeds, and other recent such exhibitions come to mind.