“Derive happiness in oneself from a good day’s work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.”

— Henri Matisse

It’s funny the things that remain with us after we leave a place.

After a weekend in Porto, Portugal, I’m left with the usual roundup of activities to look back on–the four-hour bike ride along the coast to where the Duoro River meets the Atlantic, afternoon tours of the famous port caves, and a stroll through a Sunday morning bird market.

And then there are the more specific, more resonant moments–a barber giving himself a shave after closing shop for the day, a woman washing her clothes in a tub on the steps of a twisting sidestreet, and here, the way the thick, early morning fog obscured the city on Saturday and hung over the Ponte Luis like a shroud.

I loved the way the many angles of the bridge almost worked like a prism, refracting the beams of sunlight through the fog. It was an image I won’t soon forget.

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