The Ladies Room Door Art Series: Portugal Edition

Susan Bellinger is Friend for the Ride’s first reader and an excellent spotter of bathroom doors. Here’s her report from a recent trip:

In my travels, I always keep an eye out for interesting bathroom doors to send to my friend, Barbara, for her blog. I hit the jackpot in  Portugal. What is it about Portugal, where it seems every door was unique, inventive, eye-opening, and/or fun?

A British newspaper called Lisbon “the most exciting creative scene in mainland Europe.” Could be!  But not just Lisbon. We found creative door in the Algarve and in Porto, too. Here they are!

The photo at top was taken at the Lisbon Airport. The door below is from the Dear Breakfast Cafe in Lisbon.

The Bachannol Restaurant

The National Tile Museum

The Flora and Fauna Restaurant

The Time Out Market

Grupeto Cafe, a bike cafe in Lisbon

A Tasca do Joao, a tapas place in Faro

Dessert Island off  the coast of Faro

Chelsea Cafe in Faro

The green arch is the entrance to the men’s and women’s rooms at Tivera Castle in Tivera.

La Pizza in Faro

 

A sign for street sanitarias

The Porto Center of Photography

The McDonalds in Porto

 

The Majestic Cafe in Porto

A restaurant in Faro, Portugal. (The restaurant’s name is now forgotten.)

And here is Susan posing in the Cafe Majestic. It’s an Art Nouveau cafe where J. K. Rowling wrote part of Harry Potter. Thank you so much for the wonderful doors, Susan, and I’m glad you had such a creative and happy trip.

The Potty Trip of Potty Trips! Part One

From writer and blogger Carol Baldwin:

“My husband Creighton’s bucket-list dream was to drive out West and see the Northwestern states. Now that he is semi-retired, we had the time to do that. On the 7,579 mile trip (over 3 weeks) I enjoyed riding a variety of bike trails, admiring new landscapes, eating at local restaurants, and finding unique bathroom doors for Barbara’s blog. In fact, discovering these doors became like a treasure hunt. Where would I find the next one to send back East? But I’m afraid it’s become an obsession now. I can’t go into a new bathroom without bringing my phone….Help!”

Thank you, Carol for your wonderful contributions to our Ladies Room Door Art Series. I jumped every time I received an email, hoping it was another photo from you. Here are Carol’s doors, signs, and a few interior shots, all adding  up to the Potty Trip of Potty Trips!

From the Canon Brew Pub in Columbus, Georgia.

Colton’s Steakhouse in Springfield, Missouri.

“Sort of plain, ” Carol wrote, “but classic too:” The ladies room at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.

And look at the fun wallpaper inside!

On the exterior at Villa Park alongside the Arkansas River in Wichita.

In Broken Bow, Nebraska: Trotter’s Whoa and Go.

And the actual door.

Carol found this cool table in the ladies room at the visitors center at the approach to the Black Hills. A sign on top reads: “Blue Stained Ponderosa Pine. Recovered and Crafted from a Mountain PIne Beetle Infested Tree. Black Hills National Forest.”

Montana Brewing Company in Billings, Montana.

Yellowstone National Park.

Stay Tuned for Part Two!

Carol Baldwin’s most recent book is Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Grades 4-8 (Maupin House, 2008). She is writing her first young adult novel, a multi-racial book set in Charlotte, NC in 1950, and has taught writing to teens and adults. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing or reading books to her grandchildren, or working on her golf game. Read her book reviews and writing tips a at www.carolbaldwinblog.blogspot.com. 

 Photo: Carol smiles in front of one of the geysers in Yellowstone National Park.