The railway station (Gare do Oriente) is a stunning modern ribbed "Death Star" structure (not sure what that means) designed by an acclaimed Spanish architect. For a view of this interesting structure from a distance check out this link. It apparently replaces the attractive but much smaller old station in downtown Lisboa (see photo of the old station).
We arrived earlier enough so John and I could take some photos of the place. Shortly after we began taking pictures we were approached by a security guard (we had apparently been observed on the security monitors taking pictures so it seems they take security quite seriously) and told that we had to stop taking photos unless we had a permit to take photographs around the station. Since we didn't, we had to stop. They did not confiscate our cameras though, so we have some photos to show, which fall far short of doing justice to this beautiful structure.
The train trip home was uneventful until we got to the station in Albufeira at 9:35 p.m. and found it closed! and there were no taxis (it is about a 15 minute taxi ride from the station to our place, so not really walking distance at 9:35 at night with luggage in tow.) After a few minutes of anxiety we were saved by a young Portuguese man who had called a taxi for himself and when it came he allowed us to take it; the taxi driver called another one for him. Thanks to that Portuguese fellow we arrived home in good spirits.
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