Great Western Coffee Shop

To foreign climes ("Waiter! Bring me a pound of foreign climes!")

We had a very pleasant ride somewhere well away from the GWR. No prizes, but does anyone recognise this rather striking station, where our journey began? And if you do recognise it, can you guess where we were going? (Clue: the fare was under £10.00 when converted from the local currency).

(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4307/36320588795_9619f408af_h.jpg)

Gare do Oriente, Lisboa.

The roof is indeed very striking. A great piece of architectural engineering. From other pictures I've seen online it looks even better when lit up at night (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ee/b8/66/eeb866e0310bfc40ee4aa18ab48afcb2.jpg).

No idea where you were going. Somewhere in Portugal I'd guess.

Good call, BNM! It is indeed Oriente.

We were impressed, apart from the lack of information in an obvious fashion, but we found our train without problem. We also experienced the three levels of the station, or it may have been four as we arrived on the underground. We took coffee on the level below the platforms - I speak decent French, reasonable holiday Spanish, some German, enough Italian to get pissed, a bit of Greek and Turkish and even a smattering of Hebrew, but Portuguese remains a foreign country to me. Until the conductor said to me "Senhor Four Track, Now!, I presume?" I had no idea that I had correctly followed the relevant protocols for checking in.

It did look familiar, but I could not place it. Now I know where it is, I suggest you may have been going to the same place that I did - Sintra.

That beautiful roof reminds me of my first visit to Liège-Guillemins which also features a striking canopy, designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. I made approving comments to a Belgian colleague who picked me up from the station. He admitted that it was a fine piece of work but he said, "You can tell it was designed by a Spaniard. It would be fantastic on the coast in Barcelona but try coming here in January when there's snow blowing through it at 80km/h!"

No pleasing some people  ;)

Our destination was in fact Porto, 315 Km distant, and a very pleasant journey of almost 3 hours. I mention it because of the fare - €9.80 each, which makes even the Severn Beach Line look pricey!