I think this one shows the river and the Dom Luís I Bridge and the city very well. The typical rabelo boat (carrying its barrels down the Douro river) sort of gets lost in the background – but then compensates by physically standing out from the flat surface. (I’m not sure how the boat could be made to stand out better – maybe cut it from darker wood?) I couldn’t see any details of the artist or manufacturer, but if you know who it is, please let me know and I’ll credit them here.
Closer up:
Here’s the fridge magnet from a different angle – looking straight down at it:
The boat shows up a bit better in this one, but the Dom Luís I Bridge still looks like the star of the show. Mind you, it is a very impressive bridge! And it definitely does stand out in real life. Apparently it was designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel (as in the Eiffel Tower).
The picture is missing one of the key features of the bridge, though, because in real life it’s got two different levels for the different modes of transport across it. Top level: get a Metro tram-thing across the top of the bridge (or walk across as a pedestrian). Lower level: use the road for a car or bike (or walk across that one, as well).
Anyhoo – I like my new fridge magnet, even if it uses quite a bit of ‘artistic licence’. I like the way that they’ve made it into a serrated stamp-shape as well. It just screamed ‘souvenir!’ at me, so that’s another reason I chose it. And now I’ve got another laser-cut piece of artwork on my fridge door, plus some lovely memories of our holiday in Porto/Oporto.
In the meantime I’ve been having laser-cut-fridge-magnet adventures of my own, but more about that later…