If you ever have the opportunity to visit Portugal, you may want to plan your travels for June, since villages and cities there have patron saints whom they take great pleasure in honouring. The kind Portuguese are very welcoming of guests to their parties, and they certainly know how to have fun.

It was sheer luck that our stay in Porto coincided with residents’ celebration of Festa de São João, the Festival of Saint John. A couple of days earlier in Lisbon, we’d taken a roundabout route to the gorgeous and intimate Heritage Avenida de Liberdade Hotel, since Avenida de Liberdade was closed down for musical performances and parties celebrating that city’s festival honouring Saint Anthony.

Our time in Portugal yielded a little treasure trove of photos and memories, but for today I’ll start with this one from Porto, in which a young girl – surrounded by thousands of people – took in the midnight fireworks display over the Douro.