Hong Kong -- Macau -- Ruins of St. Paul's and Macau Temple

We had our first glimpse of the Ruins of St. Paul's from the museum fortress....

...then we walked down to the ruins.

This façade is all that remains of the 17th century St. Paul's College

and the Church of St. Paul (the apostle).

Looking down to the plaza below the ruins.

A glimpse of housing just down the road from the ruins.

After that visit, we met back up with our tour guide and headed to the temple legend to be the name-sake of Macau and one of the oldest there, being built in 1488.

The entrance to the temple grounds

I'd never seen cones of incense like this which burn from the bottom up.

Prayer charms

A flame for lighting incense sticks which can be placed in a number of places.

This was an interesting temple, as it was made up of a number of prayer and worship sites on a hillside.

Looking down towards the main gate of the temple.

From up on the hillside, you could see more construction....

across the river in big China!

"Macao welcomes you, please keep the city clean!"

(written in four different languages)

From here, we headed to our last stop of the day...

...the Chapel of Our Lady Penha sitting atop that hill.

Hong Kong -- Macau -- Senado Square and Macau Museum

On our way to Senado Square, we came upon the lovely 

Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady...

...which, of course, has a nativity outside.

Then, we proceeded on down the street to the square...

...which was decked out in Christmas attire!

This square was originally a meeting place for the Chinese and Portuguese. Today, it's a 'meeting place' for people of all nationalities to visit and explore it's various festivals, celebrations, markets, and shows.

It's always nice, however surprising, to see familiar sites in other countries--

...McDonald's!

...Pizza Hut!

...Haagen Dazs!

...KFC... that delivers!!

Our next stop was the Museum of Macau.

Located inside Mount Fortress (also known as Fortress of Our Lady of the Mount of St. Paul), it displays the history and culture of Portugal as the former owner of the territory.

View of the city from the fortress

Bridal Carriage

Bridal Chamber

Puppets and Puppet Stage

After our visit to the museum, we headed down the hill to see the Ruins of St. Paul's...

Hong Kong -- Macau -- Lighthouse

So, here we were.... citizens of one country, living in another country,

visiting a third country, taking the ferry to yet another country!!

Our travel was compliments of Chow Tai Fook.

Our hour long high-speed trip cost about $330 HKD ($42 US) each

 and included lunch with passage. 

Cheesy hotdog on a stick, muffin, fruit cup, and water.

Hello, Macau!!

Macau, formerly a Portuguese colony, is now an autonomous Special Administrative Region of China. It's about 20 square miles is home to more than 650,000 people making it the most densely populated area in the world!!  

Once we exited the port, we found a guide to carry us around and the first place she just HAD to take us was to the monstrous casinos because "all Americans love the casinos!!"

Grand Lisboa

She really tried to encourage us to go try our luck, but we refrained.

Hotel Lisboa

 This was literally a one-stop snap-snap-snap as she pulled into the center of the intersection and all we had to do was pivot around for each picture!

Wynn

Our first desired stop was the Macau lighthouse in the Guia Fortress.

The really nice thing about having a guide driving us in a car was she was able to drive us to the fortress itself and we didn't have to walk up the hill from way down there!!

That really saved us a lot of time.

Our Lady of Guidance Church

A fitting name for a church next to a lighthouse, I think.

These symbols are hoisted up on the lighthouse representing an approaching tropical storm. The "T" signifies Typhoon 1 meaning a tropical storm is within 500 miles of Macau. At this point it's time to make sure items outside are secure. The symbols then are changed out as the storm draws closer. The "T" is turned upside down to signify Typhoon 3. Then for Typhoon 8 and 9 the triangles are hung points up or point down or a combination to signify the wind direction. When the "+" is hung signifying Typhoon 10, you'd best be prepared as the center of the storm is imminent.

A couple of pics to share:

Perfect timing on this shot, I thought!

 The lighthouse seemed to be a wedding picture spot!

We met back up with our guide then headed to Senado Square and the Macau Museum...