Macau in One Day

Largo de Senado
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Today we took the Turbo Jet over to Macau for the day.  We ended up seeing almost everything on foot, as we had almost 8 hours there and reasoned that was plenty of time.  By the end of the day we were really glad we had that much time to walk around and slowly take in this unique city.  My first impression was that Macau is an odd blend of Las Vegas and bright, busy China.  Leaving the ferry terminal and following Avenida Da Amizade, we passed many themed casinos (one looked like a large volcano) and saw larger, glitzy hotels and casinos, like the Wynn and Lisboa.  It felt like Las Vegas!  And then we walked on so many small, packed streets, and saw tall buildings that reminded us of Hong Kong.  This was blended in with some nice cobbled pedestrian areas with European architecture - the city is quite a blend!

Ruinas de Sao Paulo
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We liked Largo de Senado, the main cobbled pedestrian shopping area, with the small shops typical to Hong Kong (what you see on the ground floor is only the beginning, to shop more you must climb many small flights of stairs to discover an unknown amount of floors with more merchanidise) and some nice familiar places for the western traveler (we couldn't resist Haagen-Dazs).  We passed through this area to get to Ruinas de Sao Paulo, a facade of an old church that burnt down in 1835.  The front facade and the stairs leading up to it are all that is left.  Once you walk through it, there is a stairway on the back side of the facade you can take up to look back down at the empty area the chuch used to be.

View of Macau through the dirty windows of the Macau Tower
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We also visited Forteleza do Monte, the old Portuguese fort that now houses the Macau Museum.  It was nice to walk a circle around the fort to take in views of the city and the pretty flowering trees growing on the hillside.  The museum itself was quite interesting and covered quite a few subjects, from Chinese opera and puppet theater to the Portuguese settlement, the silk trade, and present-day Macau traditions like marriage.  Once you are done with the museum you emerge on top of the fort, for more city-viewing.

We next walked down to the Macau Tower, a 338 meter tower with two viewing decks, both "outside" and inside.  Both viewing decks had quite dirty windows however, meaning our pictures didn't come out that great.  It was a somewhat smoggy day, however, so I think even with clean windows the pictures wouldn't have come out spectacular.  Still, clear day/windows or no, Macau is very interesting to look at from above, with its long, narrow bridges braching off to surrounding islands and connecting parts of the peninsula.  We liked spotting old churches hiding between high-rises.