Caught My Fancy Friday: Aveiro, Portugal's Blue Tile

A few years ago, I tagged along with my baby sister while she gave a paper at an academic conference in Aveiro, Portugal (at a university where students wore robes like Harry Potter!). We learned that Aveiro is called the Venice of Portugal, and I took a cruise on its canals--twice.

Spoiler alert: the canal is short and ends in a salt production facility.

But I really loved the town. Since the buildings are exposed to so much humidity and salt water, many of them are covered in blue tiles. I adore the combo of practicality and drop-dead gorgeousness. Behold!

 Even the inside of its train station used these blue tiles. I love it.

These are the types of details I love writers to include in their fantasy worlds. Not just the products of an amazing imagination, but with a dash of practicality thrown in. That's probably the mom in me! But I think the inhabitants of fantasy worlds probably need to consider humidity and sea air when building their ocean-side cities, too.