On Monday, March 24, 2008, we ate breakfast at 7:15 am, headed out, found the Olympic souvenir store, called home, and bought tickets for the 11:35 am sailing to Macau.

We bought a phone card at a 7-11 and got quite good at calling the US.  On the left, I'm calling from a phone booth around town.  On the right, EHG is calling from a phone in the Macau ferry terminal.
Our ferry has arrived!		The ferry was very comfortable.
Pulling away from the dock.		We got to sit next to each other.  The ride was MUCH smoother than the ride from Helsinki to Tallinn.
We made the mistake of walking from the ferry terminal to the touristy area of Macau.  (Now we know we should've taken the bus.)  It was extremely hot, dusty, and not fun, but we did pass this striking Lotus monument.		Walking by all the casinos, we saw this public exercise equipment in the median and had to try it out!  We were using our umbrellas to block the sun.
We turned a corner and found ourselves in the tourist zone of Macau.  We found a McDonald's, ate, and continued on, finally ending up at the beautiful (and very Portuguese) Largo do Senado square.  We were able to ask questions at the tourist office here.
From the square, we walked through some very touristy, crowded lanes (now I would call them a combination of those in Niagara Falls's Clifton Hill, Toledo [Spain], and Mont St. Michel [France]) . . .		. . .to find ourselves at the gorgeous vista of the ruins of the Church of St. Paul (Ruinas de Igreja de Sao Paulo).  So pretty!
There were stairs behind the church facade, so we walked up.		Nothing else of the church is left, but the size is preserved.
After the church, we climbed up to the top of the Monte Fortress.  You know we can't resist a fort!		From the top of the fort, we could look down on the church ruins.
We could see quite a way from the fort.		In one direction, we could see the Venetian casino.  (Later, we walked over to go inside.)
After the fort, we walked to the Venetia, bought a postcard, and sat in the main square until time to catch bus #3 back to the ferry terminal.  (We were NOT going to walk back!)  The bus cost 2.50 HKD ($0.32) and was crowded.  We got back to the ferry terminal at 8:20 pm, checked in, and walked to the waiting area, only to be put in the standby line.  We ended up on the 9:00 pm boat--our tickets had been for 9:30 pm--in the very first row.  The trip took 1.5 hours, rather than the 1 hour coming over, and we ended up at a different terminal, the China/Macau ferry terminal on Kowloon, just west of Kowloon Park.  It was just like in Tallinn, Estonia the year before: we arrived at an unfamiliar ferry port late at night in the dark and had to walk on a sketchy path back to our hotel in the dark.  We made it back, though!
On to the next pictures!