tbaroundtheworld

Nothing sets the tone for the day better than a long hot walk with the docks to your right and a homeless city to your left. Of course I had no idea that’s where we’d end up when we decided to spend the morning at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, the national tile museum. We’ve been ceramic groupies ever since the first time we walked into the Real Alcazar in Sevilla and were bowled over by the Mudejar tile work. A strong tradition under during the Muslim rule of al-Andalus, when the Moors were finally evicted, the Christians recognized a good thing and kept the craftsman around, resulting in a 5-century tradition of ceramics that began in Sevilla and reached its apotheosis in Portugal. It looked easy enough, take the Metro from the Metro at the Terreiro do Paço station, ride to the end at Santa Apolônia station at the very end. Exit, turn left and walk .9 miles to the museum. Yea, well, it’s never that easy, is it. We exited, turned left and walked along a very deserted, industr...

Since we’re having an easy Sunday morning and haven’t done anything yet, I thought I’d share some additional photos from the Carmo Museum. I know there are some archeology buffs in the audience, so these are especially for you. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s a modest place with an incredible collection. And frankly, I didn’t think it was worth our time, but boy was I wrong. The earliest pieces are from the Neolithic, stone tools, scrapers, etc. Then an amazing display from the Chalcolithic (Copper Age,) regarded as the transition between the Neolithic and Bronze age, 7000 to 5000 years before present. Most of these pieces were collected in ancient tombs. From there, to the Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, and the 12 th century Reconquista when the Moors were expelled. The Christian Era extends another 3 centuries until everything changes in the Age of Discovery when Portugal opened commercial trading routes to India and southeast Asia. Followed then by artifacts from the N...

After an afternoon of bike racing on the television we decided to go and redeem the vouchers for our Lisbon Card. I haven’t invested in one of these deals before, but this one seemed like a pretty good deal relative to our agenda. Free admission to every museum on our list along with free rides on all the various forms of public transport. The redemption place was down the block along the river so off we went. Late afternoon was just beautiful – a sea breeze off the Rio Tagus estuary, a cruise ship heading out to the ocean, as big container ship sitting at anchor. The card was easy to pick up so that concluded we walked along the river towards our next goal, The Sé, Lisbon’s 14 th century cathedral. I’d had it in my mind that it was down on the level of the waterfront but rounding the corner and seeing it hundreds of feet up in the sky, took what little resolve I had and flushed it out of my system. Here only a day and a quarter, and frankly I am done climbing. The cathedral was...