Lisbon, Portugal – Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023 – We spent our last day in Lisbon immersed in beauty. The old city, its buildings slightly ragged but lovely in all their blues, roses, yellows and crumbling creams, was topped by a clear blue sky and edged by the soft gray-blues of the river at its base. It was cold today, in the low 40s, but I think that made the colors all the more crisp. We started the day at the Gulbenkian Museum, an amazing private collection of art that ranged from Islamic pottery and tapestries from the Ottoman Empire, to exquisite Chinese ceramics and a wonderful collection of European art, including Gainsborough, Rubens, Rembrandt and Sergeant, among so many others. Every object was beautiful, collected by an Armenian oil magnate who apparently loved beautiful, very expensive things. I felt like I could have an hour with each, taking in the shapes, colors and grace. It was not overwhelming, as some museums can be. Just a perfect museum.

We then took in a lovely view from the top of the Parque Eduardo VII, which sweeps dramatically down through the city toward the river below, another stunning sight. We then headed over to Museu Nacional do Azulejos, which explores the history of the iconic tiles that adorn buildings, churches, walls all over Portugal. We were looking forward to learning how exactly artists managed to make such huge displays of tiles – sometimes entire walls – but the museum wasn’t big on explanation. But we did see a lot of interesting – and some disturbing – tiles. The building itself was built around an old cloister, so the spaces were beautiful, if the tiles – especially those of the 17th-18th centuries – were sometimes, well, a little weird. Creepy satyrs, monkeys driving carriages, some really bad modern ceramic art. But there was an amazing panoramic tile display of the entire city of Lisbon made a few years before the 1755 earthquake.

We ended the day with dinner at another rooftop bar – Lisbon has many of these wonderful spaces. They are saviors for people like me who don’t want to eat inside. And the views of the sunsets are spectacular! The city has low buildings, and hills, so it is possible to see huge vistas not blocked by annoying skyscrapers. This place, the Rossio Gastropub, had excellent food and huge panoramic view over the Castle of Sao Jorge, the Rossio square and Teju river beyond, and the Bairro Alto above. We watched the sky turn orange, then rose, then gentle blue, deeper blue, periwinkle, and finally a deep smoky blue. The sky is really lovely here. It was a perfect last evening in Lisbon.

We head out tomorrow by car to Coimbra and then on to Porto.