Lisbon - Castles and Tiles

Lisbon is beautiful; right up there near Florence on my list. Our walk through the old neighborhood of Alfama certainly is convincing. Our objective today is the Museu do Azulejo  - The National Tile Museum, with a stop at the Castelo de Sao Jorge. It's cooler today, but still very warm, so we pace ourselves and stop for pictures at each steep crest. We stop a lot. Siri directs us to a set of stairs, but there is an elevator right next door - seven floors of climbing avoided. Walkways are separated from traffic lanes by bollards, not curbs - and not much else. The roads are super twisty and narrow; luckily there are very few vehicles trying to get past. The streetscape is full of pastels, textures, and tiles.

The Castelo is a wonderful old wreck, ruined and hollowed out. Like a jungle gym for adults (and larger kids), it's big fun to climb the various steep steps, and on the tops of the walls. In its defensible position of course, you can see the whole city, the river, and beyond. You start by walking past the ramparts and battlements, old archways and wells; cross the old stone drawbridge, over the verdant moat, and into the maze of worn blocks.

Very scenic, but a bit too crowded. As the days starts to wear, we depart for the Museu by cutting into the alleys and stairways of Alfama, a neighborhood of the old city, and then along the industrial port - a bit like Oakland with its imperious cranes, stacks of containers, and graffiti.

We reach the Museu, which is housed in what seems to be another old church and palazzo block: intricate stonework with shadows and dark patinas, and filtered light. Inside are cloistured courtyards with glass panels that add gallery space for the tilework.

The tiles themselves are graphic novels. Instead of mosaics like the Byzantines, or fresco's like the Florentines, the Portuguese left their storytelling to their tiles. I particularly enjoyed their scenes of demonic torture - playful and imaginative.

If we thought the walk to and from from the Castelo to the Museu was scary because of the crowding of the taxi's - it might have been worse being inside the taxi. Our uber back to Rossio Square was a GPS coaster ride of streets narrowed by construction scaffolding, delivery vans, and slow-walking locals. The driver was very patient, and friendly, but it was still an amazing new sensation.

We calm ourselves at the Mercado da Figueira, with dried fruits and nuts. A prelude to dinner at Oficina do Duque - shredded oxtail over pear puree, and some type of bean that looked like a corn nut but was starchy and a little sweet. Lovely.