LAST DAY IN PORTUGAL...Church & Museum

Sunday, February 22, 2009 Last day in Lisbon, Portugal

Some of the photos above: Mary in our Hostel...we've got some wild wall paintings! The alarm on Mary is one of the loud things if you pull the plug...thought we'd keep it handy. Many photos of church and museum. The kids are our roommates this morning at breakfast. Enjoy!

Dinner last night was a great group of thirteen of us around the kitchen table. Pedro made garlic soup, salad, lasagna and mixed fresh fruit for dessert. We were joined by a couple from Australia and also two friends of the cook along with all of our roommates. Really a fun evening meal that lasted nearly two hours.

We barely heard the roommates and French people returning from their evening outing after dinner. Slept through the night and other than hearing the showers running early in the morning; it was very quiet. Up for breakfast at 8:30 and then packed our things for storage during our last day in Lisboa.

Valter is back on duty this morning and I again told him how great Ines, the desk clerk yesterday, had been regarding our unfortunate incident. She again assured me at dinner that she would make a complaint for us on Monday and let us know the outcome by email. We’re not expecting any money back but maybe a reprimand to the officer who would not help us purchase a ticket.

We’d decided to walk to the Cathedral for mass at 11:30 this morning. Started early to see the inside and then realizing we still had a good half an hour before mass started so we decided to walk a block to St. Anthony du Padua to see if they had an earlier mass. When we arrived there we discovered that one was starting in a few minutes at 11:00 am.

The mass was very long…we think that the pastor read a letter from their archbishop asking for money after the homily. Arrived back at the Hostel about 12:30; stored a few things and then headed for the Metro Station.

We were riding a short distance to the San Sabastian station located near the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. It was a short walk but we soon discovered that the museum is comprised of several buildings scattered across a beautiful park. The museums are free every Sunday so there were many people in the various buildings of the museum. The first building was an exhibit of very modern art. The second building we found was an Art Library so we walked past that one. The third building was an exhibit on Darwin. Finally, the fourth building held their permanent exhibit of old masters along with eighteenth century furniture, sculptures by Rodin and a unique exhibit of jeweley and glass by Rene Lalique.

In all a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon; and as we walked it was warm enough to take off our coats. About 4 pm we were back at the Hostel and picked up a pizza to share for an early dinner. They are calling a cab for us about 9 pm to take us to the InterCentro Bus Station where we will catch a bus about 10:30 for an all night ride to Sevilla, Spain.