From Nazare to Lisbon and Home
On 10 September we bid farewell to our hosts at 15 Rua da Graca and took the 9:30am
bus from Nazare to Lisbon.  At about 11:30am we arrived Lisbon's Sete Rios bus
terminal, took the Metro to the Restauradores station, and were glad to find a vacancy
at the "Residencial Florescente", where we had stayed at the start of this trip.  
After lunch in a nearby restaurant we took the Metro to the Sao Sebastiao station,
where with the help of passers-by we found our way to the Gulbenkian Museum.  It is a
world-class art museum in a large low modern building in park-like grounds.  The museum
building and its extensive art collections were donated by Calouste Gulbenkian, a very
wealthy civic-minded Armenian who lived in Lisbon.  Below is a small sampling of the
artwork in this excellent museum.  A great end to our visit to Portugal.
Leaving the Gulbenkian Museum
we saw this pile of  broken
wooden furniture --- bookshelves,
cabinets, desks, tables, etc.   
Looked like old furniture
awaiting pickup by the garbage
truck, but we were wrong.  It was
displayed as a work of art!
Next morning, September 11th, we took a taxi to the Lisbon International Airport for our
transatlantic flight to Philadelphia.  Less than 25% of the seats on the plane were occupied,
apparently because it was the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 hijackings.  
10 & 11 September 2009