Today we ventured into North Lisbon
This is the Marques de Pombal. As previously remarked, Lisbon has a lot of very grand statues and monuments, verging on the pompous. Unfortunately this is now in the middle of a very busy traffic roundabout
From there one can climb through Edward VII Park, yes dedicated to the English king following his visit in 1903. It offers an interesting view back down into the old heart of Lisbon over the geometric pattern of yew hedges
This is off to one side of the park
Eventually we reached the Gulbenkian Museum. This houses a wonderfully divers art collection of exceptional quality displayed beautifully in a purpose built gallery. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Well worth the trek north
The only bad thing to say for the Gulbenkian is the exterior. It is super ugly. Brutalist. It has all the charm of an inner city multi-storey car park.
And there is next to it a contemporary art museum. Honestly, don't even bother with it. Great space but one wanders around in bemusement trying desperately to find something worth looking at. You end up looking at walls, floor, ceiling, windows, anything looks more interesting than the exhibits
Probably the best is this Antony Gormley "statue" that looks very much like a bloke in a gimp mask. More fetish ball than fine art in my book. But far better than anything surrounding it
Obviously we had to finish off sightseeing with another church. Not exactly minimalism
The obsession with naked cherubs is really creepy. I mean one or two might be fine, but en masse....
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