Sao Vincente de Fora

We returned to Lisbon and were grateful to escape the dismal weather in the UK. Lynne had already formed a "hit list" of places we were going to visit and so we found ourselves walking through the thieves market towards the "Monastery outside the walls" The photo below is looking towards the Pantheon, the white dome.

The church and monastery of Sao Vincente de Flora. St Vincent is the patron saint of Lisbon.

The church is typical of grand Portuguese churches, the canopied alterpiece is flanked by life size statues and a rather intriguing arrangement of candelabra which are raised and lowered through holes in the roof. We spent a little time looking around then went outside and just across the small square to the entrance to the Monastery.

The entrance hall of the monastery is simply splendid, the richly painted ceiling draws ones eyes away from the superbly decorated banister rails and tiled floor.

There are many rooms displaying religious artifacts.

Like many monasteries the cloisters a re a haven of peace. This is looking at one of the belltowers and roof of the church.

Many people ignore this monastery and visit the more famous (and expensive) Monastario dos Geronimos. there are areas within that are easily the equal of anything in Geronimos.
Take for example the sacristy. A beautiful room and some of the finest tiling we have seen.

Kings of Portugal are buried here, this rather creepy statue is at the tomb of king Carlos1

maybe it was because it was January but we seemed to have the place almost to ourselves, there are extensive corridors which presently house an exhibition of tiled panels that illustrate traditional storys in the spirit of the Brer rabbit tales.

If there is an opportunity to get up high I am always keen, Lynne less so! It is possible to get on the roof of the church and enjoy the extensive views over the local area of Lisbon.

There are great views over the river.

You can also see back down into the cloisters of the monastery.

The best view is back towards the dome of Santa Egracia ( the National Pantheon ) the first stone laid in 1642 it took 284 years to finish, there is a local description of a "Santa Egracia job" which basically describes something that is never finished!

We walked back towards the station and enjoyed an extremely expensive coffee, one of the few times we have ben victims of "tourist tax"
However its the cafes mistake as we are not transients but temporary residents and we shall neither visit again or recommend their establishment. If you are ever just outside the railway station at Santa Appollonia, don't bother getting a coffee here........its too expensive.

Christmas at home

I had flown back earlier in the year while Lynne stayed alone on board Dark Tarn in Cangas. She had therefore not met Alex's pet Bearded Dragon, Maddy

Luckily Lynne is fond fo almost all creatures with the possible exception of the mosquito and they got along famously. I had thought that the fact that Maddy enjoyed her food still alive might be a problem but it wasn't.

We had only arranged to be home for three weeks but we found time to see old friends, in Lynnes cse oldest as Kim has been her best friend since childhood, Ian was my friend until Kim stole him away at a fancy dress party we had in our flat in Horwich many years ago. We met up in the Man and Scythe pub in Bolton which is renowned as the most haunted pub in Lancashire.

We had a great get together.

Of course a few drunken evenings in the Brewery Bar were required as well, we spent a great deal of time indoors as to be honest the weather was awful. We have a rather nice view from our house of the West Pennine Moors and Rivington Pike. We actually saw it twice in three weeks!


We also reacquainted ourselves with little Ruby, who had been born just before our previous visit home, here she is with Fliss, who is our go to person on Tennerife.

Ruby has certainly grown in the last year.

Of course we couldn't ignore family and we did our usual round of visits. This is us calling in on John, Peter and families with Alex.

We met Olivia,

And Rachael's new boyfriend confusingly called Matt.

 here are Noah and Olivia, resting between engagements.

All too soon we had to pack and head for the airport to return to Lisbon.

More wanderings

Firstly, an apology, I have been very lax at updating this blog. No excuses, Lynne and I have been settled into "tourist " mode and have just been mooching around Lisbon and enjoying the many attractions in between doing small but vital jobs aboard Dark tarn. So here we are just before Christmas and we decided to go and see the large domed church on the hill above Alfama, which turned out not to be a church at all but was in fact the Pantheon. A clue was the fact that Fado music was playing as we entered. Amelia Rodriquez in fact.......

The building itself apparently has only recently been finished and the time frame is a source of amusement to locals!

Its undeniably an impressive structure if a little souless . Acres of marble beneath a conglomeration of domes make for an echoing vast space.

In alcoves and separate chapels? lie the bodies or at least a memorial to the great and good.
There are the usual political figures but there are also footballers (Usebio) and performers.

Unsurprisingly perhaps Amelia is here...........quite moving listening to her soulful voice echoing around.....

A rather more light hearted exhibition was found in one of the upper galleries it was a collection of Nativity scenes created by local schoolchildren. Some were very imaginative, I was particularly taken by one which was made entirely of bread!
Very close to the Pantheon is a famous Lisbon market, the "Thieves market" this is a collection of open air stalls where its possible to by any type of junk your heart desires, there are undoubtedly some treasure to be found but as they say you need to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince! its great fun though and a great atmosphere.

Its surprisingly extensive and is very popular with locals and tourists alike.

One part seems to concentrate on antiques another on the usual market traders selling clothes shoes etc.

The more interesting items seem to be with the car boot style traders, bits of old motorcycles, musical instruments or just plain tat!

On a sunny afternoon, its a marvellous distraction. Its also not far to catch a number 28 tram which will take you to another of the famous viewpoints of Lisbon the Square and church at Graca.

It was here that we discovered a surprising exhibit a model of the local procession of Corpus Christi, showing the many trade groups and societies that march in colourful costume.

It really is a most remarkable thing, the work of one man. It is exhibited in a marvellous room just off the main church and itself is decorated with Azure tiles.

The model is certainly impressive unfortunately we wouldn't be in Lisbon for the real procession but the model gives a good impression of the scope and grandeur of the real event.

 The many panels showed scenes from Lisbon's history, in particular the defeat of the moors, some of the panels were quite gruesome!
Later in the week just before we were due to fly home for Christmas we joined the queue for a Nativity Concert at the strange circular church of Nosa senora des Navigantes, which is just upriver from the marina just before the Vasco de Gama bridge. It is a modern and completely circular building that had left us less than impressed when we first came across it.

 We joined the queue not really knowing what to expect, gradually the building filled up and we were treated to a wonderful concert by several choirs. The initial ensemble were youngsters who sang using the space and building itself as an instrument. moving around the audience and going up into the galleries to sing. The acoustic of the building itself was fantastic and later an adult choir also used innovative techniques at on point having the entire choir arranged around the outside of the circular audience seating accompanying themselves on wine glasses filled with water. as they played and sang the resulting sound was glorious and utterly ethereal.

Later the choirs would join together in certain works continuing the use of the space itself. The whole concert was extremely professional and very well received by the audience which completely filled the church.

A fabulous and memorable gift from Lisbon to us at Christmas.........
On our way to the airport we discovered that they had decorated the tube trains with a more modern Christmas interpretation, cheerful non the less!

As we flew over Portugal in bright sunshine we crossed above the Lake and Dam at Pedragoa where we had stayed earlier in the year.

On our way home for Christmas we swopped the glorious blue sky's of Portugal for the grey and overcast of Britain.

Museo Militar

I have to admit that in a lifestyle full of surprises, the Museo Militar was an astonishing event.
Our normal bus in to Lisbon city centre passes  this fairly anonymous looking building just after the railway station at Santa Apolonia. After a concentration it seemed of late in religious buildings Lynne said we should go to see the military museum. I acquiesced with good grace whilst being particularly chuffed. As usual we entered at the completely wrong place, ( this being the obvious entrance by the railway station ) however after being told in no uncertain terms that this was a military establishment and the correct entrance was at the opposite end of the building, we took the long walk to the correct entrance.

We bought tickets and were directed to the first room of the museum. Its the small door just past Lynne in the photo.

What a surprise, not the arrangement of antique cannon, which Lynne had a passing interest it was the wonderful decoration of the walls and ceiling.

It seemed to portray the age of exploration and was almost a visual record of expansion and occupation of the world in a fantastic and romantic way. It almost reminded me of a scrapbook of maps and images and timelines, a sort of super graffiti if you like.

We attempted to ascertain the provenance of the paintings from the staff but were unfortunately stymied by our poor grasp of Portuguese, the helpful lady on reception did her best and we were a bit more enlightened however we were totally unprepared for the extent and splendour of the art and decoration throughout the museum.

Each room is a work of art in itself, with painted ceilings and panels.

I would be ecstatically examining a Baker rifle from the era of the peninsula war and Lynne would be entranced by the fabulous art on display above.

There was an art installation that had relevance to the great war, a conflict that Portugal was involved with, some of the exhibits were very moving. The installation of feet above, non of the pairs being similar I found particularly poignant.

 Of course the permanent exhibits were interesting and also for me reinforced the great war as a European conflict, and a tragedy of epic proportions and a failure of 19th century politics in a 20th century world.

 After the Great war we took a time machine into the 17th and 18th centuries, I was absorbed by the exhibits and Lynne was entanced by the fabulous ceilings and art works adorning the walls.

The rooms just seem to go on and on, each symbolic of an epoch or era. Each decorated in a particular style whether that be European or, in a recognition of Portugal's colonial past African or Indian or Asian.

Eventually the rooms disgorge you into the central courtyard that we glimpsed earlier before being redirected to the main entrance. There is strictly no filming or photography so you haven't seen this picture, OK. Tiles are nice though........

Hardly state of the art weaponry in my opinion, however.......

This is an undiscovered gem of Lisbon in my opinion, in all the time Lynne and I were there we seemed to be the only visitors, this may have been due to the time of year but even if you have no interest whatsoever in military history, just go to look up at the ceilings, you will not be disappointed

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