Travelling Through Art Museums
We managed to fit in the trip in the very last week of summer holidays!
Between renewing passports, summer camps and starting a new job (for my husband), this was the only week we could have made it happen, and we booked a week away in Portugal!
The weeks before we left were a flurry of activities. I was working on my new website trying to get all the big rocks in before we left. My son was away in cottage country for a two week overnight camp. We picked him up and brought him home on Saturday night. We packed all day Sunday. And then we left for the airport, barely 24 hours after my son got home from camp, to catch our red-eye flight to Lisbon.
Usually I show up to a new place with some information about the sites to see and places of interest. But, not this time.
Lisbon was a blank slate for all of us.
Besides watching the Travel Man episodes of Lisbon and Porto, we barely knew what these cities looked like. I hoped and assumed that the Tourist Information of the cities would give us enough to chew on in our limited time there.
And then we stepped out of the metro station on our way from the airport to our AirB’nB.
As we were walking up the stairs of the exit, the dazzling sunlight had a very different quality to it than what I am used to here in North America. As if the sun was welcoming us to it’s other kingdom with the clearness and the whiteness of the light I had never seen before…
My first view of Lisbon from our Air B'n'B balcony
Last time I was in Europe was in 2018. We spent 4 days in Holland. So Portuguese cities was a whole different experience.
The buildings were dazzling in their architecture. The alleyways were enticing in their hidden simplicities. The atmosphere was always musical- a big party in the square seemed like a usual affair.
My world, as I was familiar with it, was non-existent here. This was a whole new world, and I walked around in it with my eyes wide open, and my jaw dropping frequently taking in whatever we came across.
Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon
The intensity of the country, the tile works on the buildings, the alleyways that were maybe a foot wider than that tram that was moving through them…everything was alien…
But all of it got noticed and taken in. All of it became a part of me…
Walking through a 2 kilometer hike in the forests where the wind blew through the bay leaf trees sound different than when the wind blows through the boreal forests of Canada.
The word church takes on a very different meaning in all of Europe than in Canada. The grandeur of the word gets lost in translation when it travels west across the Atlantic Ocean.
The idea of an ideal 6 pm dinner is ridiculous in Portugal…
Arabian room in Porto Stock Exchange
The old cities of Lisbon, Porto and Sintra were magical- all of it- for me. An outdoor museum. We did not have time to go to any art galleries, but I did not feel the need to. There was art galore in all the architectural marvels we visited, the buildings around us standing as we could see from any random street corner. Even railway stations were marvels of art! And of course, I cannot forget all the patterned tiles everywhere- most buildings were adorned with them. And they were all beautiful in their patterned mish-mash!
Art was not someone one needed to look for. Art was everywhere.
São Bento Railway Station in Porto
It may not be modern. It may not be contemporary. But beautiful, pleasing, and sometimes overwhelming art nonetheless!
If it is possible to burn one’s eyes with too much unexpected art, I would have certainly done so.
Walking in Lisbon
Thankfully, my eyes and my mind were only dazzled…
When we came back home, it seemed like we were away for ages, not just a week. We saw and did and visited so much…
But most striking difference, that I felt when standing outside our house, but my son put it into the best possible words, was this:
Being home seems like we are away camping…
It was quiet and peaceful. People were scarce. There were lots of trees around, and the breeze was making its presence felt in the sound of leaves. Also…not much (or any) in terms of human made art to look at…camping indeed!
