When in 2017 I was booking our AirBnb in Lisbon, the first thing I paid attention to was the distance to Universidade Novo de Lisboa, where our conference was taking place. Once booked, the next thing I noticed is that our apartment was right next door to this large compound called "Museum Calouste Gulbenkian". We had a thought of visting this museum in 2017 (and even walked around the Calouste Gulbenkian park), but with only a few days available, we chose other, more active sightseeing. Fast forward to 2022 - we are in town for 4 full days and one of those turns into a dental emergency - so we left this museum untouched. Now, we are guaranteed to spend a full 20 days in Lisbon proper, and can devote a day to a large museum, so the was right for us to finally close this gestalt and visit it.
Olga, Tanya and I left house around 11:10, walked to the Intendente metro station, and took our - now pretty usual (we've already done it a few times) trip to Sao Sebastio. Walked out at the same spot where we emerged from the metro for the first time at 7am on a Sunday in 2017, jetlagged and tired.
This is where we first saw Lisbon in 2017.
Walked the block north, until the entrance to the Calouste Gulbekian park emerged, snuck into the park through that entrance, walked the pathways along the fence until we reached the front of the museum.
Approaching the main museum building.
Entered the building, bought tickets and visited, in order, three exhibition: the temporary exhibition of two sculptors, one of whom specialized on weirdly shaped human figures, while the other made abstract metallic shapes and hung them from the ceiling; the exhibition of modern art (acquired, for the most part, after Calouste Gulbenkian passed away), and the permanent collection of classical art assembled by Gulbenkian - an oil billionaire of Armenian descent - himself.
The Nose. The installation that, I believe, contains pieces designed and built by each of the two sculptors.
The modern art collection stressed Portuguese artists (whom we did not know) and modern styles - cubism, abstract painting, surrealism, constructivism. Most pieces were paintings, but some sculptures, and some more sophisticated installation (audio/video pieces) were present as well.
The flagship of the modern art collection.
Fragment of my favorite part of the modern art collection - a wall with over 40 pieces of art illustrating the mix of artists and styles in the collection.
More modern art.
The classic art collection - the one actually acquired by Gulbenkian was the largest, and took the longest time. It started with several halls filled with ancient artifacts - from Egypt, Greece and Rome (including an exquisite collection of coin and medals), and Mesopotamia. Next were artifacts from pre-Islamic and early Islamic time from Persia, as well as from neighboring countries (India, medieval Turkey). The Chinese artwork hall was next, finally giving way to early Christian artifacts (mostly from Byzantium), and the collection of European paintings which featured some 14- 15 century Italian art, the works of Rubens and Rembrandt, French paintings (as well as a the work of French furniture makers in 18th century), English and Dutch landscapes, some French Impressionism, and several eclectic turn of the 20th century pieces. The final part of the collection is a hall containing about 200 pieces of jewelry (mostly combs) made in late 19th-early 20th century by a friend of Gulbekian's.
All of this took us over four hours to go through.
After we finished our museum visit, we walked the park again - this time on the other side of the museum buildings, exited it right next to Avenida Conde de Valbom, which allowed us to walk the street we lived in in 2017, and revisit the good old memories (and also spot some changes - a closed pastry shop we had coffee in last year, an Armenian restaurant, that definitely was not there in 2017).
In front of our old place on Av. Conde Valbom.
Avenida Conde de Valbom - perhaps our favorite place in Lisbon.
Following this, we walked to El Corte Ingles for lunch. Picked a place there that served meat. I ordered a bitoque that came with an egg, rice and homemade potato chips. Olga ordered an entrecote, which was probably the most successful piece of meat - tender and tasty. Tanya ordered picanha, and got two pieces of meat - one was tender and tasted of grill, the other still had excellent flavor but was extremely tough to chew. I had another Sagres with our meal.
My bitoque. The thinnest cut of meat, but served with some au jus turned out to be tasty.
Following this, we went to the pastry shop, and bought two slices of the Lisbon version of карамелевик (unfortunately was too busy eating it to take a picture). They apparently call it Faitas. It is made differently than in Peniche (Olga says "more merinque" - not quite the case, it more like the dough has a different quality). Still pretty good, albeit the Peniche version is better. Apparently, it's a best seller at the El Corte Ingles pastry shop.
After that, I said good bye to Olga and Tanya who stayed at El Corte Ingles for some shopping, went downstairs (Floor -1), bought a couple of graph paper notebooks, and took metro home, stopping by the Continente for some pastries.
At home, spent most of the evening in zoom calls. Called it a night around midnight.
Steps. Phone: 12,098. Watch: ~ 11,900.
Alcohol. Sagres again - see last entry. Also finally did a comparative tasting of two styles of white port: dry, and Lagrima (will take pictures of both bottles tomorrow, insert them here). The dry port is less sweet, but has an aftertaste that is not all that pleasant. The Lagrima is sweeter than I would like, but is smooth and brilliant - really-really liked it.
Next: Not certain. Olga is thinking Museum of Azulejus. Might be a nice place to visit indeed.
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