Lisbon – 15th October 2010

Dave and I had been looking forward to our last port of call, Lisbon, as we wanted to visit the Museum of Art and Antiquities to see the Hieronymus Bosch painting, The Temptation of St Anthony.  We knew exactly where the museum was, having unsuccessfully attempted to get there on our last visit to the city, and thought that we would have a very easy day ahead of us, as it was only a few hundred yards from the dock.

We docked during the night, and when I opened the curtains, I couldn’t recognise a single thing in view.  Got the map out, and we both tried to correlate the obvious sights – churches, railway lines, main road – to the plan in front of us, but to no avail.  Eventually we concluded that Braemar was berthed  in an entirely different dock!   And yes, of course, it was on the farthest side of the city from the Museum!  So after breakfast we donned the sensible shoes, and trekked along the riverside for almost an hour, then enjoyed a peaceful look round the museum. 

And here’s a small section of the painting we went to see.

[oops, sorry it's sideways, don't have internet time/ability to correct atm]

Some of you will know that I painstakingly copied the weird little red-cloaked messenger bird onto a card for Marie’s birthday, so it was lovely to see the original.  The painting is a triptych, the two outer leaves being hinged.  It was displayed in a glass case in the centre of the room.  We stood for absolutely ages in front of it, looking at all the fine (and disturbing) detail, only moving on when the call of Portugese custard tarts became too strong to ignore.   Refreshed, we did the return route march back to the ship, where I had a good look at the cards we’d bought of the painting – the two end panels of the triptych folded inwards, just like the real thing, and the reverse of these two panels was also painted, but in a much more conventional religious style, presumably so that when they are closed they would not cause offence.  We’d never thought to look round the back of the glass display case!  Now, next time we’re in Lisbon, we’ll have to make a return visit to see the whole thing!

Weather had been grey in the morning, but by the time of our mid-afternoon sail-away we had bright blue skies. We opened the adjoining balcony doors and stood with Julie and Dave to watch the Lisbon riverside sights pass in front of us.  Cunard’s new Queen Elizabeth liner was moored near the bridge, a bonus for us cruise addicts!

All for now

xx

Janet