A broad abroad: TERRIBLE TUESDAY

Now I have your attention. We had decided to go to the tile museum today and also to a llittle tile shop where they make custom tiles. Our objective is to take a little piece of Portugal home with us in the form of a tile. The tile museum doesn't open until 2:00 on Tuesdays so we decided we'd head to the tile shop first. It was in a part of Alfama district we had not been but not too far from our apartment. On the way we stopped in a lamp store to price little desk lamps as I had decided that I could no longer work in less than adequate light. I found one and told the store keeper I'd be back later that afternoon. As we were leaving he warned us to be very careful of pick pockets. We assured we would be. We walked on down the street and followed Sharon's directions to the shop only to find it closed. We headed back up the street and saw an historical marker for a church so decided to go in and have a look. There was a small group behind us who were looking at a map and looked like tourists as well. They followed behind us and as I walked in the church the man opened the door for Sharon and as we saw a service was going on we turned around to leave. At this point we were walking up the street and Sharon noticed that her little wallet was gone from her pocket. So were those "tourists". Just like that a good day, gone bad.

The church we probably won't return to.

Sharon went back to the apartment and I stopped by to pick up my lamp. I told the owner what had occurred and he encouraged me to have Sharon make a police report. He looked up the address of a police station that is in the area that deals only with tourists.

Back at the apartment Sharon was busy making a call to BofA to report her credit card stolen and also to advise USAA that she would be using their CC in Porugal and Spain. That done, we walked to the police station and Sharon filled out a report. Generally the thiefs only want the money and throw everything else away. Every once in a while people recover the items and return them to the station. Sharon's military ID card as well as her transportation card to which she had just added an additional 10 euro and about 100 euro's in cash were all gone as well. Fortunatelly before we left the states we went and got new ID cards that no longer use SSN's. I also tried to cheer Sharon up by telling her it could have been a lot worse. She could have had her drivers license stolen and then I would have had to drive in Europe and that would not have been good if we could only get a standard transmission . I also made the comparison of losing my blog to losing her wallet. Then I told her about all the nice tourists we met at the police station. Nothing seemed to brighten her day at that moment.

After all the reporting and calling had been done we decided to set out to the tile museum. We were not going to let lousy old pick pockets ruin our entire day. We got the bus which took us a little way out of the city center for sure. We looked around and finally spotted a building with a sign on it that indicated it was the museum.

As you can see it is a very very run down building on the exterior. We learned it was the former convent of Madre de Deus. The exterior was rundown but the contents of the museum were well worth the trip.The buildings of the convent which were renovated after the earthquake had its interiors turned into one of the most magnificent in the city.

You'll see this later.

The collection is the only one of its kind in the world and contains tiles from as early as the 15th century.

I stopped to admire these beautiful medallions of Saints John, Luke, Mark and Matthew.

As I entered the next door I saw something I was not expecting to see in the tile museum but then I didn't know it had been a convent at one time either.

The splendor and opulence of the chapel dedicated to St. Anthony and the chapter house is particularly impressive. Noteworthy amid the rich decoration are panals in the ceiling with gilt frames set with paintings, including portraits of King Joao III and queen Catherine of Austria.

The Chapter House.

Beautiful floors and

ceilings.

Other parts of the museum.

The Dance Lesson by Willem van der Kloet, Amsterdam, 1707

Maritime and country scene.

Jut a little of the Moorish influence is seen in this center courtyard.

Last but certainly not least is this composition of Lisbon before the earthquake. Made in 1738 it is made up of 1300 tiles and is 75 fert in length. Of course I could only capture a portion of it.

Some close up scenes.

The Jeronimos.

The courtyard which I'm sure in summer is quite beauitful with the roses in bloom and probably the fountain working. Its so sad to see such a beautiful building needing so much work. Since joining the EU Portugal's economy is improving and much work is being in the city. Hopefully one day this building will see some rehab.

The museum had a lovely cafe and gift shop. We looked around in the shop for a tile but couldn't find one. In fact there were very few tiles on display so we went and had a litte coffee.

An outside eating area that was empty today but quite nice.