Recently, reporter, Frank Bruni, of The New York Times, wrote a column about his trip to Lisbon, Portugal. He lamented that, after an all night flight from New York to Lisbon, his hotel room was not ready and the only option available was to sleep in the lobby. Instead he opted to wander around the city, exploring new places. This all struck a chord with me as my wife and I had a similar experience on our honeymoon. We flew into Lisbon after our first honeymoon stop----where else----Niagara Falls.
One of the highlights of our trip to Lisbon was the Gulbenkian Museum. The museum houses the eclectic collections of art and other antiquities assembled by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian.Gulbenkian, an Armenian businessman and philanthropist was largely responsible for making Middle Eastern oil available to the Western Hemisphere. Gulbenkian, had once lived in Constantinople (now Istanbul) but traveled the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in search of antiquities from ancient Egypt, Greece and Babylonia. Over 6000 pieces he found are now in the collection.The permanent collection at the museum displays many of those items. Alxo on display are many of the paintings he collected. These include paintings by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, Monet and Gainsborough. We lingered most of a day at the Gulbenkian. It is well worth the visit if you are in Lisbon.Avenida de Berna 45A 1067-001 Lisbon, Portugal
217 823 000
Located in the Belem District of Lisbon is an impressive statute of Columbus.
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