March 21, 2019 – Lisbon

March 21, 2019 – Lisbon
We are now a group of 22. Everyone else has left for home.
Francisco met us at 8:45am and told us that we would be doing a city walk this morning and the rest of the day is on our own. We headed down toward the city center and then rode a funicular to the Chiado district. We walked stopping once for green wine and cod cakes at a restaurant that was a former monastery. The walls were covered with tiles.
Outside the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, was a statue of a man holding a lottery ticket. Francisco explained how the lottery run by Misericórdia helps the community. People believe if you rub the ticket on the statue that you will win the lottery. The ticket is very shiny from everyone rubbing it.
When the walk ended at noon, Karen and I decided to join Hubert and Mercedes on a trip to the Gulbenkian Museum. Calouste Gulbenkian was one of the richest men in the world. During World War II he moved to Portugal. Through his life he amassed a large collection of art. Most of it is in this museum plus furniture, tapestries, jewelry, and oriental rugs.
We took the Metro to the museum. The station where we got on had 4 escalators that we had to take to get to the train. It was one of the deepest subway stations I have been in. The museum was large and Karen and I headed back after 2 hours.
I spent the rest of the afternoon resting.
Francisco suggested a restaurant and Karen and I took a taxi to it. The restaurant called Clube de Jornalista was in a old school building. We were each given a glass of sparkling wine to welcome us. Karen had a cheese appetizer and a ground lamb entree. I had a roasted eggplant with caramel sauce appetizer and a prawn curry entree. It was all delicious.