Made it

I recovered enough to make my way to the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, and I am making  my way around  it very slowly. Joy was right; I wouldn’t want to have missed this.

I like the strabismus-eyed angels:

And these 17th-century trompe-l’oeil diamond patterns. They look like they truly jut out from the wall:

But it is an illusion created by skillful painting:

There’s beautiful contemporary tile art here, also, such as this piece in the entry hall:

I really like the exhibit of combinations of two Portuguese art forms, azulejo and fado, made (with the collaboration of many people) by a French artist named Bastien Tomasini who goes by O Gringo. We just went to a fado performance over dinner last night, so I could hear the songs of longing in my head. This is also perfectly flat, although it looks like the hands have depth.

Now I am back in the museum café, having been delighted to discover that they serve small (20 cl) bottles of Schweppes ginger ale. There is so little ginger in ginger ale that I’m sure its effect as an anti-nausea remedy is 95% placebo, but placebos can be powerful, especially the ones that take you back to your childhood bedroom, sipping from a Dixie cup of ginger ale your mom has given you to soothe your stomach.