lisbon, part 2: belem and gulbenkian

Yesterday morning we headed over to Belem, where a number of Lisbon's big monuments are located: Jerónimos Monastery, the Tower of Belem, and the Monument to the Discoveries, plus a bunch of museums. The heat was hot and everything was pretty crowded, so we spent most of our time in a modern art museum (Museu Coleção Berardo).

The monastery's cathedral was incredible — easily the best we've seen in Portugal, and almost on par with Notre Dame and the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The Tower of Belem is a cool little mini-castle standing on its own in the water, in a defensive position at the harbour mouth. The museum had art arranged chronologically from 1900 to 1990, and it was good.

After leaving Belem, we checked into a hotel a bit farther north than the airbnb (we'd only booked that place for two nights) and headed back out to another art museum, the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, a formerly private collection with a strange variety of stuff.

Today's our last main sightseeing day, and we're off to Sintra!