Day 3: Tiles and Castles.
We woke up today with a clear plan in mind, at least the start.  We were splitting off from the group and heading out for the tile museum of Lisbon.  Portugal, but Lisbon in particular is famous for beautifully tiled facades of the buildings in town.  I can't tell you that ceramic tiles were invented in Portugal, maybe they were, but if you've been to an Ann Sacks, it exists because of the artistry invented by the Portuguese.  Even the Tuk Tuk's honor this heritage.

The museum takes you through the history of the development of the tile, from the most basic painted tiles to 3 dimensional tiles with multiple textures and glazes to add reflectivity and matte surfaces, grain, and depth.

After the museum we stopped at the cafe for a quick lunch and then headed off to the Castelo de Sao Jorge (pronounced George).

I guess if you live in Europe its not that exciting that there is a medieval castle in the middle of town but I dont think I'd ever get tired of it.  Moats! Ramparts!  Arrow Slits!

Its remarkable how much is still standing despite how old it is (you could say this about much of Portugal!), replace the rotten wood and you'd have a pretty functional castle.  Separatists take note.  We ran into the other half of our septet and so the girls ran around and Helene kept insisting that after this we go find the princess's castle.
After the castle we headed back to the apartment for a rest but came across Lisbon's large pedestrian promenade which provided some interesting street performances and lots of crowd watching.