An Iberian Interlude

TML Towers was empty for a few days, whilst the author took some 'me time' in Lisbon; thus ticking another country of the list of places in Europe to visit.

Lisbon is a gorgeous city with plenty to see and do, not to mention great weather at this time of year; which when you are British, means any circumstance in which it isn't raining and the temperature is in double figures of any denomination.

The view over the city towards the Castelo de S.Jorge

 Plenty of my time was taken up with seeing some of the local culture, arts, and nightlife.

Roman and Muslim ruins at the Se de Lisboa

 But I also found the time for some gamer activities.  I mean quite by chance I found two gaming stores.

This one open at 9pm on a Sunday night!  Civilisation!

Board games were about 10% cheaper than the UK , and many came in English or with multilingual instructions.  However, for Miniatures games, 40k, Flames of War, and so on, prices seemed to be 10-20% higher than the UK.  So at least there's one thing we have on the continent*.

I managed to visit a couple of museums with a heavy slant on my wargaming/history interests.  Firstly the Museu de Marinha, which covered the maritime history of Portugal, both exploration and military

There's an enormous number of fine model ships

Plenty of artillery to tinker with

And a hall full of preserved vessels

Including naval aircraft

 Secondly the Museu Militar, is a much smaller affair, and has the less polished feel of the sort of museum school trips seemed to go to in the 1970's.  It has several small displays relating to the Peninsular War, World War One, and the Portuguese colonial conflicts; as well as medieval armour and war art.

One of several Napoleonic War mannequins 

and some of the Portuguese equipment of the period

 But the most impressive thing in the museum would be the enormous collection of artillery, surely over a hundred pieces ranging from regimental guns to enormous siege weapons.

Part of the collection

 This gun was particularly interesting for the clear evidence of it having seen combat.  It had obviously been a victim to counter-battery fire.

Look at those dents and gouges

 There are also a range of French pieces captured at Vittoria, though I suspect the main museum for the Peninsular War is elsewhere.

See below

See above

 There was also a range of guns from the Great War, where most of the Portuguese equipment was either British or French.

A British 6 inch howitzer IIRC

Prior to the war much of the Portuguese weaponry was German, so their expeditionary divisions were equipped with allied equipment at short notice.

It's not a big or especially great museum, but the artillery collection is great, and you can get up close and personal with much of it.  For the price of 3 euros, it was good value.  I could also have took in the Museu Confletto, for the more recent military history and apparently a huge collection of classic toy soldiers; but I only had so much time to indulge.  Maybe another time.

The rest of Lisbon; well worth a visit; and for historians, there's lots of interest.




*I mean, if that's enough to justify Brexit, then good luck to you in your misguided interpretation of economics and the future.

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