Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life—Pablo Picasso

Lisbon, Portugal is a very easy city to navigate as a biped. We did it with six grandchildren, the oldest being eight. One thing that stood out for me was seeing the many colored tiles and murals imbedded in the walls of narrow streets. Also the brightly-colored doors being extra splashes of color in an already multi-hued city.

It didn’t take long to realize these little surprises were part of the visual culture of Lisbon. And I loved it. I’ve thought about these nuggets of art scattered about Lisbon since I have been home and I think you could create some kind of scavenger hunt if you are traveling with a large group of family or friends, especially with young children. I think it would help the children to appreciate the surroundings and be aware of the city they are exploring. I will leave the details and rules up to you.

Here are a few tiles, murals, and doors I saw in Lisbon:

Of course, you could buy your own and hire a stone mason or brick mason and insert it into your 800 yr-old exterior house walls and start a tradition here in Indiana.

I will loan you this tile of Mrs. Big Surf and me to get you started.