Background: Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil as a colony. A 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six decades, repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a left-wing military coup installed broad democratic reforms. The following year, Portugal granted independence to all of its African colonies. Portugal is a founding member of NATO and entered the EC (now the EU) in 1986.
April 29th 2008Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra Went on a day trip to Sintra today. Sintra is a town about 30kms away. We got the train which was a bargain €1.65 each way. Why aren't trains at home this cheap?
We visited a really cool castl ... 4 photos[full story]
April 27th 2008Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra Went to Sintra yesterday. A 35 Mins train journey from the Rossio station took me to the Sintra station. From the Sintra station we took a 2 way hop ticket for the bus #434, which took us to the Pena ... [full story]
March 25th 2008Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra Hi Friends and Family,
We were going on a day trip to Sintra. Sintra is the former summer residence of Portuguese royalty and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995. It boasts two extraordinary pa ... 35 photos[full story]
January 26th 2008Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra SINTRA-UNESCO'S SECRET GARDEN
I've always wanted to go to Portugal...I don't know why, but something always drew me to this country. Maybe it's because of it's heritage and history, of all the trav ... 34 photos[full story]
January 28th 2008Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra After the rugged walk through the Moorish Castle we get to the fairyland atmosphere of the Palace of Pena!
The artist king consort Don Fernando II completed contruction of this fanciful palace arou ... 25 photos[full story]
January 27th 2008Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra
That's the question the receptionist asked me when I checked us out of the hotel, just outside Lisbon. My answer "yes. of course!" And that was before we had actually been into Lisbon. Before we ... 26 photos[full story]
December 27th 2007Europe » Portugal » Lisbon & Tagus Valley » Sintra After a late morning, we got to see our beautiful hotel during the daylight. After a brief walk around the grounds (includes a monastery and golf course) we started off to Sintra. We started off wit ... 18 photos[full story]
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