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Sintra Royal Palace
About 5 minutes walk from where I was staying. A great place to visit especially the interesting ceiling designs. One ceiling was all magpies, another all swans!Well, I loved Sintra . It is a great little town about 28 km from Lisbon. After arriving in Lisbon in the early morning of May 13, I immediately took a train to Sintra and, thanks to the train conductor, I found some great accommodation adjacent to the train station . In the end, I stayed four nights so will happily act as Australia’s ambassador for Sintra having seen all of it!
I walked through the hills up to the Moorish Castle and then to a bizarre eclectic castle known as Pena Palace. So many different styles and mostly should just be described as over the top. Also climbed the highest peak in Sintra, Alta Cruz, at 529m. Not really a warm up for Mt Kilimanjaro!
I took a bus trip to Cabo de Roca, the most westerly point of mainland Europe. Took a GPS reading there, and it more or less agreed with the sign post. Very much like the area around the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland - just smaller.
I also spent a day and a half in Lisbon. Day
Moorish Castle & Pena Palace
Taken from the Moorish Castle in Sintra, looking up to Pena Palace. A great contrast. 1 was disappointing because I chose Monday. Lots of the attractions were closed on Monday. However, I did get to see Castelo de Sao Jorge which has no interior to speak of but some great views over the city. As has become my habit, I pounded the pavements for hours seeing some interesting architecture and different areas of the city. The second time I visited Lisbon was much better. I went to the district known as Belem and feasted on Belem tarts at a patisserie that has been operating since 1847. Excellent custard tarts which were still warm from the oven. Yum! Also saw the Monument of Discoveries (great for something modern) and the church of Jeronimos which was built as a celebration of Vasco de Gama discovering a shipping route to India and included his crypt.
They were the main highlights of central Portugal. The parts that don’t work so well in writing relate to the relaxed feeling of Portugal itself and its people. Even when language was a problem, most notably with older Portuguese, everyone was always helpful.
It was with an air of regret that I left Sintra, yet another place I could have stayed
Cabo de Roca
Me standing at the most westerly point of Europe. for much longer.
Next stop Porto (to the north)!
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Barbara
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Good photos
Seeing your pictures, especially the Monument of Discoveries certainly brought back memories of our trip to Portugal. When we were viewing the Monument, we also saw a preschool class on a field trip. "They were all in uniforms sitting in a circle eating their lunches. Little children are always a delight. And these didn't get in the way of our photos!