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April 15th - Day 6
April 15th - Day 6
We took the train this morning for day trip to Sintra, a city that has been occupied for over 12,000 years. Today, its ancient castles, extravagant palaces and stunning scenery has resulted in the city to be listed with UNESCO as a world heritage site. We were excited to have an opportunity to visit it ourselves.
We took the train this morning for day trip to Sintra, a city that has been occupied for over 12,000 years. Today, its ancient castles, extravagant palaces and stunning scenery has resulted in the city to be listed with UNESCO as a world heritage site. We were excited to have an opportunity to visit it ourselves.
Our trip began on a grafitti "customized" train that us on an hour-long journey to Sintra, east of Lisbon.
A tourist-filled bus took us up the mountain along a narrow switch-back road, delivering us to our first of two major destinations of the day, the fabled Palácio da Pena (Pena Palace) . It was built on the ruins of a 16th century monastary that had been destroyed in the same earthquake that leveled most of Lisbon in 1755. The builder was a German-born, rather romantic prince, Prince Ferdinand, who completed this rather Disneyewque castle in 1854. Wikipedia indicates that it is now one of the most visited sites in Portugal. Judging by the lineups we experienced today... we agree.
The castle's colorful exterior has been restored in the 20th century to what it was when King Ferdinand created it.
A few other visitors who joined us today.
But, remarkably, we found some intimate moments, such as this lovely spot at one of the Castle's turrents. And the cafeteria was amazingly quiet given the massive number of tourists only a few steps away.
The castle's kitchen. Although we paid 42 Euros for tickets, we didn't make it into the interor of the castle. There were simply too many people going through the main gate. It would have taken us hours to just get through the castle!
Instead, we walked up a lovely path through the woods ...
... through a doorway cut into a stone wall,
.. and into the beautiful, and enchanting ruins of an even older castle situated on a nearby hillside.
Views from the castle are breathtaking.
More photos of the castle can be seen in the gallery at the end of this page.
A tomb from the time of King Ferdinand II, who rebuilt part of the Castle of the Moors after it was damaged during the 1755 earthquake. In it are remains that were unearthed from even older graves, discovered during reconstruction.
Rather than take the bus back down the mountain, we decided to walk down ourselves. What we didn't expect to find was one of the most beautiful garden paths I've ever seen. At each turn we found lovely waterfalls, carefully tended flowers, and moss covered ruins.
After a few stops to take photos along the way, we made our way back into Sintra, for a return trip home. BTW, you may have noticed that I'm not in many of these photos. If I'm lucky, I hope to be in one or two over the next few days. In the meantime, we're having a wonderful time! Stan.
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