So here's Sintra - a UNESCO protected site, for its architecture (Lord Byron apparently liked it). There are a lot of palaces, including this one (Palácio Nacional de Sintra), which we drove by, but didn't visit:
There is a really great castle, originally built by the moors (it's called Castelo dos Mouros), and then adapted and expanded by others. It has some nice intact features and has a real castle-y feel:
We also visited a palace - the Palácio Nacional da Pena (in my head I always added an extra 'n'), which you can walk to from the castle. Here it is from the castle:
And here's the entrace. It's all pretty colorful throughout.
If you look closely, that middle building with the archway, is kind of blue-ish. It's actually covered in tiles that look like this:
The level of intricate detail on a lot of the palace was crazy. And we found out that Portugal has a lot of tiles. We walked around inside, where you weren't allowed to take pictures, and they made you wear your bags on your front, I guess so you don't accidentally knock into anything. But sometimes you ended up on the outside, where we could take pictures.
We also stayed in a nice hotel in Sintra. An old converted villa, in lovely grounds, with a pool, and views of the castle in the distance. Very nice!
1 comment:
{Hooray! A new post at last!! :}
Nice photos and description, Jessica. It's easy to see why y'all enjoyed Portugal so much. The hills and lush vegetation made me think of the area around the radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
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