We opted to do things differently on this holiday... signing up for a couple of organised bus type tours allowing us to escape Lisbon and experience the countryside of Portugal.
Our day began at a bakery in the town just before 8am with hardly another soul in sight! Where was everyone? We discovered over the next fews days that the Portuguese day begins late and ends later!! Fuelling up with coffee and the first of many delicious Portuguese tarts.
Only 35km from Lisbon, Sintra is home to multiple UNESCO World Heritage sites - two which we were going to visit Pena Palace and Quinta de Regaleira.
Our bus driver did an amazing job to negotiate the multiple hairpin turns and narrow roads which one must go along to reach Pena Palace. Located on top of one of the hills of Sintra Mountain, Pena Palace is a magical place. In 1838, King Ferdinand acquired the old monastery, the Castle of the Moors, all the surrounding lands and many other estates in the district. King Ferdinand set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family. Construction began in 1842 with a profusion of styles in accordance to the exotic tastes of the Romanticism and boy did the architects do an awesome job! Our guide was extremely knowledgeable having grown up in Sintra, worked within the palace and studied some sort of philosophy / theology.
The tour took us inside the Palace, through the maze of rooms beautifully decorated with amazing stuccos, painted walls and revetments in tile. Places like this just amaze me - the level of detail created so long ago is mind boggling.
As we finished the formal guided tour, we were allowed to explore. Shan and I walked around the palace walls as the clouds gathered. It was a pity we didn't have more time to walk through the surrounding gardens and forests as they looked rather lovely and lush.
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