Protugal - Sintra

I snuck out for a run again this morning.  Although it was beautiful and I took a bunch of pictures, the ones I took later in the day far outshone my morning phone snapshots.  Here is the one that I think is share worthy.

Yay phone panorama picture thingy!  If you look closely, you can see the castle at the top of the hill.  The thing in the front with the two large cones (chimneys) is the Sintra National Palace.
 After clean up time and breaky, we decided to walk up that really large hill to the castle on the top.  There is an amazing pedestrian only path that goes all the way up to the Moorish castle.  The first half of it is through the Vila Sassetti Garden.  It was an amazingly beautiful walk.  The plants and gardens are lovely.  There was a small waterfall, some interesting buildings, restroom stops, places to buy a coffee, anything a person could want while hiking to a castle.  If we had more time in Sintra, I could have spent a hole day wandering through the garden. 

This was built in 1890 for a famous guy.

The lovely path up through the garden.

Pretty pergola in the garden.


Once you exit the garden there are a lot of stairs.  This part is steep but also very pretty.  Lots of old trees and steep rocky slopes.  There are actually many sport rock climbing routes and we saw 2 groups of climbers on our way up.  Before you get too intimidated about the hike, it took us about an hour to hike up to the ticket entrance from our B&B with the first 20 minutes of walking at toddler pace before we put Wren in the back pack.  We saw two groups carrying robust strollers up the stair sections (which are long).  I don't recommend strollers for this route.  A child pack or a just plain carry is a much better option.

Jeff and Wren hiking up the mountain.

 Once we made it up to the Moorish Castle (Castle de Mouros) it was AMAZING!!!  I can't lie, I'm so excited about this castle!  I really could have spent so much longer exploring but it was crazy windy and Wren wasn't super happy about the 30-40 mph gusts of wind in her face so Jeff and I took turns exploring.  We all had lunch together before heading back down.  It was huge and old and awesome. 

A little about the history of the castle:  it was built by the Moors starting in the 8th century and finished in the 9th and recaptured and fortified in the 1100's by the crusaders.  It was rebuilt again in the 1300's by the Portuguese and restored in the 1800's.  I don't have pictures of it but the cistern and the silos for storing grain were really interesting and cool.  It was really impressive and of all of the castles I've seen in a half dozen castles.  If I was an invader, this is not the castle I would choose to attack.

Moorish Castle and Pena Palace.

Castle wall.

Surviving castle structure with the wall going off in to the distance on the left.

Old town Sintra and out to the ocean from the wall.

Looking down the steps of the castle wall to Sintra far below and out to the ocean.

Pena Palace

What is that red and yellow building?  It's the National Palace of Pena.  It was built in the end of the 1400's originally as a monastery and in the 1700's the monastery was severely damaged by lightning and an earthquake.  In the 1800's it was rebuilt as a palace.

We walked back down the way we came and got Wren down for a crib nap which made her super happy.  I set out on a trek for diapers and a couple of souvenirs for family while she was sleeping and Jeff had some down time.  We had delicious afternoon pastries before heading out again.

The next stop was Quinta da Regaleria which was built in the late 1600's and the park and residence were expanded upon and built through the early 1900's.  The architecture is unique and has hidden passages and strange alcoves.  Jeff and I felt like we were in the movie set for Rivendel for the Lord of the Rings.  It was really beautiful and ever so slightly creepy.

Tower on the grounds with a spiral stair along the outside.
This was a well that you can walk down to the bottom of.  At the bottom is a tunnel to other parts of the grounds.

looking up from the bottom of the well.  Tricky photo lighting but it was really otherworldly and cool in person.

The main house.  It really looked like a Disney Castle. 

Family selfie, yep, we were here!
We finished of our action packed day with a lovely dinner. 

Wren is showing her Fisher Price Little People the flowers on our way to dinner.  She is really the cutest thing ever!

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