Sintra, 20 December - 6 January 2012

Sintra old town - if you look closely you can see me waving. 

Jeremy and Rachel took us to visit the historic hillside town of Sintra, which is quite close to where they live. It is well known for being the summer retreat of the Royalty since the 14th Century - it is set into a steep, wooded hillside and the views are amazing.

However, the hills behind the town host a medley of historical architecture to astound and delight! A seriously diverse and eclectic mix of marvels (starting to sound like an ad for the circus). We visited a couple of these with Jeremy and Rachel, and were so impressed we went back for more after they had departed for NZ.

Sintra has the Palacio Nacional de Sintra, which was the summer retreat of the royalty up until the 1880's. It also hosts a couple of gardens, lots of tourists, and is the starting point for people to see the other attractions of the region. It is very busy, quite mad, and we were extremely lucky to get a park in town - without getting smeared across the walls by the tourist buses. We were extremely glad Jeremy drove us, and later generously let us use his car. There would be no way of getting the motor home up there, and the queues for the buses were huge.

We had a wander around, looked at the view, and had some lunch.

Those two big conical towers are chimneys.

Slightly terrifying slippery streets.

I love my daddy, he is the best da..............PIGEON!!!!!!!!!!

This is the main reason to go to Portugal - Pasteis da Nata - a traditional egg custard delight thing. Yes, the top is supposed to look like that.

The annual meeting of the baseball hat appreciation society - Portuguese branch.

I still have all my own teeth.

Prior to that we visited the Peninha, which is one of the peaks on the drive to Sintra. It has a small chapel and monastery on top,  which are not much to see - but the views are amazing.

We also saw the Convento dos Capuchins - which is also known as the Cork Convent. It is a series of tiny rooms built into the rocks, and the insides of the walls, roofs and shutters were covered with cork for insulation. Some of the doors to the 'rooms' are under a metre tall, so make the occupant bow in humility before entering.

The monastery on top of Penhina.

Jones plural.

On the steps up to the monastery, posing for the Morgan is Awesome band album cover.

The 'Cork Convent' - nestled into the rocks to be one with nature, or because Catholics like being a bit miserable. Too comfy for one of the monks - he went to live in a cave.

The chapel, this was one of the higher doorways.

The strip lighting made for some awesome photos.

The roofs, doors, and shutters were all line with cork to provide some insulation.

On our return visit without the Joneseseseses we visited the Castelo dos Mouros - the Moorish Castle. These castle was built in the 8th century, and was taken by the Portuguese in 1147. It is amazing, the ramparts have been draped over the hillside and follow the contours exactly. As you can see form the photos, the views are stupendous - we were very lucky to have clear days for our visits, it can get very cloudy.

Jane peering over the battlements towards Sintra, and the coast.

Jane, mistress of all she surveys (she is looking at me). Note the relaxed approach to health and safety with the staircase on the front of the tower. Also, the shin high wall on the battlements, with a good 5 or 6 metre drop.

Somewhere, a girl with a blue coat is showing her mum a photo with me in it.

The view was amazing.

Finally, we visited the Palacio de Pena. This was originally a 16th Century monastery that was incorporated into a 19th century palace. It looks very much as if it was designed by some very gifted children, or someone who had learnt how to design castles by reading story books. We loved it.

Built by Mad King Mad the Mad, and designed by an army of excited children. It is fantastic.

So, Sintra was incredible. To put it in context, we spent 2 days here and could have easily gone back for a third (we hadn't seen everything) - we spent one day in Lisbon and felt happy with that.