The last two days I’ve been in Sintra
It’s a magical place nestled in the mountains
I embraced my inner tourist and bought a ticket for the hop on hop off bus tour
First stop Pena Palace
The history of this site dates back to the 12th century. The monastery that once stood here was left in near ruins after the 1755 earthquake, and finally abandoned in 1834 when religious orders were abolished in Portugal. Later in the 19th century the ‘king-artist’ King Ferdinand II and Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege created what stands today
I walked through the gardens
To the high cross
Which had this view back to the Palace
Next stop was Castello dos Mouros (Moorish castle)
Built by the Muslim occupiers in the 10th century to keep watch over Lisbon
More views back to the Palace
I can see why Lord Byron described the city as ‘the most beautiful, perhaps in the world’
Here is his poem about Sintra
“Lo! Cintra’s glorious Eden intervenes
In variegated maze of mount and glen.
Ah me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen,
To follow half on which the eye dilates
Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken
Than those whereof such things the bard relates,
Who to the awe-struck world unlocked Elysium’s gates?”