Portugal (Sintra, Cascais) - April, 2011

If Lisbon is the political center of Portugal, then Sintra must be the cultural center! Never before we did see so many beautiful palaces in the same place! The day we spent in Sintra, we visited the Sintra National Palace, the Quinta da Regaleira Palace, and finally the Pena Palace.

Overall, Sintra is heavily influenced by Moorish culture. There are plenty of beautifully decorated Arab rooms in each of the palaces. It reminded us of Granada.

We first visited the Sintra National Palace, which is located at the foot of the moutain. The palace was used from the 15th to 19th century by the King. The palace has a simple white and yellow outside, and has many elaboratively designed rooms inside. What is most special about this palace is its huge kitchen. It has two huge chimneys that stands out from the rest of the Sintra town.

We also visited Quinta de Regaleira Palace, which is built by a wealthy man as his summer estate. The palace is huge, it includes a main building, a chapel and a huge garden. Alex and I walked in the garden for a long time and got completely lost. We walked and walked and walked and I was exhausted. >< We finally returned to the main building. The main building has many rooms, and each room was decorated differently, from the floor, ceiling, wall, and furniture. I loved watching the details of the ceiling. The ceiling often has stars and moons shaped carving. It reminds me of the turkish bath we often see in the Middle East.

Our final destination was the Pena Palace (yes, this is OUR palace!). The palace is located on the top of the hill, and has two parts: the Moorish castle, and the palace itself. The Moorish castle extends long walls across the moutains, and it looked very pretty. We climbed to the top of the castle and saw Sintra town from the top, including the two big chimneys from the National Palace. The top was quite windy, so we rested there for a while and climbed down again. I cannot tell the difference between Moorish and other castles...in fact, I think it looks quite similar to the great wall of China...jeje

And the finally, we went to the Pena Palace. I don't know if it is because of the name, or because of how the palace looked like, it feels like home! I visited many palaces, but this particular one, although not as big or glamorous as Versalle or El Pardo, gives a cozy and homey feeling. When you walk around this little palace, everything is pretty but nothing is overwhelming. I remember visiting the Queen's room and the Princess' room, and I saw that the furniture was well kept, and everything looked like it was just left behind. And I said to Alex, oh I can see a real Queen living here!

One day visiting 3 palaces was really exhausting...I think Alex and I are done with palaces for a while now. ^^

Portugal (Lisbon) - April, 2011

The most important stopover in our Portugal roadtrip is Lisbon. We stayed over at our good friends Ana and Miguel's place, and spent 2 days exploring this great city.

When we first arrived in Lisbon, we entered the city through Marquês de Pombal, a beautiful square in the middle of the city. In fact, later we leanrt that our friends Ana and Miguel live just nearby, and we passed by this square many times during our 3 days in Lisbon.

From Marquês de Pombal, we followed a long road with trees all along it to go to Baixa, the old city center. We parked the car, and walked around the old city center. We saw beautiful squares, paved streets, antique shops, and eventually arrived at the riverside. There was a beautiful palace built along the river, from there, you can sit down at the stairway and look at the river quietly flowing away.

After Baixa, we went back to Marquês de Pombal and united with our friends. In the evening we went to Bairro Alto, a beautiful neighbourhood on top of a little hill nearby Baixa to have dinner. We walked around a bit to see the bird view of Lisbon, and I got drunk over a 50-cent Sangria. We went to a recommended restaurant. It is small, with only about 15 seats. We had to wait for half an hour to get a table since there is no reservation, but we had great seafood there. Especially, the appetizer, steamed clams, was extremely delicious. After dinner, we walked around the neighbouhood and had a drink in a bar nearby. The neighbourhood has a great atmosphere, a lot of young people, tourists, and music. In the bar where we went to, the European football league match is playing, and naturally, people were divided into Real Mardid vs. Barcelona supporters.

In our second day in Portugal, we went back to the old city and walked around Alfama. It is a Moorish neighbourhood. It is heavily concentrated on the hills (Lisbon is very hilly and there are lots of ups and downs). It was built like a maze, with lots of narrow streets, dark corners. It is extremely difficult to navigate, and we got completely lost.

After Alfama, we joined Ana and Miguel for a family brunch. We met at least 30 of their family members, and really enjoyed the conversation and the food. I even received a gift as a surprise from Miguel's mom, and was really happy about it.

In the afternoon, we went to Belem. It is a bit far outside of the city, but a very important historical site. There were the famous monastry, Belem castle, and the tower. Belem was in an very open area, with lots of grass, flowers, etc. We first visited the monastry. Unfortunately it was closed for visiting, but even the outside of the monastry was stunning. It is carefully decorated with carved religious figures. We then walked along the river and visited the tower and the castle. The castle was built at a spot where the river was merging with the sea. So when we walked along the river, we start to smell the smell of sea. The distances between Monastry and the riverside was quite far, and we were both extremely tired after the visit. I whined about how Alex always forces me to walk for so long, so he carried me for 50 meters...^^

Since we were in Belem, we couldn't miss the very famous Pastéis de Nata, since it is a local product. We lined up in a pastry for half an hour, and had this amazing desert! (Also called egg tart and can be easily found anywhere in Chinatown if you don't know what that is...) The real Pastéis de Nata is very different from the Chinatown eggtart. You eat it when it is hot, and the dough is much more crispy. You also pour cinnemon and sugar power onto it before you eat, so the flavour is much more sweet than the egg tart.

We returned to Portugal in the evening, and joined some other friends for dinner at a Portugese restaurant. This time, the cuisine was from the islands of Portugal, and was much more difficult to recognize than what we normally had.

Our very last day in Portugal, we visited a palace recommended by Alex's parents. It is in the middle of a park, and it had beautiful gardens with china tiles painted with beautiful patterns. It was quiet and the entire tour was conducted in French, but we really enjoyed this old palace.

From there, our Lisbon tour ended. Although the two days were intense and completely packed with activities, we still haven't finished exploring Lisbon fully. We enjoyed the company of friends and great food in Lisbon, and hope to return here in the near future!