When
we awoke on Tuesday morning it hit us like a ton of bricks. This would be
our last day of sightseeing on this trip.
John
picked us up about 9:30 and we were on our way to points of interest to the
west of Lisbon. We had requested that John fit visits to Sintra and
Estoril into the days tour.
First,
we visited the town of Queluz which is a short way outside of Lisbon.
In Queluz we saw the "Pretty Pink Palace" from the outside as
visitation was not available on that day.
from
Queluz we headed further west through the Forest of Monsanto to the City of
Sintra and it's two marvelous palaces.
First
we visited the National Palace at Sintra which is located in the middle of
Sintra. From the outside this palace is not that impressive, however,
the inside has been turned into a beautiful museum with many ancient
artifacts and pictures as well as abundant ceramic tile walls, ceilings,
and floors. There are some beautiful antiques as well.
from
the National Palace, John took us up a mountain to the Pena Palace which is
so high on top of the mountain that it was cloud covered when we arrived
and we could not look down a see Sintra.
About
3/4 of the way up we stopped and had to ride a small shuttle the rest of
the way up to the palace as the road was too narrow and windy for normal
vehicles.
As we
approached, we could look up and see the tremendous size and wonderful
detail of the palace exterior. (Of all of the Palaces, Castles, and
other ancient buildings we have seen Pena Palace is the most
impressive).
As we
slowly walked up the approach ramp more and more of the details of the
palace exterior came into sight. Huge towers and ramparts, thick stone
walls, marvelous roof systems and beautiful colors confronted us at every
turn.
Inside
was equally impressive with the wonderful doors, windows, floors and
ceilings. one of the highlights was "The Triton Portico" which
rises over the arch of the door into the Indian Room
We
spent an hour or so at the Pena Palace and wished that we had reserved an
entire day as there was so much that we did not get to see and enjoy.
From
the Pena Palace, John took us back down the mountain and then we headed
west to the Coastal City of Cascais. At one time Cascais was primarily a
fishing village. Today it's main industry is Tourism. Also, many
important people of Portugal either live here or have summer homes in
Cascais.
We
headed toward Estoril which would be the last city we visited on our way
back to Lisbon. Estoril basically exists as a tourist town with it's
main feature being the giant Casino which is the only Casino in
Portugal. As the Casino was not open and we were wanting to get back
to our hotel, we just road around the Casino and headed up the highway to
Lisbon.
The
highway ran along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean and then the mouth of the
River Tagus before turning off into the City of Lisbon.