Travel with me: TRIP TO SINTRA

On Wednesday I went to Sintra, a historical city in the vicinity of Lisbon.

The trip by local train takes just 40 minutes and costs €5 for the round-trip. As soon as you get off the train in Sintra you are surrounded by beautiful views, numerous palaces, castles, villas and gardens. I had plenty of opportunities to take pictures that I am sharing with you here now:

_{A view on the way from the train station. The white building on top is the Sintra National Palace (Palácio Nacional de Sintra). This photo is also my submission to #streetphotography run by @photocontests.}

_{A closer look at the Sintra National Palace (Palácio Nacional de Sintra).}

The view that one can enjoy from the palace:

_{You can see the remains of the Moorish Castle on top of the mountrain.}

From the historical centre of the city I went on to explore Quinta da Regaleira – a place with beautiful gardens, streams, ponds, tunnels and caves, and an old castle. There I met up with a few friends and from then on we explored the place together:

_{One of the two ‘Initiation Wells’.}

_{The palace.}

_{View from the palace over the gardens.}

Then we had a lunch back in the city centre and after that I took a solitary climb on foot – the equivalent of climbing about 150 floors – towards the Pena Palace (Palácio da Pena). The rest of the group took a bus (cheaters!).

_{The Pena Palace in all its glory.}

The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal (from Wikipedia). Here’s more pictures of the castle and the surrounding gardens:

_{When you buy a ticket you also get a brochure and a map.}

The views opening from the castle walls over surrounding fields, towns and villages – all the way down to the ocean – are tuly majestic. It almost feels like you are looking down on the landscape from an airplane window:

Interior of the palace’s kitchen halls:

The photos in this post are my own and were taken with my smartphone camera, Nokia 7 Plus with ZEISS optics

I hope you enjoyed visiting Sintra and its palaces and parks with me. Thank you for checking out my post!

---