Mazzy's Amazing Adventure: Walking through a fairy tale.

  Today was a good day. I took the Train to Sintra, which is about 40 minutes outside of Lisbon aka Lisboa (pronounced Leesh-bow-ah in this region). Sintra is a beautiful little fairy tale. A village on the hillside surrounded by palaces and castles. Its where the royal families used to vacation. Its absolutely magical. Of course to get the full experience it would take a few days and quite a bit of money. Since I only had one day I only visited one of the palaces and wandered around the village for a while. There are a couple of convenient bus lines from the train station in Lisbon that stop at all of the sights. Other then the palaces and castles there are several museums also. I definitely suggest Sintra as a place to visit. The scenery is breathtaking and the village is quaint. Its a great place to just relax with a pastry and coffee at one of the many "pastelerias" that can be found all through Lisbon and Sintra.

   The palace I visited is called Palacio nacional da Pena. The Pena National Palace is surrounded by a lush park also. The park and palace in itself could make a full day trip. Its huge and there is so much to see. I just did the palace portion today. I figured I had already done both a castle and a park in the last couple days so no need to over do it.

   There is a trolley for an extra 2 euros that takes you to the top of the park where the palace is. Since I was feeling a little lazy from the last couple of days I decided to splurge and take it up. It was a nice little ride to the top and it dropped me off at the foot of the palace. Now, I have to say, just seeing the Palace from this spot would have been enough for me to snap a few photos and call it a day. Its simply gorgeous! However, my ticket permitted me full access to the palace. Inside and out. I was able to walk along all of the walls to the view towers and turrets. I took hundreds of photos. The thought that went into the design of the whole thing astounds me. Its so elaborate and much more beautiful than anything thats ever been built in North America that I am aware of. I would be more then happy to call it my home! The inside was just as stunning as the outside but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any photos inside.

  After a wonderful tour of the palace I had lunch in the restaurant upstairs. I had yet another ham and cheese sandwich on "polar". I didn't really know what polar was but it turned out to be some kind of pita like bread. I also had a wonderful glass of sangria. I have a feeling I will be drinking a lot of sangria in the coming weeks since its the same price as a soft drink. Here are a few photos of my day. For more photos check out my Flickr HERE. There is also a Flickr preview which is located at the bottom of the page which doubles as a direct link if you click on it. It takes quite a while to get them all uploaded so they might not all be up yet. But they will be eventually!

The National Palace of Pena