Hello friends! So, I think I'm doing pretty good updating the blog :) for once! I am so excited to share the pictures from our 4 day trip to Portugal. On this trip it was just Fede and me (his terrific parents did us the favor of staying with the munchkins in Madrid) and on the morning of August 31st we took a 7:00 am flight to Lisbon. Even though it's just next door to Spain, we actually changed time zones and gained an hour. So, the picture above is us at 9 am, after having dropped our suitcase at the hotel (right in the center of the city). We headed straight for the coast which is where this plaza is located. From Fede's perspective, all you see is open sea! very cool.
I remember my mother-in-law, Carmen Elisa, telling me that Libson is like an old-world San Francisco and in many ways I think she is right. It's very hilly, it has a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge (it's red, made by the same architect and everything) and the city is just amazing. Colorful, old, tangled streets with trolleys and an air of tranquility. The pace here certainly seems slower. Fede and I both agreed that it would be amazing to have a summer home here! As you can see, on one of the days we rented one of those tiny tourist cars with a GPS that guides you through the city. We plodded along little cobblestone streets, winding in and out of Lisbon and it was a blast.
On the very day of our arrival to Lisbon, we took a 30 minute train to Sintra, which is to the north. It is a magical fairyland type place. Sintra is nestled in the wooded hills and is small, artsy and picturesque. At the top of one of the hills sits an ancient Moorish Castle; neighboring hills boast colorful palaces too. In the picture below, we took a picture of the Moorish Castle from where we stood in Sintra. Then, it was time to actually make the climb!
Halfway up the hill to the castle, we realized that we had come ill-prepared for what is a formidable hike! (Martha in sandals and a dress!) But we kept trekking along through forest and massive boulders.
It was glorious to be amongst the trees and to almost feel lost in the middle of nowhere.
Above we caught a glimpse of just how high we had hiked and we were impressed by the beautiful view, with the Atlantic ocean in the background. This, however, couldn't have prepared us for the spectacular view once we reached the castle.
So here we are --finally at the top, and boy was it worth it. When I finally got to peek over the sides of the Castle, I was blown away (almost literally by the wind) because the panorama from here was perhaps the most beautiful I have seen in all of my life. The sensation was one of wanting to stop time so that we could take it all in and just bask in the beauty all around us: the tones of green, the little palaces and chalets below, the Atlantic coastline which was perfectly visible and dotted with little villages and fields of agriculture....
In the picture above you can see several palaces (privately owned) that add to the magical feeling you get from visiting Sintra.
Here you can appreciate in a small way the view we had of the countryside (and also the enormous rocks that serve as the foundation for the castle). From the castle, you could see the nearby Palace below.
The "Castle of the Moors" as it is called was built in the 8th-9th centuries and has since then been reconstructed a bit. Still, it preserves all of the charm that you would expect from such an ancient structure.
Ok, I'm going to wrap up Part 1 of the trip, but soon I'll post the rest of the pictures. Cheers!
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