TripTracker.net - Western Europe 2010, Exploring Sintra

Prologue: Tribute to the SWC South Africa 2010!D-Day: A beginning Eastfield to Istandbul: Grumpyness at 30000ft Turkish shuttle Istanbul by day Istanbul by night Long walk to freedom Lisbon walking tour Discovering Lisbon Exploring Sintra Fado’s night out The rain in Spain falls mainly on my brain A day in medieval Toledo Madrid on a Sunday Flamenco por una buena causa To Barcelona Barcelona! Barcelona!Gaudi in the morning Olympic in the afternoon Chilling in Barcelona La Rambla To Nice A Nice night Relax, take it Eze Monaco in an afternoon Chilling in Nice To Venice Our first day in Venice The attempt at Venice night photos The second day in Venice The last night in Venice The Farewell Frenzy in Firenze Exploring Florence Conquering the Dome Conquering the Torra Lucca, I am your father Picnic in Pisa A day in Pisa When in Rome…Ancient scorching Rome Welcome to Naples (and its crazy traffic)A day in Capri Ancient scorching Pompeii To Santa Fortunata Chilling in Sorrento Back to Rome Aida and the catacombs The Vatican in a flash The End

jnroux

Western Europe 2010

Exploring Sintra

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Jun 24 2010, 11:35 AM

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Traveler

jnroux
Somerset West, South Africa

Journal

Location

Sintra, Portugal

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The morning we got up “early” and had breakfast at 8:00. We then walked to Rossio Station to buy a return ticket to Sintra (and back). I expected the country side on the trip to Sintra to be more beautiful… however we were travelling among wared down flats for most of the way. In Sintra we bought round trip tickets on Bus 434 (which takes you to all the tourist attractions we were planning to go to). The historic centre of the city is compact and beautiful and here we visited the Sintra National Palace which has the ugliest towers I have every seen on any castle/palace/house. We made some time to buy two traditional snacks at the famous Piriquita. The snacks are called Travesseiros (very sweet but njammie) and Queijada (basically tastes like pancake). From there we walked to the most awesome (awe inspiring, super cool, etc.) garden and summer get-away I have ever seen: the Regaleira Palace and Gardens. My English is not lekker enough to describe this place, it has: beautiful trees, fountains, mountains, sculptures, towers and flowers, as well as awesome secret passage ways and tunnels everywhere through the garden and into the cathedral and palace! For some of these tunnels you need a flash light and one of them is behind a waterfall… like in the movies. AWESOME! The inside of the palace is not that impressive (a too formal museum feel) but it had a floating library… mirrors all around the bottom and it looked like it was floating in the air (it felt like something from Harry Potter). From here we took Bus 434 to the Moorish Castle. My parents decided to not pay the entrance fee and strolled around outside the walls of the Castle. Riana and I went in and walked all along the castle walls. There were a lot of stairs, but the view was worth the pain. Our last stop on the circle route was the Pena National Palace. We only paid to go into the gardens and misjudged its size. After a long day of walking, the things to see (whatever they were) were to far apart and we ended up only taking a few photos of the palace and returning back to Bus 434. Finally we travelled back from Sintra station to Rossio station in Lisbon… a very welcome rest after a day of medieval exploration!

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	50. The End Jul 17 2010, 05:26 PMCape Town, South Africa4 photos Our flight in Istanbul was delay by 1 hour and 45 minutes AND our aircraft dated out of the 70s. No in-flight entertainment, warn-out chairs and very shaky (physically shaking) overhead compartments. Regardless of these things, we were still going home and it felt good. There was a lot of Afrikaans...

	49. The Vatican in a flash Jul 17 2010, 09:56 AMCape Town, South Africa11 photos For our last day in Rome we decided to visit the Vatican Museum, since we did not get to visit it during our previous trip to Rome (refer to Journal entry 41). Fortunately the closest Metro to the Vatican was also on our Metro line and we were “there” at about 8:55. We then stood in the longest...

	48. Aida and the catacombs Jul 16 2010, 02:46 PMRome, Italy9 photos Our first mission for the day (besides the getting to Rome part) was to see the catacombs and the second to watch Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. On our way to the bus station we saw our first accident in Italy (really a surprising first considering the way they drive). I heard a hard sound and...

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