I came across a telephone box and a letter box that were straight out of England. One is painted white which just isn't cricket - what! and the other looks identical in shape and colour. Perhaps thats why his Ludship felt so at home in Sintra.
From this super little village full of souvenir and cake shops, which were far too tempting to resist, there is an excellent bus service to carry you up to two castles. The first is the remains of a Moorish creation, over a 1000 years old, high above Sintra. The views are great, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Moorish Castle. Sintra down on the right. |
One German visitor remarked to me that it is every child's vision of a fairy castle and looking at it, I had to agree with him.
Continuing on the bus, we arrive at the incredible Pena Castle which is perched on a rocky peak, slightly higher. This highly stylized mountain top embellishment came from the over active brain cells of an aristocrat with money to burn, or with money that grows like grass, as the German so aptly put it. The ideas for the design came out of Moorish architecture, Baroque and Gothic, along with a few odd ones of his own. Its built over the remains of a monastery which was badly damaged by an earth quake in the eighteenth century.
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| Walt Disney could have had a hand in this! |
This area was inhabited long before the Moores made their presence felt. There has been a bit of careful digging going on and an ancient burial place has been found. Maybe its advisable to keep dogs on leads here.
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| The Skull and Bucket. A good name for a pub! |
Just another picture, of a ghoulish sea monster guarding an entrance at the Pena Castle. It would turn any man's socks cold.
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| Sea monster |
And finally, the movie you have all been waiting for. Pena Castle.
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