Portugal | Fabulous 50's

Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal is a wonderful day trip from Lisbon. In less than an hour by train, you can step back in time and feast your eyes upon a splendid castle that dates back to the 8th century! The town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the view of the surrounding town from within the fortress walls is…so European!

The Pena Palace was built in the 1840’s and even has a drawbridge. I took this zoom photo of the Palace from the Castle and then we walked to it.

Here is the view as you’re approaching…

Whenever I’m exploring something or somewhere new, I get a rush from the anticipation and literally have to hold myself back from running to it! It’s a photographer’s dream!

The Pena Park surrounds the area (Palace and Castle). We hiked through a small section of it and would have seen more, but it wasn’t clearly marked and we got lost a few times.

Upon arriving back in Lisbon, we boarded our overnight train to Madrid and upon arrival in the morning…immediately boarded a three hour train to Barcelona, Spain!

Daytrip to Sintra (danceflosstravel.wordpress.com)
Cintra: Baby Name of the Day (appellationmountain.net)
Off To Sintra, Portugal (joebeans2002.wordpress.com)
She walks in beauty like the night . . . (wordwenches.typepad.com)

I absolutely love Lisbon, Portugal! It’s smaller, less crowded and more quaint and the pastel colored homes are darling!

During my visit back in 2010, I spotted a man taking this (half) mannequin into a building…what perfect timing!

I wonder what stories this gentleman could tell us?

One of the reasons I want to travel a lot before I retire is that I can easily walk for miles and find treasures like this tucked away on side streets!

While having lunch at a sidewalk cafe, this young man with an accordion began playing for the guests…so of course I had to dance!

My traveling companion and I met a group of people next to us and as you can see…we hit it off! I forget what we were laughing about…but it makes me laugh again!