📷 15 ▶ From Lisbon to Sintra hills▶ 🇵🇹 ®️😎

Hey guys! 👏 👏 👏

These are my pics from my recent trip from sunny Lisbon to the amazingly beautiful Sintra.

Sintra is Unesco World Heritage Site with the various palaces, museums and villas. It is located about 25 km from Lisbon to the north-west, and it used to be the summer retreat for Portuguese royalty and aristocracy due to the following reasons:

• Privileged geographical location, just next to the cliffs of Roca Cape, which is the westernmost point of Europe.
• Specific microclimate in Sintra hills range, always cooler than nearby Lisbon, and especially noticeable during the summer heat.
• Exotic romanticism of the landscape and the huge leafy trees variety coming from different corners of the world.

Generally it turned out that Sintra is also a worthwhile destination in its own right for several days of exploration or just cool relaxation!😃

I got to know that some people even want to base themselves here and see Lisbon on day trips. But to be honest here the prices of accommodation, restaurants etc. are way more expensive comparing to the similar ones in Lisbon.

So by midday I met a friend of mine and decided to walk as much as possible towards Sintra, and if needed or otherwise said, if we got tired we will get either bus or train. Our goal was Sintra Hills, few hours hiking with possible visit of Moorish Castle nestled on top of the hills overlooking Sintra...

Lets start the journey 👉 🏃 🚶 🏃 👈

Exiting Lisbon is like the city never ends. Many boroughs are nestled next to each other, so nearly all the way to Cintra goes through an urban area with many streets, cafes, bars, Malls and roundabouts like this one.

Yeap we are on the right way!

We walked 21 out of 25 km see my actifit report and then decided to get onto the train, as we did not calculate that due to the many sightseeings on the way we were slow down.

Finaly we arrived in Sintra and using our navigator went to the hills.

I fell in love with this enchanting small city right away. The vegetation is lush even in the mid of the winter and spectacular hilltop views.While climing up the wooded hillsides we passed by various old styled extravagant villas and surrealist palaces.

The closer we were getting to the Moorish Castle the more signs and tourist info we could see on the road.

The castle is of muslim foundations and dates back to the Islamic rule many centuries back, and later underwent lift up by the first king of Portugal Afonso Henriques who captured the castle at 1147. Much was restored in the 19 th century and it offers spectacular panoramas.Btw it was not built as a defence structure for the area, but on the other hand, as a vigilance of Lisbon and the surroundings!

This is how the castle looks like at its best! Pic not mine. Source below the pic.

source of the pic

As it was already late, we approached it by 5 pm, just 30 min. before it closes up (winter working hours are much shorter) we decided just to explore the area outside it.

There is a small interactive museum on the site.

That is how we saw the castle this time 😂

Moorish artifacts along with some old Portuguese ones were presented here.

On our way back down the steepy hills. Was getting darker thats why we speed off now.

Nature is amazing!

Walking down the steep hills of Sintra we got totally amazed by the Power of Nature!

I was speechless and lets finish my trip with these pics, the pics of pure nature.

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you enjoyed my pics. See you soon!👋 ✋

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