Sintra

Breakfast room

Breakfast so early we had the room to ourselves!

Today we woke up super early to head to Sintra, another town close by like Gold Coast is to Brisbane. We started off with the Pena Palace - where royalties once resided. It was absolutely gorgeous, influenced heavily by Moorish designs. The location also once sat an old Monastery and they used the sturdy ruins to build off too.

I wasn't allowed to take photos of the inside but hell it was gorgeous. Some of the tile work, painting and furniture was just so exquisite I couldn't believe it. I did have to note that the bed length and ceiling height were short so I'm guessing they were much much shorter back then. 

If you told me that we were in Disneyland headquarters - I would believe you

Wind rape

Close by sits the Moorish Castle which was right up on the hill to protect downtown - which is where we went for lunch. We got to explore the historical quarter so after having some Portugese dishes, we roamed about. I ended up buying a plate because I just couldn't resist the unique paintings that had been sealed by the kiln. I chose one with a little Bambi in the forest, because its me!! In the big wide world!!

Ronald McDonald

Where's Mummy?

After spending many hours winding through the little alleyways, exploring the resident tile painters' works and eating traditional pastries such as the Queijadas - we headed on down to Cabo da Roca, the most western point in Europe.

The view was amazing - my photos totally did not capture it because it was super windy and cold and I lack in the skills and patience. My camera couldn't even focus on the view because there was just nothing out there but the merging of sky and sea. I've never seen such a smooth gradient between the two. I was also very happy to see that unlike most countries, they kept the place very minimal with just a monumental cross and fencing.

After that, we popped into the coastal town of Cascais, passing Guinacho Beach on the way. We also passed this looming, dark assembly of rocks that was called 'Hell's Mouth' as its complete inferno for people when the tides come in crashing against it. Cascais was once a small fisherman's town but has since bloomed into tourism within the last few decades. However, fishing is still a strong industry so I saw a whole pier of nets and fisherman gear. No smell surprisingly. 

Such a windy day today!

We absorbed in the sea air for a short bit then quickly passed through Estoril, another beach town. Interesting to see that we had the West Coast in view, then as we turned to head back to Lisbon, we had the South coast meaning we were in the very very South Western corner of Europe.

Then we got back to Lisbon, booked transport for another town tour that's close by tomorrow and had fresh juice and…. you name it! Spit roast chicken for dinza!! Also enjoyed some weird Portugese dessert that uses smoked ham but its sweet... it was pretty interesting.

However, we didn't go to our usual joint for dinner as a restaurant salesman won us over on our way there. He gave us a bargain of a dinner with a deal - If we don't like it, its free. So we had a whole chicken and salad for 12 euros to share! The whole time we were at our meal, my mum and him were terribly flirting. I was totally amused as their only means of communicating was with poor English. So you can see sometimes he has a confused look on his face as my mum makes a joke. Yet sometimes when he cracks one, my mum has this ultra stern serious facade. Sometimes he would be like, "I'm so scared of you sometimes your face so serious."

I felt so odd facing a camera into a sea of semi naked people

But yeah, it was such a fun dinner - he sang my mum tunes, nuzzled his head into her shoulder saying THANK YOU FOR TRUSTING MY CHICKEN, even holding her hand oh my god it was so funny. At the end after we paid our bill, I said, you guys suit each other and his eyes lit up like Christmas. Seeing your mother flirt? Priceless.