A building of tiles in Sintra.
View of part of the village, spread below us.
Weirdo in the courtyard of the Sintra National Palace.
There was an interesting photo exhibit within the courtyard, with pictures of farm animals. Mieke appreciated this fella very much. Later, we were interviewed by a local Portuguese news channel on our thoughts about the photo exhibit. It was odd.
Sintra spread out below the Moorish Castle atop the hill.
The trademark double-chimneys of the Sintra National Palace. This come out of the kitchen and are absolutely enormous.
Those famous Portuguese tiles do not disappoint.
The Prince's Garden in the Sintra National Palace.
Inner detail of a room within the palace. The blue and white is all hand-painted tiles. Simply gorgeous.
Creepy fella
Tile PDA
A chapel within the palace. I was struck by the stark contrast between here and somewhere like the Doumo in Florence--very, very different architecturally.
Pots in the kitchen.
Mieke hatin' on the pigeons. Love this shot.
Interesting Portuguese foliage. (What? You don't find this interesting?)
Waiting on pins and needles at the bus stop--this will take us up to the Moorish Castle!
The Moorish Castle, as started in the 12th century.
Posed!
Posed again!
Mieke makes a friend.
Pan's Labyrinth.
Climbing along the castle walls.
The view from the top.
The Sintral National Palace looked awfully small from up there.
Taking a bench-breaking break.
A timer shot up at the top. This is seconds before my camera tumbled heart-wrenchingly on the rocks. The palace in the background was one dating from the 19th century, which we did not actually make it to. We decided, since it was only built some 150 years ago, that it was simply not old enough for us to bother with.
reflection.
A view from Sintra.
All of the sidewalks in Portugal seem to be lined with gold, erm, interesting black-and-white tile patterns. This was one of them in Sintra.
The lighthouse at Cabo.
Sunset on the westernmost point of continental Europe.
Sunset on the Atlantic
As it continued to get dark, clouds moved in. The cross in the background of this shot is part of a statue in Cabo marking the place's westernmost significance.
