Sintra

The royal Palace
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We hopped on a train and went to a small village called Sintra. This place is filled with palaces and manors and has a castle perched on the mountain above it. When we got here we first made our way to the Sintra palace which was used by the Portugese royalty. The palace itself reminded us of some that we had seen in Turkey but was beautifully decorated by thousands and thousands of tiles.

Afterwards we made our way to one of the other palaces in the area. This palace ended up being one of the most surprisingly enjoyable places that we had been to on our travels. The palace itself was quite an amazing building, but it was the gardens that really grabbed our enthusiasm. The owner of the property was a really, really rich man. He decided to sculpt his gardens in such a way that all of the places on his property told a story. The whole place was filled with objects and places that were symbolic of a persons journey to discover themselves. We had a mind-boggling, fascinating tour through the gardens which highlighted what the owner was trying to achieve. Apart from the story the garden told it was one of the most stunning gardens we have been to. There were massive towers soaring over the garden and alters hidden deep amongst the trees. There were also hidden labyrinth that led to dark underground passages and beautiful lakes. At the top of the garden was a place called the initiation well. This is an inverted tower that goes 30 metres underground. At the bottom there are underground tunnels that lead to a waterfall and a lake that you need to cross on stepping stones. It was a magical place and really great to explore - a real surprise.