Sintra

While we were in Portugal we rented a car and a GPS...The car was tiny! We are use to our nice mini van and they Audi Wagon was very scrunched with 2 adults, 3 three kids, 4 suitcases, a baby backpack, and a stroller! Lets just say we filled every INCH of the car!! But we survived! This is a picture of our car! Oh yeah everyone we met thought we had a Large car!! It was very hard to manuver this car in the parking garages in Lisbon! (sorry it is side ways??)

We took our car and our GPS and spent a day in SINTRA! We used our GPS to guide us to the Palace De Pena. Instead we ended up at some old, run down, practically abandoned church with no one around but a scary man carrying a big bag of something into the church! Well Kevin parked on the other side of the church and then decided to go see if he could get some help to find out how to get to the Palace De Penna. So we waited in the car, and waited and no Kevin!! I started to panic!! So I drove the car around to the front of the church! NO Kevin! Then I really PANICKED!! I thought the scary man probably got him!! I had my kids scared too! I thought what I am going to do in this foreign country to get help! We stated praying and praying! Just as we were finishing Kevin came out of the church! Alive!! We were so relived!! He had been inside talking to the caretakers of the church! A "hippie couple" that lived in this old church, on a hill, with no one around!! Well the woman was giving him directions and drawing him a map! The adventure was just beginning!!

They told us we could leave our car there and take a walk (short cut) to the Palace! Luckily I could decipher the woman's map! Kev was taking pictures along the way so we could find our way back! It was and adventurous walk through a beautiful forest, as you can see above! We only made a wrong turn twice!! When we arrived at the Palace De Penna there was a major traffic jam! Cars had parked on the narrow road and the buses couldn't fit to get by! So in the end our little jaunt through the forest paid off! This is the fairy tale Palace we were searching for...

and the amazing view from inside! It was gorgeous. We could see the ocean and an amazing view of the valley of Sintra. Then we headed to the Castle of the Moors, walls built in the 8th century! We hiked and hiked all over the walls. Enjoying the view and the beauty of these walls built thousands of years ago. The only thing that remains inside the fortress is the Keep (remains of the chapel) It was very romantic and a bit exhilarating as we walked these thin, steep walls!




This is a view of the castle walls from Sintra!



It was a beautiful, adventure we feel blessed to have had!