Tuesday, 10th March

Tuesday, 10th March
John and Joan explored Lisbon on their own while Kathryn and Ninian went further afield, taking the train out to Sintra...a 45 minute train ride. Sintra was fantastic, very dramatic scenery with deep lush ravines and huge rocky outcrops sticking up on which there are Moorish castles, palaces and the grand houses of the people who moved there when the royal family did. Some of the most exciting palaces/grand houses we have seen dating from Moorish times ( i.e. ca. 12thC) to Victorian follies from the 19thC. There is bus which takes you to these various places on a hop-on-hop-off principle and this bus ride in itself is a dramatic experience as the it winds up steep, narrow lanes, where there is hardly room for it to squeeze through between the walls, and round alarming hairpin bends,on some of which it has to back in order to get round. Took lots of pictures which we shall have to put elsewhere and create a link to.