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Excursion to Sintra
Tuesday 28th - 14:00 - 19:00 (Bus leaves from Novotel at
14:00)
Board the private coach in direction to Sintra, a small village
built against the northern slope of the "Serra de Sintra" mountains.
Sintra is well-known by its charming narrow roads enveloped in lush
greenery, its climbing flowers and the semi-tropical vine-like
plants trailing from mossy walls and balconies. Noble houses and
palaces with walled gardens and stately courtyards are scattered
through out the forested hills, reveling in the soft, cool
micro-climate that the mountain position brings upon the town and
the surrounding area.
The district that is now covered by the Borough of Sintra has been
inhabited by man for a very long time indeed. The privileged
geographical and environmental situation has over the ages attracted
and fixed settlers. Numerous archaeological remains, including
prehistoric and protohistoric tombs, testify to its antiquity.
Sintra has remained even nowadays the "noble town surrounded by many
estates, pleasant woods with plentiful springs of excellent water",
referred to by various old authors.
A tourist region par excellence, Sintra is one of the most
delightful places to be found in Portugal. With its extensive range
of green bills with its crags - the Serra de Sintra - so
picturesquely situated and offering stupendous views of the
coastline with its impressive beauty, Sintra is indeed "a garden of
the earthly paradise".
The potentialities of the Sintra district are not confined to the
wild enchantments of the Serra, sometimes wreathed in mist, and to
the artistic heritage of the Old Town, described by Byron as "the
most pleasing in Europe", but also include valuable archaeological
remains, particularly from the Roman period, ancient manor houses,
churches of personalised artistic value and characteristic villages.
In Sintra, we will visit the National Town Palace (also known as
"Palacio da Vila").
Consisting of various bodies built during the course of successive
epochs on the so-called "Chão da Oliva", the Paço da Vila de Sintra
is one of the most important examples of regal architecture in
Portugal and for that reason is classified as a National Monument.
This gradual multiplication of buildings, with different styles, is
largely responsible for the enigmatic enchantment of this ancient
palace, dominated by great twin chimneys atop the kitchen that
constitute as authentic ex-libris of Sintra.
After the Reconquest, the Palace passed into the possession of the
Crown and was considerably enlarged, not only in the reign of Dom
Dinis - who in 1281 laid down that the conservation of the Palace
should be entrusted to the enfranchised Moors of Colares -but
especially in the reigns of Dom João I (1385-1433) and Dom Manuel
(1495-1521).
Of special note, apart form the elements of Gothic, Mudejar,
Manueline and Renaissance architecture, are the wonderful azulejos
(coloured glazed tiles) from the 15th and 16th Centuries in various
halls and patios, and in the Royal Chapel.
From Sintra we will keep on to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point
of Continental Europe, which the poet Camões defined as "where the
land ends and the sea begins". Its geographical coordinates are:
Latitude - 38' 47' North; Longitude - 9' 30' West; Altitude - 140 m
above sea level.
After Cabo da Roca, we will go to pass through Guincho and its wild
beaches of white sand and finally Cascais, the well known seaside
resort and fishing port.
Finally, we return to Lisbon passing through Estoril, famous for its
mild climate, luminous skies and also for its Casino.
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