Portugal - EU

Don't expect to see all of Portugal on my website, please !
This page only shows you my way of travelling around in Portugal, enjoying sightseeing, discovering several historical sites myself, taking pictures, enjoying picturesque landscapings and peoples hospitality everywhere, making new friends, or just having fun. If you want to know more about Portugal, want to see more or larger pictures or have other questions, don't hesitate to ask. Send an email, I'd be glad to answer your request.

Lisbon

Padrao dos Descobrimentos, 52 m - an der Spitze 'Heinrich der Seefahrer' - 'Henry the Navigator' in front - con "Enrico il Navigatore" a prua

Spreading across hills on the north bank of the Tagus estuary, the city Lisbon is proud of its days of glory during the Age of Discovery, as can be seen in such monuments as the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, a magnificent monastery from the 16th century, or the Torre de Belém, a tower built as a fortress near the river Tagus that became a symbol of the Portuguese era of expansion. Many other historic monuments and museums are worth visiting, such as the Castelo de São Jorge (once a Moorish castle with superb views over the city), the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (a national art collection within a 17th century palace), the Cathedral and churches such as São Vicente de Fora.
Old and fascinating quarters with picturesque houses and narrow streets, such as Alfama and Bairro Alto, now exhibit fashionable restaurants and bars or the fado houses, where this typical music of Lisbon is sung acompanied by guitars.

Sintra

Sintra is one of the most magical places I've been, as if wishing to leave us in a state of permanent surprise, enraptured by the beauty of their joint efforts. Known in ancient times as Mons Lunae (the Hills of the Moon), because of its strong traditions of astral cults, still clearly visible in the region's countless monuments and archaeological remains, the Serra de Sintra is a granite outcrop roughly 10 km long, rising abruptly between a vast plain to the north and the estuary of the River Tagus to the south. The town of Sintra still retains its essentially mediaeval layout, with narrow and labyrinthine streets, steps and arcades.
It is, however, dominated by the Palácio Nacional, its main architectural feature and the most fascinating regal construction in Portugal. This is a palace that was not created just once nor in just one period, but instead is the result of a harmonious and seductive assembly of different parks, built in successive phases and in a variety of styles. And it is these multiple tastes and mentalities that have - largely contributed to the strange beauty of this palace. Visitors will feel as though they have entered a Moorish palace, the kind of which fairy tales are made.