celebration

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Pena Palace and Cabo De Roca in Portugal

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The previous post in this series is here..

After Sintra, we drove to the Pena Palace. This was a humongous palace. There was a garden on the way to the castle and we got to walk a bit through it with our guide.

The guy who built the palace for his wife did not get to enjoy it with his wife. A staggering amount of money went into building this in three different styles and connecting them. The artwork, the architecture (columns, staircases, ceilings, arches) are all very distinct and different in these three parts. This is a must see for any architecture fans and architecture students.. just fantastic!

This is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. Had asked her to go and peek from that turret structure.. she came out with such a beautiful smile.. while this is all I got on camera, the rest is in my head.

Another favorite.. this was the closest to a “bench photo” for this trip!

These pictures and videos don’t do enough justice to this palace. If you are visiting Lisbon, do NOT miss a visit to this palace.

We met a couple from New York and another from New Zealand and had great conversations with them throughout this day trip. We also took photos for the other group. After the walk through the castle, we sat at the Palace souvenir shop and got some sweet popcorn. Then off we went back to the bus for a visit to Cabo de Roca.

This is the western most point in continental Europe. It was extremely windy and we spent a good hour here walking to the monument and back.

A landscape gallery

and a portrait gallery

a video highlight reel of this leg of the trip

Then it was time to head to the last stop in the tour.. Cascais.. that in another post!

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Sintra, Portugal - as cute as it gets!

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The previous post in this series is here..

Our day 2 in Portugal was a bus tour to Sintra, then to Pena Palace, Cabo de Roca, and Cascais.

This first post is about the first part of the visit to Sintra. A cute hilly town.. we were picked up early from the square outside Baixa on a viator guided tour, and it was an hour plus bus ride to Sintra. We passed an aquaduct that was an engineering marvel (for any time)!

Got to listen to some history of the Moorish people who used to rule Portugal. We got to spend an hour walking around this place with a stop at a local pastry shop, Lord Byron’s cafe and a walk around the steps to the Musuem. We also got to walk up to Uniao das freguesias de Sintra… there was no time to go through it.. just walk outside it. It was a half mile hike up the hill and we had just enough time to go to the top and be back. We crossed some landmarks like Lawrence hotel..

A few pictures..

Two photo galleries.. one in landscape

and one in portrait format

A video highlights reel of this part of the trip..

The next leg of this tour on the next post..

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Old world charm that still exists today - Prague

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The previous post in this series is here..

We reached Prague by train late in the night. It was past 11PM. The train station area was desolate. We asked the group of students who were in our coach on where the Uber pickup point was and they said “you can just go to any side of the station and wait near the steps. It is safe!” . So we got an Uber and went to the Michelangelo grand hotel. It was dark and we did not get our bearings and I could not appreciate the place late at night. The two employees smoking right outside the doorway was not a welcome sight. Then we went in and breathed a sigh of relief. There was no smoke smell inside. The folks were nice and gave us water bottles to take to our room. It was time to go and crash.

We woke up in the morning and I realized San had booked an amazing place. It was a top class hotel. There was a desi restaurant right outside the hotel which was a bonus. Apparently we were very close to the Kafka’s head landmark (literally a few hundred feet). Our hotel used to be a TV broadcasting and famous radio station landmark at one point. The hotel itself had a rich history. The roads in this area are all paved with stones from hundreds of years ago. very few roads have car access. We walked to a main road to get an Uber as we had to get to a pickup point. I still don’t remember what we ate for breakfast that day or if we ate anything at all. One thing we did have everywhere was Wagh Bakri instant ginger Chai. I would wake up and make tea and that would keep us going!

We met the rest of the group for our group Viator tour of Prague. It was supposed to be an all day tour which ended in a boat ride. Prague was too beautiful and the day we spent there was magical. It was like being in a real life adult Disneyland ! Most of what we saw was built in the 1300-1400 AD time frame. I just went nuts clicking away. This day has so many photos and videos that everything will be broken into three parts.

Our guide who was an intense man with 30+ years experience as a tour guide and driver for the rich and famous in Prague, took his job very very seriously. He was a school principal and drill master rolled into one. We made friends with everyone in the group. Our morning was a drive in the van to see things while he took the mic and explained things. We got to take photos from the window.. It was a long history lesson.

Then we went to a hilly area to walk around behind the castle. There was an old church with a bell that had a fancy chime. So we stopped there for a few minutes and walked through this old town area. Eventually we cut across the moat that was built for the castle and walked into the castle complex. We got to see the magnificent church from all its sides, see the parliament area, the place where foreign dignitaries visit (he even showed us the steps on which Indira Gandhi walked down) and made our way out for a long walk to the Charles bridge.

We had spent a good 2 1/2 hours in this. The pictures and videos might not do justice to the experience.. so I am just posting them as galleries here.. San became good friends with this world traveler lady in our group.. she had just come from where were planning to go next and was full of tips!

There are more pictures.. lots of them.. for once I am mixing photos of buildings with photos of people. This was the best part of our trip so far. So feels not fair to keep it brief. The sights will stay in my head forever.. especially watching San be a kid again and spin around in her frock like a princess.. that makes me smile even now as I type this!

If you are thinking of a romantic place to go with your spouse for a 25th anniversary.. cut out everything else and just spend three or four days in Prague! Strongly recomended!

After exiting the castle area we were to walk to the Charles bridge.

A video highlight of the tour till this point..

That in the next post..

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.