The best place that Michelle has ever visited!

I'm lucky to have traveled and explored many cities and countries over the past several years. The best and most memorable place I’ve been to is the beautiful Portuguese town known as Sintra. Sintra is located in the north of Portugal in the Lisbon region. I went there on a day trip from Lisbon with a group of friends and I have to say it's one of the coolest places I've ever been to. Just a 45 minute train ride from Lisbon, this city is well worth the trip. 

When I first got off the train I remember seeing so much green, so much vegetation, trees, bushes and plants. It was beautiful. Upon arrival to Sintra we weren't sure what we wanted to do. After looking at a map we decided that we would only have time to walk around the town, have lunch and visit one historic landmark. We decided that we would visit an old mansion called Quinta da Regaleira which is famous for its unique history, symbolic carvings associated with Masonry and the Knights Templar and its gardens.


It was a cloudy and a cool rainy day (as you can see from the picture above) and at first I didn't have high expectations for the mansion. I remember thinking, “Will it be worth the visit? Should we plan to spend our time maybe going to the palace in Sintra instead?” I wasn't sure if I wanted to be outside. I'll admit at first I didn’t have high expectations.



On the way to the mansion we saw a little waterfall.  It was surrounded by so many plants and vegetation it was beautiful! Take a look at some pictures.  

We arrived to the mansion and I was amazed.  It was incredible!  Look at these pictures of the mansion and gardens.  It  looks like something out of a fairy tale, doesn’t it?  

Walking around the gardens of the mansions there were many little castles like these ones!

But the coolest thing of all were the two initiation wells that you could climb down into and explore.  These wells were not used to collect water but for special secret events.  Here’s are pictures from the bottom of each well.  At the bottom of these wells you could walk through tunnels and caves that would lead to fountains and lakes.  I felt like I was in a fairy tale.

After the mansion we went to a famous bakery called Piriquita and there we had a coffee and a special pastry that’s very famous in Sintra called travesseiro (this means little pillow in English).  It was heavenly! The best pastry I’ve ever had in my life! It was light, fluffy, buttery and had a sweet almond taste.  Incredible!!

(Image thanks to http://postcardsfromportugal.tumblr.com/post/33220985424/

the-famous-caf%C3%A9-piriquita-in-sintra-portugal )

(Image thanks to https://cityguidelisbon.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/trav2.jpg)

Sintra definitely has been one of the best places I’ve ever been to.  I would recommend it to anyone!  Please leave a comment about my post and if you have any questions I’ll be happy to 
answer them.  :)