This afternoon, a friend from Lisbon, Cristina Ponte, took us on a drive out to Cabo da Roca, the furthest west point in continental Europe. A breathtaking view on a peak high above the ocean, as you can see from this photo of Cristina and Sandy at the point.
She also took us a bit north of that to see her home town, Sintra, which is so unbelievably cute, that it is on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites. It was
where kings and other rich folks build their summer palaces to have a cooler place to hang out. It works. While Lisbon was in the 90s, Sintra was in the 70s today, with a bit of fog even.
Here is photo of Sandy pointing to a street named after Lord Byron, who found the place Byronically evocative enough to hang out there.
We also walked up to the Castelo dos Mouros, a fortress built by the Moors during their 450 years in Portugal, but abandoned in the 1100s after they lost the siege of Lisbon. It is a quite interesting place, made even more evocative by being nestled into a dense and lush forest of very tall sycamores on one
side.
And it extends way up onto a rocky crag as you can see from the last photo. Some of its walls look a bit like the pictures you see of the great wall of China snaking over vast mountainous panoramas.
5 comments:
Wouldn't the farthest west point in Europe as a whole technically be in Ireland? Or are you just saying in continental Europe?
Funny, though, I was at Land's End in Cornwall last week. I suppose it's our natural westward urges which take us so often to ultimately-western places.
Beautiful!
Most of Portugal is west of Ireland. Look at a map!
Icelanders consider themselves Europeans, though. That messes with the paradigm all right.
I want to ask about, how can I reach there, as I also loved a lot to explore these kind of places.I felt it's a nice place to be there.
Angelina
Idaho Treatment Centers
There is still a lot of interest in that world here, but a lot of people, particularly the younger ones, would prefer to look toward their place in a dynamic, expanding European economic and cultural scene. In some ways, it is a false dichotomy, both the Lusophone world, linked to the past, and the prospect of greater integration into Europe.
Lincon
Idaho Treatment Centers
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