{"id":1843,"date":"2016-04-02T03:19:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T09:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2016-04-02T03:19:02","modified_gmt":"2016-04-02T09:19:02","slug":"disneyland-and-surf-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=1843","title":{"rendered":"Disneyland and Surf City!"},"content":{"rendered":"
It is not uncommon for every town to have a special pastry.\u00a0 After a visit to the local bakery for the town’s “aqueijada”, a scrumptious petite\u00a0flaky\u00a0pastry flavored with\u00a0cinnamon, our first stop was the storybook Palacio de Pena from the 19th century. \u00a0It is a sight to beholden. The drive up to the castle was on a long, very narrow and winding road and quite eventful with its bends and turns which amps up one to a breathtaking image of this mythical residence. \u00a0It is a so-called “romanticist” palace that looks like it could have been created by Walt Disney and plopped right in the middle of Disneyland. \u00a0For history buffs, King Ferdinand built it in the 19th century as a summer retreat. \u00a0The palace features everything a “Disneyland\/fairytale” palace needs: \u00a0drawbridges, turrets, ramparts, domes, numerous intriguing gargoyles, all washed in an array of pastel colors. \u00a0The exterior has a number of styles: \u00a0Neo-Gothic, Islamic and Neo-Renaissance. \u00a0The interior is decorated in gaudy Victorian and Edwardian styles. \u00a0The interesting fact about the palace is that King Fernando II purchased the ruins of a monastery here and adapted it and added on to for use as a residence according to his “romantic” taste.<\/div>\n
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We headed to the historical center of Sintra for lunch. \u00a0Since it was not quite noon, many of the restaurants were not open. \u00a0One of the restaurant options, was a French restaurant right in the middle of the square-we knew it was going to be a tourist trap;however, we reluctantly entered. \u00a0Big mistake! \u00a0In many foreign countries, you pay for any extras such as bread. \u00a0That is fine with us. \u00a0We were asked if we wanted bread and we said yes. \u00a0The waiter then proceeded to bring out bread, olives, cheese and prosciutto. \u00a0Needless to say, we “dug in” for a whopping $30 “price of bread” plus our mediocre lunch! \u00a0A lesson learned. . . turn down anything other than bread and don’t go to an obvious tourist- trap restaurant.<\/div>\n
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Apres lunch, we drove by a few more spectacular castles in Sintra and headed to the lighthouse and rocky bluffs of Cabo de Roca. \u00a0It is Europe’s westernmost point. \u00a0We also briefly visited the famous surfing beach, Guincho Beach and stopped at Boca de Inferno (a.k.a Hell’s Mouth). \u00a0It a chasm located in the seaside cliffs. Especially during inclement weather, the waves strike the cave walls in a violent explosive manner. \u00a0We continued our drive down the coast to the famous former fishing town of Caiscais which is now a trendy vacation getaway and Estoril which is known for it’s casino.<\/div>\n
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This evening we listened to some interesting fado music sung by a very masculine but sonsy woman while dining on Portuguese fare of potatoes and fish.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\"Buying<\/a>
Buying local pastries at 250 year old backery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Disney<\/a>
Disney palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sea<\/a>
Sea monsters!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sintra,<\/a>
Sintra, a lovely town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Disney<\/a>
Disney palace as seen from another palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Most<\/a>
Most western point in Continental Europe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another vacation home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This one even has a water feature!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Love<\/a>
Love those beach artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our Fado singer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not uncommon for every town to have a special pastry.\u00a0 After a visit to the local bakery for the town’s “aqueijada”, a scrumptious petite\u00a0flaky\u00a0pastry flavored with\u00a0cinnamon, our first stop was the storybook Palacio de Pena from the 19th century. \u00a0It is a sight to beholden. The drive up to the castle was on … Continue reading Disneyland and Surf City!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-tJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1858,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions\/1858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}