Sintra and Cascais

on my second day in Portugal I visited Sintra and Cascais including short visit to Cabo da Roca.
I joined a small group tour organize by Viator (www.viator.com). Each touring car maximum 8 participants. Which is ideal, it's also fun especially if you can get along very well with the other participants and lucky enough to get a knowledgeable and care guide who also drive us along the route.

Pena Palace

Sintra is a town and municipality in the Grande Lisboa subregion of Portugal. Sintra is known of it's many 19th century romantic architectural buildings/monuments and is classified as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Around here you can find Pena National Palace, Sintra National Palace,  Moorish castle (Castelo dos Mouros), Sintra mountain, Sintra-Cascais Nature Park

Highway - on the way to Cascais

Road - which bring us to Pena Palace

The first destination is Pena National Palace. Pena palace is a unique colorful palace, build on top of the rock, a perfect location to get a breath taking view to the city. My personal opinion: this building gives a cheerful feeling with e.g. Red, Yellow, Mosaic combination on the wall. 
To reach the foothill where the palace is located, we drove along hilly, winding but green area.
From the parking area we climb the hill around 15 minutes, but if you feel to weak to walk you can choose to take a bus.

Colorful Pena Palace at Sintra

Luckily I also have a chance to visit the center of the town, a hilly street with cute small shop along the street and of course lunch in a local restaurant, with full course menu. It costs 16€ per person, in the price - soup, Fish cooked with potatoes served with salad, mango custard, coffee, red & white wine, bottle of water - are all inclusive. I did not believe it either after I paid.

Cascais is a coastal town located in the west of Lisbon. Formerly a fishing village, it became famous as a holiday resort for former Portugal royal family at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. Currently it is a holiday destination for tourist and local Portuguese.

Cabo da Roca is a cape which forms the westernmost extent of mainland Portugal. The cape is located in the Sintra-Cascais Nature Park. An amazing view that I normally saw in the postcard or photo now stand in front of my eyes.
the ground is covered by colorful flowers (Carpobrotus Edulis a succulent family plant). no words good enough to explain ... just woowww, and you must come here to praise the beauty :)

Cabo da Roca

Carpobrotus Edulis