The Fairy Tale Town of Sintra

Have you ever showed up in a town only to wonder how you somehow fell into a Disney movie? The colorful town of Sintra, Portugal made me feel like I was in the middle of a fairy tale (sort of like Prague did). Located a little less than an hour from Lisbon, Sintra provided for spectacular views, a medieval Moorish castle, and a gorgeous palace right out of a children’s book.

The first sign that I was in a fairy tale town was, when walking through a park, came across a multitude of giant animals. See what you think.

The next sign came when we were walking through the town and stumbled across the Queen presiding over her people.

The Castle

What’s a fairy tale without a castle? After a fairly strenuous hike up the mountain which the castle sat atop, the old Moorish castle was pretty nice.

I’m the King of the Castle, and you’re a dirty rascal!

Another thing about fairy tale land is that people are extremely tall!

The Palace

Finally, every good fairy tale should have a palace and Sintra didn’t disappoint. Gaining entry to the palace was a bit more tricky, though. After paying €7 for entry into the castle, I was not at all excited about paying an additional €13 for entry here. My friend and I walked around the perimeter of the palace grounds to see if there was a “back entrance.” Fortunately, we found a fence to climb. Unfortunately, once at the top of the fence we realized it was about a 5-meter drop to the ground. As with most things I do, I thought “YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE!” and jumped. As we found out, this is not that uncommon because we met a couple of others inside who had done the same.

As when I found a “secret entrance” to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, security guards were checking tickets to enter the actual palace. This was no problem because I really just wanted some pictures of the outside anyways.

Any trip to Lisbon definitely warrants a day trip out to the fairy tale town of Sintra. Have you been to Sintra? What did you think?