Casa Miradouro and the Sintra sojourn

Waking up in our new home was a pleasant experience.It was too late when we arrived last night to take much in but the morning revealed a charmingly old restored villa with lovely  classical music playing while having your breakfast.
Our room is on the top floor and we have a view up to the castle when the 'helmet' of cloud allows. Sintra is know for this helmet of cloud which gives it a different climate than Lisbon according to our guide,Victor.
Breakfast is taken outside on the terrace if weather allows and fresh orange juice with cooked eggs,cereals with fruits and cold meats greet you each morning. What is not to like?
Victor had arranged to meet us at  9.30am for our exploration of Pena Park, the Palace of Pena in Peninha as well as the Chalet of Edia and later out to see the megalithic stones on the headland.
We had little idea of where we were heading as we had not had much prior information from World Walks but Victor drove us to a vantage point and we started walking through a large park established during the Romantic Era under King Ferdinand.
We started at the Challet of the Countess of Edia. It is like a gingerbread house set amongst the forest.It is quite unique and it has a very romantic story to go with it.
King Ferdinand was an artistic and talented king who married happily but his first wife,Maria died in childbirth bearing their eleventh child.She was much loved by the people and they were a popular couple. Ferdinand was alone for eight years before he attended the opera and fell in love with an opera singer with a child born out of wedlock so there was much opposition to the relationship. She had Swiss connections so the house Ferdinand built Elise had cork ornamentation but looked quite Swiss in design but very ornate inside. Much restoration is going on internally and Victor said many of the treasures were stolen by conquerors of Portugal.
It was the home of the second wife of King Ferdinand 2nd who was gifted it after the kings death. They lived here together after their marriage  which was opposed by the family and lliberals and Elise was not liked by the next King's wife so she refused to bequest it until the next generation took the throne and she left it to the wife of the grandson of Ferdinand.
From here we walked up through the park gardens with lakes and walkways,this was part of the Romantic movement to have gardens for pleasure, a place of relaxation and this garden lead all the way up to the Palace of Pena which was the home of Ferdinand but sadly Maria  died before they took up residence there.
The Palace sits high above the surrounding lands of Sintra and it occupies a site containing a monastery established by the king in gratitude to their service and as he contemporary, aged this he saw Vasco we Gama returning from his voyage to the East.
So this Palace contains remnants of Manuelian architecture and Romantic architecture and our guide filled our heads with many details and examples of these eras. It became the Summer Palace for the Royal family.
We explored the palace which is one of the finest example, especially of  Portuguese Romanticism and integrated with the natural values of the landscape. It also featured Moorish  influences. Some parts of the site date back to the 12th century and subsequent kings added to the structure.
We saw The stables with draft horses ,the glasshouse, lakes and grottos and had the park to ourselves.It was quite a contrast after the crowds at the palace.
We also visited a series of megalithic rock structures and found out about native plants and their uses. We saw many cork trees on our walk too.
We ate lunch in a little local restaurant known to Victor and sampled sardines cooked in the traditional way, very salty. We were very late arriving so the waiter was a little grumpy.
After lunch we walked out over the mountain to see the megalithic rock structures dating back to the stone ages and placed like Stonehenge. I enjoyed getting out into open spaces and seeing these massive structures.
It was a long day and we were knackered when we got back to the hotel. My cold was terrible and all I wanted was an early night but we headed out to find an eating place after a bit of a rest.
Sintra is much quieter after dark so we had a look around before eating at a local place with a grumpy waiter again this time because I did not eat all my meal.
Anyway a walk back down a steep hill where you take your life in your hands because it is narrow and flanked by high stone walls, cars barrel down at speed so you need to have your wits about you.