One of the memorable parts of my Portugal holiday was a visit to the idyllic town of Sintra.
The history of Sintra goes (roughly) as far back as the 11th century, and it has been appointed a UNESCO World Heritage Site for it's romantic style:
It has a wonderfully picturesque setting - narrow paths flanked by old buildings and shaded by tall, majestic trees:
A famous building here, at the heart of the city, is the Sintra National Palace (Palácio Nacional de Sintra):
The buildings in the surrounding area can seem unassuming, but there are beautiful little touches everywhere - do keep an eye out:
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a villa with such a great view?:
Of course, there are some tourist-y gift shops around selling everything from artwork to little trinkets like the famous Portugese Chicken (the Barcelos Cockeral):
Here's the legend of the cockeral, if you are curious:
(Source: A random travel website)
A 13th century legend tells the story of a pilgrim who on his way to Santiago de Compostela stopped in the small town of Barcelos, in Portugal.
There, he was wrongly accused of theft, for which the penalty was death by hanging (!!).
The pilgrim only had his faith to call upon and he appealed to Our Lady and St James, the patron Saint for Protection, that justice be done. Later, he found the Judge (that was to decide his fate) just as the Judge was about to start eating a roast cockerel for this dinner, and the pilgrim pleaded, “If I am innocent, may that cockerel get up and crow!”.
The cockerel rose up immediately and crowed loudly. So, from that moment on the cockerel became a symbol of faith, justice and good luck and also, a symbol of Portugal....
Ok. That's all for this round. :)
*hugs*,
J
TAGS: Blog, Weblog, Malaysia, KL, Kuala Lumpur, Personal
Posts
we don't have this kind of romantic town in Malaysia huh??? I wonder why the grass is always greener on the other side :P
ReplyDeleteWell, some of our towns are nice too... Just not in the same way I guess :)
ReplyDelete(I thought Kuala Lipis was quite nice....)