Many thanks for dropping by folks, this is still part of our 2013 trip and .it s bringing back some lovely memories.
After the visit to Queluz Palace on our wild ride north we stopped off at Sintra for a tor of the town and the Palace. These 17th, 18th century Portuguese aristocracy certainly knew how to splash their wealth around.
Being Portugal, one can see the Moorish influence on the architecture.
Glazed tile are a very common feature in the architecture and decoration of not only the aristocratic buildings but also form major features in public and private buildings and dwellings.
This interesting ancient Chinese ivory carving is priceless and from what we were lead to believe, cannot be moved for fear of it falling apart.
Here we have the kitchen and an outside view of the chimneys which actually form the ceiling to the whole kitchen area, the two cones towering upward some 30 meters.
Following our lunch stop at Sintra Palace, we continued to head north making another stop at the university town of Coimbra which is also renowned for St. Michael's Chapel with its striking organ and horizontal organ pipes, the whole structure mounted on the chapel wall.
This is the Joanine Library which was founded in the late 1200's this building being constructed in the 18th Century. Again note the extensive use of glazed tiles.
We were also serenaded by some of the students all sporting the traditional university uniform.