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Portugal - Sintra - 2005

 

Here is Bron, sitting on our balcony in Sintra.  The jungle is a private botanical garden belonging to a very wealthy old family; it is stocked with ducks, chickens, peafowl, etc.  This is another story of how nice the Portuguese are and how it is better to be lucky than good.

We drove into Sintra without a clue or hotel reservation.  Finally, we made our way to the old city center and found the Tourismo office.  There we met a very nice lady and asked about lodging.  Well! She exclaimed; our two 5-Star hotels are having a “special” right now for 90€ per night.  One is a modern hotel two blocks down, the other is an older place one block up; both one block from the National Palace.  We chose the latter.

The Lawrence Hotel was built in 1764 and is the last of the “grand hotels” of that age.  It only has 11 rooms and 5 suites, a restaurant and a casual bar.  It’s 15 minutes of fame was when Lord Byron stayed there in 1809.