I almost didn't go. After spending several weeks running around Lisbon, Porto, the sun-drenched beach region of Algarve, and everywhere in between, I thought: Why not relax on my last day in ...

The castle served as a fortification for the Romans, Visigoths and the Moors, who turned it into a royal palace before it was eventually taken by Portugal's first king, Afonso Henriques.

Already I've climbed from Sintra itself up a long, steep hill, through small villages and along cobbled paths, past the Castle of the Moors, an 8th-century ruin, and on into the park surrounding ...