A Magical Place

I just returned from my first visit to Portugal in over six years. I had a lot of activities planned but as things often do, those plans had to change at the last minute due to my mother’s health issues. But despite the problems, I was still able to do the one thing I most wanted to: a visit to the Convento dos Capuchos in Sintra.

My Of Magic & Scales series, a gay paranormal romance, was set in Portugal. Even if you can’t afford to travel, by reading this series you’ll be taken on a tour of a lot of interesting sites in my home country, especially those around the capital, Lisbon. Of all the places I used as the background for my story, there was one I had heard a lot about it but had never actually visited. So that became my one goal for this trip: visit the magical place that provided such amazing setting for a large slice of my two protagonists’ story.

I was pleased to find out that I had a mostly correct image of what it looked and felt like. So sit back and enjoy a short photographic tour of the mystical place that the Capuchin monks of the past built and lived in all those years ago.

What I call the Picnic Area at the entrance.

Entrance to the main chapel and the enclave

Another chapel built literally under a rock.

The narrow, underground corridor where the monks’ cells are located.

One of the cells. Big enough to fit one person laying down. Doors lined in cork.

Corridor leading from the cells to the bathroom.

The toilets that scared Aiden so much with a rather ingenious system of flushing

The refectory and table. Cozy and comfy.

The cloister with the fountain where Vee took a bath

Just a path, Can’t you imagine fairies strolling here?

One of many moss-covered steps in the convent

Frei Honorio’s Cave where the monk came to meditate and pray. The one thing I got wrong in my story. It was a lot smaller than I thought.

A view of the ocean from the convent. Heaven!

If you enjoyed this tour, come back for a video at a later date so you can experience the sounds and feel of the place. I could move in today and I am not an outdoors person at all, lol. Follow this link to a map of the place.