Sintra, Portugal

Who doesn’t want to go out to see castles and palaces! We were warned that Sintra sits in a fog prone area, but didn’t have much of a choice in which day we could go. Unfortunately for us, as we rode the train 40mins out of Lisbon, it became more and more rainy and gray. Our trip to Sintra, threw us right back into London style weather. Good thing we brought our umbrellas! (or at least I did) None of us were particularly decisive, and finally after hemming and hawing over how to actually get to the Moorish castle and the Palace of Pena, we ended up on the city’s hop-on hop-off type public transport. It is a VERY good thing that we didn’t try to walk up, as it is a very steep incline, with narrow roads, no shoulders, and it was POURING RAIN. Rock face on one side, cliff on the other. At least the greenery was fantastic! It felt as if we had been transported into a magical forest, in another time. At the Moorish castle, we bought a combined ticket (saves you about 3-5 euro) and then started hiking up to the ruins of the castle. Despite the rain, it was really cool. If the day had been clear, the views would have been spectacular! They are not as concerned with people injuring themselves, as there are no added railings or safety precautions!

Next stop was the Palace of Pena. By this point, we were quite hungry (I brought snacks, so I was ok), but the cafés did not have much of a selection. I got a hot chocolate, to try and warm me up a bit, but even that was lukewarm. As we walked up to the Palace, you could start to see the shape coming out of the fog. It is beautiful, with lots of colour, oranges, reds, pinks. The archways are really nice, and the inside is also stunning. Very royal. Along the lines of Versailles. I really like some of the china that was left.

Back in Sintra, we opted for ease of meal, and ate at Pizza hut. I got to use my basic Portuguese skills, in verifying our order with our waitress, as she wasn’t entirely sure who was getting what. Be warned, if you are vegetarian, be prepared to pay more for your food, as most specials include meat or fish. I also tried their lemonade type soft drink, Sumol.

Back in Lisbon, we found a restaurant that would cater to the vegetarians in our group. I thoroughly enjoyed my fish. (It was a bit salty towards the end though). We had free glasses of Port. Tonia and I finished the others, as they didn’t like it. The port I had in Porto (from Calem) was better, this was super sweet! I think that was all for the evening. We may have wandered around a bit, but didn’t really get up to much.