Palace fit for a queen in Sintra

What a great sleep last night. This town is so tiny, and we are a couple of cobblestone “blocks” up from the “main” street, so no traffic at all, I did hear the birds this morning, that was it. As great as the apartment in Porto was, it is hard sleeping with all the traffic when you are used to quiet.

First off this morning was driving to Sintra. Not a long drive from here so we decided to wait until there to grab some breakfast. Went into a little coffee shop in the town of Sintra, I think we were off the main drag as no English at all. What we thought were crescents were more like bread, and a couple of chocolate milk and we were ready for the day. From here the GPS took us to one of the castles, or it was supposed to, the road we ended up on was the worst we have been on yet, oh the adventures of GPS. Thank goodness we didn't run into anyone else, someone would have had to back up to one of the little turn outs, and it wouldn't have been me, it was so steep. Anyway found our way out of there, and put it to take us to the tourist information centre. Wow, the tourists when we reached the main part of town, this is like Banff in the summer, not a place to park, and it isn't even high season. I think because this is so close to Lisbon they must get a lot of day trippers out to here. I waited in the car in a no parking zone while Andre ran across to find us a decent map. Back on track and off we go.

Sintra has a couple of palaces and a Moor castle. We chose to go to the Pena Palace, wow this was amazing. Driving into town we could see this perched up on top of a very high mountain. On the drive up we saw quite a few people walking up, I would not have done this, you would spend half the day getting up to the palace! We did opt to walk up from the parking lot, they have a train that costs 2 Euro each way to take you up, but it was not a bad walk up at all. I have never seen anything like this place, it was build as a summer residence for the royals, and whoever built it must have been dreaming about fairies and whimsical adventures. The rooms aren't very big, it was really meant as a vacation home, not so much a place to entertain. The views are spectacular, lots of balconies. watchtowers and walls to go out on. The turrets will hopefully make for some great pictures, and all different colours. It was extremely windy today again, and little showers off and on, but still lots of fun to explore outside. The gardens around the castle are fantastic. You can buy a pass just to do the gardens, not go into the palace. They call them gardens, we would more call them grounds, they are not manicured, just beautiful wild flowers everywhere, you walk along a path and come across a sculpture, a fountain, or a little bench, very beautiful, you could easily spend the whole day just in the gardens. We walked up to the highest point in Sintra which is within the grounds at 530 m, a very nice view of the palace from here, but lots up uphill climbing.

Pena Palace from a distance on top of the hill

Our first close view of the palace

Draw bridge entrance

Prince Andre ha ha

View of Moor castle from palace

So windy!!  A few knots to untangle later...

Entrance to palace

Palace gardens

The giant at highest point in gardens

View of palace from the giant

Following the Palace we drove back into town, found a parking spot a little away from the main area and went in search for lunch. Found a little spot that had the best soup we have had yet, had some bread and we were off again.

Sintra national palace and square

We then drove to Estoril and Cascais, these two towns are right beside each other on the coast. We parked in Estoril and walked along the boardwalk towards Cascais, not sure if we ever made it that far, but it was a nice walk along the shore. I guess this is a big vacation place as well, there as a huge casino in Estoril that we saw, and I thought of Mom as there is a big ATP or WTC (I think) tennis match coming up here the end of the month in Estoril, I know she'll be watching if there is. Andre said to go to the casino and play 20 euros for the mother-in-law and send her the bill after.

Estoril/Cascais boardwalk

Off to Lisbon next. We took a couple of tries but did find the hotel we had booked at. Parking is crazy, and driving is even crazier, but I was glad to get the car parked for the night and be done for driving. We will not be driving around the city, we will use public transit, so we will probably return the car tomorrow. The hotel is right beside a metro station that goes directly downtown, so easy.

Caught the metro into town for supper. It is 3 Euro each return, and only 5 stops right into the heart of the city, very simple. We walked around for a while enjoying the sights, then started to look for somewhere for supper. Found a spot a couple of blocks from the main pedestrian section and had a great meal. Thought of Symone here as there was a school trip having dinner here as well, they all ordered, and then a little while later we saw plates of french fries coming out, very funny. It would have been fun to sit at their table and try all the things that they didn't. 

Elevator you can go up, maybe tomorrow...

Lisbon

Riley, Papere ordered squid because the table beside us ordered it and he thought it looked good, he couldn't finish it all, you could have helped him!!

Metro station entrance

Metro back to the hotel and time to call it a night. Andre was asked if he wanted hashish on our way back to the metro. He says no thanks. He says it must be the Portuguese haircut that makes him look much younger, dream on. Tomorrow will be another busy day. Andre has picked up another cold, started the vacation with a cold, and finishing with a cold, poor guy, hope he sleeps well and is feeling better tomorrow. Maybe he's already thinking of a sick day on Monday?