A Day in Sintra

We had an extra day in Lisbon and had heard great things about Sintra, which is right outside of Lisbon, so we decided to give it a go! I'm so glad we did because it was beautiful. It's an easy train ride from the center of Lisbon and we arrived in Sintra mid morning.  We spent the first hour walking around and checking things out. 

It reminded both of us of a small Italian town, with winding and cobblestone streets and little shops and restaurants interspersed throughout.

Anybody need an orange?

After lunch, we decided to give the Quita da Regaleira a look. Guys, this place is so cool.  One of the reviews on TripAdvisor described it as a huge playground for kids and adults. I'm not even sure what it really is.  I think a castle with a large garden, but who even knows.  Regardless, it was beautiful.  It reminded me of the Secret Garden. There are underground tunnels, waterfalls, towers to climb up and a castle to explore.  You could probably spend the majority of a day there if you really wanted to, but we limited ourselves to about two hours.

I spy Mike!

Baby Maximus and I in Portugal!

We walked around the castle and, like always, got ideas for our future home. #wishfulthinking

After the castle, we headed back to the train.  There is another castle at the top of the mountain that you can explore.  There were lots of tuk tuks around offering us a ride up to the top for only 5 euros, which we may have considered, but I was tired and it seemed like a lot of effort to basically go to another lookout.  Plus, by this point, Mike really wasn't feeling well.  We headed back to the hotel, siesta-ed and ventured out for a quick dinner and gelato before going to bed early.   What a day! 

Lisbon, Portugal

We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday night just in time for dinner, which in Portugal is 9:00pm.  I don't mind eating late and we definitely adjusted our schedule to be more like the locals, but it was an adjustment from our normal 6:30 dinner time.  

Mike found a barbecue place on TripAdvisor that was close to our hotel. What we didn't realize was that it was up a hill and some stairs.  By the time we got there, I was huffing and puffing! Baby Maximus has definitely taken a toll on my lung capacity!

The next day, we set out to do some sight seeing.  We primarily stuck to the Baixa area but our hotel was right downtown on the main street, so we pretty much saw it all. Again, we were just happy to be out in the sun, so we could have seen anything and been content.

The Opera House

We took the tram up to the Baixa area, which was recommended on every tourist sight and book we read.  In the end, it's just a tram.  I thought it would provide some good sight seeing, but really, I think it's recommended so that you can say you've ridden a tram.  While cool, not sure if it's all that it's hyped up to be.  

What was worth the hype was the overlook.  Our walking tour (thanks to Lonely Planet) was pretty much all overlooks with a few churches thrown in. Our last overlook gave us a view of our first overlook! Too funny!

Lisbon definitely has the city feel to it in some parts.  While Berlin definitely wins the prize for the most eclectic city, we did find some cool street art in Lisbon. 

Another hour, another lookout.  You see that tree to the left of center? We were standing under that when I took the first lookout pictures of this post.

These guys had me cracking up.  

Day Two in Lisbon was spent outside of the city, in Sintra. I'll do a separate post on that because it was super cool.  We had a half day left in Lisbon on Tuesday and had planned to go to Bellam, which is another area of the city that has a monastery.  When we arrived, there were tons of cameras and media people outside.  Come to find out, it was a funeral for a former president (the one who got them into the EU and brought socialism to Portugal....a big deal!).  It became apparent that we were not going into the monastery that day.  It ended up being fine because Mike wasn't feeling great and the weather was nice, so we walked around for a little while before heading to the airport early. 

We were definitely sad to get on the plane and say goodbye to sunny Portugal.  I definitely enjoyed Porto more than Lisbon, mainly because Porto was on the water and had a more laid back feel, but Lisbon and it's beautiful architecture was well worth the trip!