Big tourist attraction in peak Summer: Take 2!
Today we ventured to Sintra, about 35 mins drive Northwest of Lisbon. After our hiccup in Belem contending with massive crowds, we were determined to get to Sintra right when the palaces opened. Welllll . . . We didn’t execute that plan as precisely as planned :( Late-to-bed = late-to-wake.
For the sake of time, we traveled to Sintra via Uber. Surprisingly, Uber is priced super reasonably in Lisbon. As a general rule of thumb, our preference is to travel via public transport or our own two feet. But Uber beat out four train tickets, so there you go. We left only about 15 minutes later than we planned, but that 15 minutes made the difference between beating traffic and being stuck in the middle of it. There’s one single road that goes up the mountains to the main attractions, Palacio Nacional de Pena and Castelo dos Muoros. Getting stuck in that line of traffic meant that we arrived closer to 10:00am (vs. our 9:00am ambition). At that point the line to enter the palace was already 45 minutes long! This time we stayed the course. We waited in the line, inched our way forward every few minutes, and finally made it into the palace closer to 11:00am.
Sintra Sparkles
Thankfully the girls were total troopers! The Palacio Nacional de Pena is stunning, which helped mitigate any kiddo meltdowns from waiting in long lines in the baking sun. The palace looks like something from Candyland or a fairytale; a mix of yellows, corals, blues, and beautiful tile sprinkled all around. It really is gorgeous. The girls were even fascinated with the interior of the palace (no pictures allowed inside). At one point Sadie said “ I want to live in this palace!”. Paige agreed.
The only bummer was the crowds. People everywhere. Again, to be expected at the end of August. The last time Doug & I had been to these places it was early May, and we had the place practically to ourselves. This time we had to vie for a picture spot every time. Nonetheless, it was worth the wait and it was super fun to share this magical hilltop palace with the girls.
Refueling
After the palace it was time for lunch; the troops were hungry. The palace’s location atop the hill made lunch plans a bit tricky. We opted to take the bus back down into town and hit up a spot that we had eaten at in 2010. Our meal there was legendary in 2010, and we thought it would be worth repeating. Turns out we were sort-of wrong. The food was tasty, but it was overpriced and a bit too fancy than we needed with the girls that day. We rebounded with a coffee and some fun baristas (sidenote: Portuguese LOVE kids!), and were ready to tackle the rest of the day.
Sadie sillies at the end of the meal . . . :)
Castle Anyone?
We headed back up the hill to the Castelo dos Mouros. This Moorish castle from around 10th century was super cool to explore. Parts of felt like they could be the Great Wall of China. It was a particularly blustery day atop the hill, so we only braved limited portions of the wall remains which sit along extremely sheer cliffs! We’re glad we made the trip back up the hill to check out this castle and its views.
The day started out a bit rocky with our late start, but it ended up being a lovely day in stunning Sintra!
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