The train ticket from Lisbon to Sintra costs 8 euros per person, and it is a great day trip destination for tourists to see the famous Romantic style architecture. The train journey takes about 20 minutes and as we were staying overnight at the village, we didn't leave Lisbon until midday. However if you were visiting just for a day, we would recommend starting your journey early to avoid running out of time. Our first activity was to locate our hotel; and then find our way to the tourist centre - which doubles as the bus stop for all the tourist sites.
Missing our bus
Our first activity was to visit two National palaces - Monserrate Palace and Pena Palace that were part of the
Parques de Sintra. A bit of drama accompanied our bus ride to the first destination. The bus was running late, and after 10 minutes of waiting, Olie decided that he had to get something to eat and walked off to a nearby cafe. Murphy's law then took hold, as the bus arrive and left before he came back. As a result we had to wait a further 35 minutes for the next bus. Mei was not impressed.
 |
| Beautiful Romantic architecture at Sintra |
 |
| The view from our hotel |
 |
| Palace of Quinta da Regaleira |
 |
| Sintra Palace |
Monserrate Palace
The tourist bus route headed up the winding road to Monserrate Palace, which was closed for renovations. Despite this we were able to explore the gardens full of fern gullies and tall trees - a bit like the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.
 |
| Waterfall at the gardens |
 |
| Summer flowers |
 |
| Pink passion fruit flower |
 |
| Azaleas |
 |
| Fountain |
 |
| Outside of Monserrate Palace |
Pena PalaceAfter an hour, we took the return bus back to Sintra and changed lines for Pena Palace - located on a higher hill with a clear view of the valley below. The Castle had a fairytale feel about it; unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the inside furnishings, with a lot of the rooms telling the story of the Portuguese Royal family. The tour of the Palace took us about an hour, and by that time the clouds had descended and the entire castle was covered in white mist, bringing the temperature down quite quickly.
 |
| Old, moss covered forests |
 |
| Stone cross in the gardens |
 |
| Built high on the top of the hill |
 |
| Multi-coloured and magnificent |
 |
| Something fairytale about this castle |
 |
| Inside one of the castle turrets |
 |
| Stone work of newt |
 |
| Beautiful tile work |
 |
| Down comes the mist |
On our return back to the centre of Sintra, the temperature had warmed back up and we used Tripadvisor recommendations to find a restaurant for dinner with some amazing traditional foods.
 |
| Beans and sausage - yum |
 |
| Underneath the onion is a whole octopus |
Cabo da Roca
The next morning we checked out of our hotel quite early and headed for the bus stop - ready to catch the first one travelling down the coastline to Cape Roca (Cabo da Roca) - known as the western-most extent of continental Europe. A cafe and monument mark the spot, where there was little else to do than watch the coach loads of tourists and wait for our next bus scheduled for an hour later.
 |
| Cabo da Roca |
 |
| The coastline that was known as 'lands end' |
Cascais
The next stop was Cascais, famous as a resort used by the Portuguese Royal family and popular with tourists and according to Wikipedia, it was used as a location for the Bond film 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. We hung around the town for a couple of hours - eating at a local restaurant and sunning ourselves on the beach (actually sand in comparison to the gravel of the French Riviera).
 |
| The waterfront at Cascais |
 |
| The beach with real sand |
Time passed too quickly and we had to catch the train back to Lisbon for the route home to London Heathrow. Our four day trip around Portugal was at an end; and we had well and truly fallen in love with the country, its culture and most definitely the food.
**Connect With Us**
This post was written by:
Culture Stamps
If you liked this post, please share it with others using the social media buttons below.
To connect with us and see snippets of our Culture Stamp travel adventures:
The train ticket from Lisbon to Sintra costs 8 euros per person, and it is a great day trip destination for tourists to see the famous Romantic style architecture. The train journey takes about 20 minutes and as we were staying overnight at the village, we didn't leave Lisbon until midday. However if you were visiting just for a day, we would recommend starting your journey early to avoid running out of time. Our first activity was to locate our hotel; and then find our way to the tourist centre - which doubles as the bus stop for all the tourist sites.
No comments:
Post a Comment