June 17, 2015 - Sintra, Pena Palace & Moorish Castle

This morning we got out early and took the train from the Rossio train station to Sintra.

The nice thing about going early is we had our choice of seats.  

Once we got off the train, turned right out of the train station and headed for the bus stop for bus 434.  We purchased a bus pass from the bus driver for 5 Euros each.  Again glad we were early because there were only a few of us in line.  

The bus dropped us off very close to the entrance to the Pena Palace, which was the 3rd stop.   Elaine found out that the senior rate is cheaper than using the Lisboa card.  So for senior citizens you really need to do your homework to see if it would be cheaper to purchase your train/transportation tickets and pay for your entries separately verses buying the Lisboa card which includes transportation and some entry fees and also offers discounts at other locations.

Roger and I walked from the entry up to the Pena Palace, Fred and Elaine took the bus for 3 Euros each.  It is up hill all the way but it is very pretty,

We did meet up with them once we got to the top.

I wouldn't want to have to carry the key to the palace in my purse.  It must weigh a couple of pounds or should I say at least a kilo, since we are in Europe.

This is the last we saw of Elaine (& Fred) until we met at the exit.

Because we were having fun taking pictures and walking the ramparts.

Let's just say I would not want to have kids with me on this journey around the castle walls.  It is straight down, for a looong ways and the space in between the walls is very low & wide enough that one little slip and you are a goner.

But the views were breathtaking.

It was just plain fun!

Portugal is all about the tiles.

Most of the ceilings & some of the walls in this palace are 3 dimensional.

The furniture is a little more modern since they were living here until the early 1900's.

This is the stud room.  A very elegant room to hand your antlers in.

The servants must have been short.

Roger is in "time out".

I can't even imagine how long this furniture took to complete.  There is a whole room of this intricately cut wood furniture.

Time for tea.

Do you want to play checkers?  How about chess or backgammon or maybe even some dominoes?

If you are cooking for a King you need a king size kitchen.

We entered the gardens on our walk down the hill but did not walk through them.

We enjoyed the walk down much more than the walk up.  It is beautiful on the hill.  As we were leaving the palace the tour buses were coming in and it was hard to even get out the gate because there were so many people trying to get in. We decided to take the bus all the way around instead of walking back down to the Moorish Castle.  They dropped people off right by the National Palace of Sintra before making the full circle back to the train station.  They wanted us to get off the bus because there was what looked like 75 to 100 people waiting to get on but we told them that we wanted to go to the Moorish Castle and then they were fine with us staying on.

Once the bus dropped us off (stop 2 after the train station) we didn't know where to go?  No one else seemed to know either but Elaine finally found the entrance.  It is on the same side and the glass room that you can buy your tickets in.  It is the rock formation in front.  The above picture is not the entrance, sorry I didn't take a picture.

The walk is pretty much down hill and some of it is pretty steep but it is a pretty walk.  They do not ask for tickets until you enter inside the walls so unless you want to climb the walls I would not buy the ticket.  If you are physically able to climb the walls it is worth every step.

They show a video about the castle and show where they have dug up graves (ok excavated graves) before you enter the castle walls which again is all free.

 If you watch The Amazing Race then you probably have seen these walls as a team member ran to find a clue along the wall.

 This is a climb at your own risk.  Notice how there are gaps that you could easily fall through and again it is a very long way down.  You would not have to worry about breaking anything because you would not live to see another adventure.  And again we loved every minute of it.  Roger had a little harder time since heights are not his friend.

We met the most Americans so far this trip on these walls.  I asked on girl where she was from and she said the USA, I thought I said "yes, but from where in the United States?" but I guess what I said was "duh, what state are you from?"  She said "Connecticut".  There were some others from San Francisco and of course others I did not ask.  It's a small world.  All this climbing has made us very hungry.  

So it is time to head down to meet back up with Elaine and Fred.

Elaine decided to share some Sangria with me.  But since her idea of sharing is having a glass, I had to fill my Contega with what she couldn't drink.  If I had drank all of that by myself I don't know if I would have been able to walk back to the train station without some assistance.  But at least my legs don't hurt.

Cheers!

After lunch we walked around the town for a little while before leaving Fred to catch the 434 bus back to the train station.  

Elaine and I walked with Roger so he could take pictures of all the art work that lined the streets.  This is just a sample.

We just missed the train to back to Lisbon because I couldn't get through the gate.  Neither could the lady in front of my and the person there to assist passengers couldn't get her ticket to work either, so no, it wasn't because I had had to much Sangria.  The weather was beautiful so it really wasn't a hardship to sit and wait.

After taking a little break we wanted to take a test run getting to the train station that will take us to Coimbra, since we had free public transportation.  We found elevators that can be used to get the luggage down to the metro.  The hardest part will be getting the luggage down the apartment stairs.  After that we headed to dinner.

They sell beer at Burger King in Lisbon.  Can you believe that?

It was Fred's turn to pick where we had dinner and yes he picked Burger King.  I think he wanted something to eat that reminded him of home.  Of course after that we went and got our evening ice-cream.  We thought we were getting back to the apartment early but it was still 9:00 pm before we headed up the stairs, which Fred says seems to be getting longer and longer.  They are going to have strong legs when they get home.