After a quick trip to the grocery store to buy some breakfast and lunch to go we are off to Sintra! After a subway, train, bus and a few hours later we arrived to Sintra. We choose that we could take the bus ride up to on of the many placed, the Palacio da Pena rather than do the hour walk upwards, instead we will walk down. The big city bus could barely drive in ans through the narrow streets. At one point the bus driver had to do a three point turn just to be able to angle the bus enough to that he could drive on his side of the lane! We made it up to the palace in one piece.
The Palacio de Pena is nothing like any of the other places that I have ever seen. It is so brightly coloured, the red portion of the palace is the old sections, whereas the yellow portion is the new section and was originally built to be a monetary. The architectural design a fascination between Moorish and Portuguese Romanticism design. It was incredibly picturesque. We did a walk along the palace walls that went around the perimeter of the palace. It was so incredibly windy that at some times I thought it would be possible to fall off the steep cliff with a big gust of wind since there were no railings! With our view I was able to look out into the distance and see the Moorish Castle. It was not colourful and looked as though it melted down the hilltop. We then had our lunch on a bed looking at the Pena Palace for the perfect lunch break spot. Afterwards, we went inside the palace. In all honesty the exterior was more impressive than inside. It seemed as though a large majority of the bedrooms and exhibitions were under restoration and what was inside I found was rather simple compared to other outlandish palaces that I have seen so far on this trip.
Afterwards Andrea then walked up a kilometer to the Holy Cross, the highest possible point we could go to get a view. Once we got up to the top it seemed as though we were at the top of the world! It has defiantly been the highest I have ever climbed. Which makes it so that the views were not disappointing. Not only was I able to see all of Sintra I was also able to see out to Lisbon and the Altantic Ocean as well! Descending down the hill we went through the gardens, which I founds to be just like a forest. Our walk through transported me back to walking in the wood back home. We made our way to the Pena Farms and Stables and then followed the road back down to the center of Sintra. The town was so small that the streets within it were only pedestrian friendly. There were so many craft shops and restaurants that we passed by and some streets had colourful streamers that hung from one side of the road to the other! It really added to the towns character. We eventually made our way back to the train station and were extremely happy to be able to sit down. The last of our lazy beach days must have stayed with us since we were so tuckered out when we got back to Fernando’s that we grabbed some dinner and watch a few movies. A perfect way to end a busy night and to charge up for a day full of sightseeing tomorrow!