Posted by Scarlett in Europe, Portugal, SightseeingMar 10th, 2009 | no responses
Today with our new friend Uwe from Germany, whom we met at the hostel, we decided to take a train and daytrip to Sintra (about 45 min from Lisbon) because several other guests at the hostel said Sintra is a must-do day trip. We’ve pretty much decided to rely on other people’s recommendations for what to see/do so far because we came to Europe without planning our activities so that we could have a flexible schedule. Considering how enjoyable this daytrip was, we might want to reconsider using guidebooks and any planning in general….
Unlike us, Uwe carries around a guidebook and had a plan for things to see in Sintra, with Palácio Nacional da Pena being his first stop. The pictures and info he showed us looked interesting and he seemed open to some company so we decided to tag along. We arrived in Sintra about 45 minutes before the palace was due to open (the handy guidebook had useful information like hours and cost) so we decided to walk the 5km to the castle instead of taking a bus.
Paul and I didn’t realize that this 5km was all uphill! It was like doing Vancouver’s Grouse Grind but longer and less steep. Uwe travels and walks a lot so he was used to this, but Paul and I felt like we were doing some serious cardio! The walk ended up taking us almost an hour and a half, but it was well worth it because the scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect.
At almost the top of the mountain, you must pay an entry fee to go into the gardens and get to the actual palace. It was majestic and definitely worthwhile. Inside the palace there are numerous rooms open to the public for viewing, but photography and film are banned and they have tight security around to enforce this. We spent the entire morning exploring the castle and its surrounding gardens and by the time we had walked the 5km back down the hill, Paul and I were both ready to take a nap!
We decided to have lunch with Uwe before we headed back to Lisbon so that Paul could work, and we chose a busy cafe that had 4.75 euro lunch specials. Since none of us speaks Portuguese, we weren’t sure how to order (it seemed like Tim Horton’s style where you order at the counter except there was no menu where I could just point at and I didn’t have a hope in hell of remembering/pronouncing what I had read on the menu outside). Thankfully, a waiter guided us upstairs where they had more formal seating and servers with menus. We weren’t sure if things cost more up here, but it seemed to be the same menu so we sat down and blindly chose a couple of dishes (still can’t read any Portuguese).
It turned out we ordered a small fish (which is served as the entire fish, head to tail) and a pork chop, and both were quite good! After our terrible dinner experience last night, we weren’t expecting much and this was a nice surprise. We also tried some dessert for the first time – I had a Pudim Flan which is sort of like a creme brulee cake and Paul had a Chocolate Mousse – and we will now be checking out every dessert menu wherever we eat 
