A day in Sintra - A must to day trip

Yesterday, we spent the day touring Sintra, which is a small town about 15km west of Lisbon - towards the atlantic coast. This area holds the title for being the western most part of Europe. We actually stood in the western most room of the western most castle in all of Europe! The tourist center even gives out certificates if you stay for sunset since you are the last in Europe to watch it go down! 

We started off our day by going to Pastelaria Suica for some yummy treats and cafe. Then we boarded the train in Rossio and headed out to Sintra. This was the resort town for the King back in the day and now it is still a rich coastal area. 


We started by walking up to the old village area and on the way we passed some sort of happy government protest. There was music coming fro the loudspeakers, but all the police were on strike sitting around. Anyways, we first stopped at the Palacio Nactional de Pena (National Palace of Pena). This was the Portuguese royal vacation palace. It was a self gided tour and between the tour books we had with us, we put together a nice tour. After that we walked around the shops and had a quick lunch before heading up to Castelo dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors) and Palacio Nacional de Pena (National Palace of  Pena). These are situated high on top of the hill and were quite a bus ride up. The Castle was full of stairs and fantastic viewpoints! We ended with the disneyesque Palace on the very top of the hill. All places are full of history, but basically, the Moors (Arabic decent) had rule until they were thrown out in the crusaders  around 1147 who kept it but then added on to the property. Then the kings/queens of Portugal built their palaces in the 15th century. 



We returned on the train and went into the Fado district of Baixo-Chidado neighborhood. Jim had searched for the best Fado music in all of town and it was worth it! We had made an 830 reservation the night before and glad we did. The small, maybe 400sqft place was jam packed. We ordered a bunch of apps and sat back to enjoy to watch 3 acts of Fado! 

Today we are heading out to the area of Belem!

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