Europe Day 3: 10/17/2008

We found a new place for breakfast called Casa des Sandes. It basically translates to sandwich house and it’s a chain, like a Portugese Subway. It’s just a ½ block from our hotel and the coffee (espresso) is excellent and 50 centimes! There is never a line and it’s cheap and easy. We sit outside and take in pretty much the same view, too. After breakfast, we went across the street to the train station and took a train to Sintra. The trains at this station ONLY run to Sintra and all the stops in-between. The trains run almost all day, every 20 minutes. We took the 45 minute ride to Sintra, a town known for its beautiful outdoor parks. When we got off at the train station, it was pretty quiet…we walked through town and found a tourism office that told us that if we wanted to see the Moorish castle, it’d be best for us to take a tram because the trek to the castle is 5km UPHILL. We took the tram and when we got off at the castle, we were grateful for the tram. The hike to the castle from the entrance was pretty much a HIKE. The castle is totally steep and there’s only some remains left so you’re just hiking up a steeple, then back down, then back up another steeple, etc. But the view was spectacular. We then took the tram to the Royal Palace and hiked around there a bit. Thank goodness for Pat my trainer for getting me inadvertently in shape for this trip to Sintra and the tram
We had dinner back in Lisbon in the commercial area where all the shops are. Once again we had English menus and a waiter who could converse with us just enough. There was a little rain that night but we missed most of it during dinner and luckily we were sitting outside but under a tent.

Pictures from Sintra: