Magical Sintra

We saved the best for last- a day trip to magical Sintra, a 40 minute train ride west of Lisbon. We knew we couldn't see everything in one day, so we chose two sites to focus on. We started at Quinta da Regaleira, a palace and gardens built into a hill with lots of fun places for us to explore.

We seemed to have missed the signs, but eventually found our way to the pièce de résistance- the masonic initiation well (intended use??). We spiraled down and down to the bottom and then made our way out through caves. Then we found the perfect secluded cave to have a prohibited picnic lunch.

We did the quick walk through the palace, which featured some nice mosaics! 

 

Our next stop was Pena Palace, which appeared to be just over a hill. So imagine our surprise when we get in the Uber and see that it is s 35 minute drive due to all of the roads being one way. Well, it was a scenic tour of Sintra and gave Maeve a chance to have a quick nap!

From Pena palace, you can see the Moorish Castle up on another hill. It was too ambitious to fit in a visit there, but we were happy to see it (and photograph it) anyway!

The Pena Park and Palace began when King Ferdinand II bought a former monastery on the site in 1838. He had his romantic style palace and gardens built around this. It is something else! So many charming nooks and such vibrant colors. We really enjoyed touring it at our leisure. 

The Moorish Castle as seen from the Palace Walls

Maeve on the Queen's Terrace

When we'd finished seeing the palace, we began our great descent. First, through the gardens of the palace, picking up fallen flowers and admiring the fauna, frogs and fish. 

Our Uber driver had told us to take the "15 minute" walk down from the Palace into the town. It definitely took us longer than that, but it was really enjoyable with views, ornate residences and a super scenic restroom stop along the way! And we were so proud of Jude, who walked the whole way by himself.

Great view of the castle from the walk down

Quinta da Regaleira in the distance

So much energy after a busy day! 

Back home, we got impatient waiting for our Uber so we decided to take one final walk back to our apartment, up, up and up the stairs and hills. Thank goodness I married a pack mule!

Our final morning before our flight was spent a local cafe, the playground and a good souvenir store.

 Tchau Lisbon! Thank you again for all of the memories!

Museum Day in Lisbon

The weather turned cooler on Wednesday so we headed to the museums- Pete and the kids to highly recommended Aquarium, the Oceanario and me to the National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional de Azulejo). Both were excellent!

The tile museum is housed in a former convent just outside of downtown. After my successful tile class, I have a dream of creating my own custom tiles one day for a feature in our home. There was a lot of inspiration to be had here!

Lisbon in tiles. A fraction of the size of the city panorama they had on display.

The kids were having fun over at the aquarium and we met up after to play in the Jardins de Agua (water gardens) and have some yummy pizza lunch. This area was well out of town, but had a lot of other cool things that you could spend an entire day seeing: science museum, ariel cable car, gardens. I love that Maeve naps, but I also look forward to the time when our schedule isn't dictated by it! We had a wonderful Portuguese history lesson from our Uber driver on the way home though!

I needed to pick up my tile and Pete found a vintage clothing store he wanted check out so we took tram 28 one last time and had a low key afternoon at the playground. Then we bused back to the Time Out Market to get some dinner, thankfully sans tantrums this time! 

Maeve was hilarious this trip, going down slides on her belly and loving it. 

Jude's become quite the climber!