Sintra is a town of palaces and castles, all from different points in history. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's mountainous and twists and turns with tiny cobblestone streets and beautiful woodsy hiking trails up to palaces, Moorish castles, and panoramic views of the Portugal coastline and Lisbon region. A round trip ticket there only cost us 4.80 euro each and we even met this adorable little boy from Ghana who had a thing for girls and jewelry.
When we arrived in Sintra, literally the first thing we noticed was the Castelo dos Mouros, a medieval-looking castle sitting on what appeared to be the highest hilltop within sight. The informational sheet of paper that our hostel provided us with told us that we should take the bus to the top, and we laughed imagining climbing to the top in our sandals.
After peeking our heads in some ceramic tile shops, we made a detour through the Parque da Liberdade. We found ourselves climbing a few sets of stone stairs here and there and exited the park on higher ground than where we began. Then, we noticed signs pointing in the directions of the Castelo dos Mouros and Pena, castles sitting on the high hill tops of Sintra. We instead decided to find the church that the signs pointed to, and incidentally began our descent that would eventually take us to the highest point, over 1000 feet above where we began in the city center.
When we arrived at the Castelo dos Mouros (we never actually found that church), we were stunned. It looked like something right out of a fairy tale. It was built during the 8th and 9th centuries and had gorgeous views over the entire city. After comparing the features of this castle with the Palace of Pena, we decided we would rather pay for access to the grounds of Pena and just look around the perimeter of the Moorish castle.
We had initially thought Castelo dos Mouros was the highest spot in Lisbon. What we couldn't see from down below was that there were two destinations even higher than this one on the other side of the mountain. We looked around at the giant red busses shuttling people to the top and just decided to keep climbing on.
Pena and its grounds almost need a grander word than palace. The outside of the palace literally looks like the inspiration for a Disney castle. We bought a full access ticket so we could see the terrace, grounds, and a short tour of the actually somewhat humble insides of the palace (I'm using the word humble loosely. This is a palace that we're talking about). The queen, or rainha, definitely had the best living quarters, including this gorgeous terrace.
When we saw the views out of these yellow archways in Pena that literally made me feel like I was sitting in the clouds, we thought we had made it to the best views in Sintra. However, we were wrong. The best views in Sintra by far were at Cruz Alto, or high cross, sitting 528 meters above sea level. Once again, we found ourselves climbing. When we reached this panoramic view of the entire Lisbon region, all pain in our feet and knees seemed to instantly dissipate.
We viewed the valley of the lakes after (the grounds surrounding this palace literally were the size of a town), and then took a bus for our descent to save us the hour or so of walking it probably would have taken. We stopped by a small shop that offers tiny tastings of Portuguese wines and jams, and I discovered that I really dislike port wine. We also had a small taste of Ginja, a Portuguese liquor made with cherry. We drank it out of chocolate cups. I enjoyed the chocolate a lot more than the Ginja! We grabbed some pastries that Sintra is famous for at a local Pasteleria, and then went on our way back to Lisbon.
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