Sintra is just a 40 min train ride from Lisbon and I planned it as a day trip for us. I wish we had been able to spend more time there. It’s a beautiful city with lots to see. We focused on three sights: Pena Palace, Castle of the Moors and Sintra National Palace. There is a bus that makes a circuit with stops at all three — very helpful since two of the locations are way up hill. We chose to start with Pena Palace — the most spectacular of the three. It’s incredibly beautiful inside with lots of tile and tapestry and outside with colorful buildings and amazing views.

The entrance to the Castle of the Moors is just a short distance downhill from Pena, so we walked there. The castle is really a beautiful ruin on a hillside overlooking Sintra. There are excavated moorish ruins in the surrounding area as well as gardens designed by Ferdinand II (the king who built Pena). We had fortunate timing to be there for a reenactment of the Siege of Lisbon, 1147 (they do it monthly). One of the actors provided the commentary in English and we now know more about 12th century combat. 🙂

We caught the bus back to center Sintra to see the National Palace, but when we got there our navigation was a little off and we went in the wrong direction initially. We circled back around and up a steep hill to find that the Palace had just closed. I had the correct closing time in my notes, but got it mixed up with another location. Oh well, more time for shopping! We found some really nice handmade tiles in a little shop and bought a couple. I would love to be able to tile a kitchen or bathroom with these tiles, but shipping costs are probably prohibitive. 😕 The shops were all closed by 7:00 and we ran out of things to do so we went to our dinner reservation a little early. We ended our day at a nice restaurant that was a little fancier than I expected, but not very expensive. Back to Lisbon.