Thursday we went to Sintra. I had purchased tickets on-line for the three places we wanted to visit. The Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, and National Palace of Sintra. Also purchased the shuttle bus that take you from the ticket booth to the entrance of the Pena Palace.
Since we still had some time left on our Lisboa card, used that for the train to Sintra. CP train app again was useful to check times and stops.
We arrived at 9:15 ish, and joined the line for bus #434. We purchased the one-loop bus ticket for € 3.90 outside the bus but had to wait awhile for the bus to fill up before departing. We got off at the Pena Palace. We had a short wait for the shuttle bus, which was small and we merrily bounced up along up the hill. Well worth the cost!
We did have a lovely sunny day for Sintra and husband took a million photos along with the pretty Instagramers twirling in front of the views to the delight of their friends.
The lines heading up to enter inside the Pena Palace were freakishly long when we left (about 11:30 am). Many tour groups and people were waiting in line to get into the palace (which they may or may not have known) but if you headed to the left of the line you could tour the outside and not bother with the palace.
We walked down to the Moorish castle on the road, by this time lots of cars parked and more coming uphill. It is a bit of a hike up to the castle and along the walls. Great views and the walk up is very pretty. We enjoyed sandwiches and the view at the guard’s tower.
Back to the main road to catch the bus into Sintra town center. The bus stop is downhill from the ticket booth and not across from the ticket booth as indicated on a free map we had picked up a at the Pena Palace. If you look at the RS book, it gives you a better idea where it is. The stops are marked.
Once in Sintra town center, we visited the National Palace. Really enjoyed the visit, not many people and RS guidebook was very helpful.
Time for coffee and sweets! Enjoyed tasty treats at Casa Piriquita and took 6 of those tiny tarts known as queijadas to go.
Good Friday in Lisbon was rainy and chilly. We did walk around using the book and visited some of the booths that were set up around the city because of the Easter holiday. You could buy mulled wine, sangria or bites to eat or do some shopping.
The next day was sunny, warm and beautiful. We took advantage of the Chill Out Free Walking tour. Our tour guide gave us a different perspective on Lisbon. Liked the fact you can just show up and you don’t have to pre-book. The best part was in the Alfama area. Well worth it!
Easter Sunday-our last full day. Again, lovely weather. Restaurants and many shops were open. We walked and ate our way around and made a visit to the Mercado da Ribeira (Time out Market) didn’t eat there but there are quite a few choices. A wonderful relaxed day.
Left early on Monday, used a local taxi rank to get to the airport, 30 minutes and € 11 with tip.
Final thoughts:
We really enjoyed this trip! RS book was very helpful for planning and sightseeing. Had some great meals in Lisbon, Portuguese, Indian and vegan places were some of our choices. Food and drink a little higher than in Coimbra but still reasonable.
Internet at our hotel in Coimbra and the AirBnB was excellent. We have the T-Mobile 55 plan because one of us is 55 (not me, hehe). We had 2G for data and text, sometimes ridiculously slow but for the most part worked well and was no additional cost.
Menus were in Portuguese and English and anyone working in tourism had excellent English skills. We tried our Portuguese but after the first ola or bom dia, people spoke to us in English.
We met some many lovely, helpful people on this trip. The sites and experiences we had were quite memorable and it is hard to put it all down. We didn’t visit a ton of places but we thoroughly enjoyed our time and have plans to return!