Remember how the title of my last post had the word “sunny” in it? Apparently the universe needed to make up for that sunny weather in a BIG way with the start of Sunday’s day trip to Sintra and Cascais. Although the weather improved greatly after the our first stop, Mother Nature still has some explaining to do!

As regular readers likely know, we often book day trips when we’re out of the country as they give us a chance to see even more of whatever country we’re visiting. We most recently did this when we went to Italy last year and spent one entire day on a trip to Positano and Pompeii. That one was a VERY full day (like 13 hours) and a LOT of our time was spent on a bus, so that was a lot more draining (though ultimately worth it, given what we got to see). This day trip was a much more reasonable eight hours and didn’t involve nearly as much transit time, which was nice, but the morning weather left a lot to be desired. And it started so nicely, with a walk to our meeting point, the Hard Rock Cafe, less than ten minutes from our hotel. The forecast said it would be cloudy with a chance of some rain, but only in a two-hour window in the morning, and with a high around 74, so that’s what we dressed/prepared for. Things were pleasant, if a bit grey, when we left the hotel around 8 AM and we had no problem finding the meeting point. There were already several other people at Hard Rock, with several others joining us over the next 20 minutes, but by about 8:30 (the advertised start time of the tour), pretty much everyone had been picked up by other tour companies for other day trips (obviously Hard Rock is a popular meeting point!), leaving just us and two other couples. We all confirmed we were there for the same trip with the same tour company, so we at least knew we were in the right spot! By the time 8:40 rolled around, we were wondering if we’d been ghosted, so I called the tour company number provided by Viator (the company we book most of our day trips through) and it just disconnected. Helpful! Then I called Viator directly and spoke to a very helpful person who said they hadn’t heard anything from the tour company and then put me on hold while he contacted them himself, but then the call disconnected. 😦 Never fear though because right about the time I got an email from Viator telling me they’d heard from the tour company and that the driver/guide would be with us in a few minutes, that driver pulled up in a van, apologizing for being so late. She said there had been a mixup at her first pick-up where a group said they had a booking, but something had changed from when their travel agent booked it and the tour company had no record of it. Oh boy! Certainly not the best start to the tour, unfortunately. We also realized that the “small group” label on this tour was especially accurate as the only folks on it were us, the other two couples who had been waiting with us, and another couple the guide had brought from the first pickup. And this wasn’t a big van, so there were three people up front (the driver and one couple), three people in the middle seat, and three in the back (where we were). We were in for a cozy ride!

Despite the tardiness of the pickup and the tightness of the transportation, there was no reason to think we wouldn’t still have a nice day out. What’s a bit unusual about this day trip is that none of the locations are actually that far outside of Lisbon, unlike that Italy trip, where we had to drive quite a distance to even reach our destinations. Our first stop was to be Pena Palace in Sintra, which is maybe 40 minutes from Lisbon (close enough that you can just Uber there). Like many palaces and castles, it’s set on top of a hill (as if we haven’t done enough uphill walking on this trip!), and it started its life as a monastery in the early 1500s. The original monastery lasted for nearly 300 years, until it was severely damaged by both lightning and a massive earthquake (which I just got sidetracked reading about), with only the chapel and tower surviving mostly intact. Those ruins then sat untouched for a good while, until King Ferdinand II decided to build a palace for his queen on the same spot. Of course, what he originally built was later expanded upon, leading to the structure that’s there today, which is quite large. It was used by Ferdinand’s family and subsequent Portuguese royal families until the early 1900s, when a revolution abolished the monarchy. Fun fact – Queen Amélie, the last queen of Portugal, spent her final night in Portugal in the castle (she then left in exile the next day, returning to her native France). Today, the palace and its gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and both are among the most-visited places in all of Portugal. I’m so glad we got to see it! But did we actually see it??

On the relatively short drive to the palace, we got some commentary from our guide/driver (though per the reviews for this tour, sitting in the “way back” of the van made it hard to hear her as she didn’t use any kind of mic, the way a guide on a large bus would) and experienced plenty of narrow roads and tight turns the closer we got to the palace (I can’t imagine driving a large van on such tight roads!). The weather also got progressively less desirable, clouding over completely and, as we reached the gardens and then the parking area for the palace, getting notably foggier. When we were out of the van, I overheard another guide saying something about how this location has a unique microclimate that makes its weather different from the area immediately around it, which I now completely believe!

The journey to actually get into the palace was just that – a JOURNEY. The initial entrance is further down the hill, so visitors have to either walk up one of a few different paths to reach the palace or take a small bus for €3 round-trip. We’re happy walkers, so didn’t mind making the walk, which was advertised as 15 minutes, but in reality took more like 7-8. Unfortunately, reaching the entrance is where things took a real left turn in terms of our experience. The highlights, or perhaps lowlights, include:

• Fog – the fog didn’t abate the closer we got, instead getting a bit worse. This obstructed the amazing views we otherwise would have had of the palace itself.
• Rain – yep, that “small chance” of rain turned out to be quite a large change indeed. It was just a few sprinkles at first, but quickly got heavier. And guess who didn’t have an umbrella?? Scott brought his, but I left mine in the van, along with my bag, since the forecast made it seem like I wouldn’t need it for more than some light sprinkles. Not bringing that was TOTALLY on me and I was able to creep under Scott’s for some coverage, but it wouldn’t have made a huge difference if I’d had mine because of the wind.
• Wind – oh yes, it was also windy! And not a light, warm breeze. This was a cold, wet, whipping wind that made EVERYTHING worse. Ugh!
• Clothing – both Scott and I dressed for the forecast, which told us it wouldn’t be sunny, but also told us temps would reach the mid-70s with some humidity. That certainly didn’t happen while we were at the castle. So the short sleeves and shorts we were wearing weren’t optimal!

In addition to the weather-related woes, we learned the process to actually ENTER the palace is…long. You line up to enter by the time slot booked on your ticket, which makes sense, but we were there a little after 10 AM for a 10:30 AM slot. Okay fine, but all the waiting to get into the palace is done OUTSIDE, in the aforementioned bad weather in a line that either moved very slowly or just didn’t move at all. By the time we finally reached the ACTUAL entrance to get INSIDE the palace, it was about 11 AM, so we’d been outside in the cold, wet weather for an hour (more than that if you start the clock when we got out of the van). I know this whole situation is the epitome of first-world problems, but all the wrong elements came together to put a damper on the start of our day. Thankfully, things would get better later in the day. 🙂

This first batch of photos will help illustrate the disappointing weather!

At least we could kind of see the castle when we reached it! This fog reminded me of our trip to see Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (though that fog was less bothersome than this stuff). Oh, this is also when the rain started. 🙂

After standing in an unmoving line for a half-hour or so, things started moving slowly, allowing us to move under this imposing entryway (left photo) into a covered tunnel (right photo). Don’t worry though, as we still got to go back outside for the last part of the waiting, when the rain was coming down even harder.

The weather got worse before it got better, but we eventually reached the actual entrance to get INSIDE the palace around 11 AM. Both Scott and I commented on how bizarre and slow this queuing process was and how it should be improved upon. To be fair, we would have said that even if it wasn’t raining outside, but the rain definitely made the process seem more dumb, mostly because it made us more irritable. 🙂 But the important part is that all that waiting wasn’t for nothing because we did finally get to see inside the palace! Given the annoyance we felt at the interminable (and wet!) wait, I was actually extra glad that our guide stayed with us throughout the palace to continue serving as our guide (on previous trips like this, I’ve found that the guide we’re traveling with will often hand things off to a guide at our destination, but not so in this case).

Much as it’s hard to use the word “standard” when it comes to a palace/castle, but I think that’s how I’d describe Pena Palace. Of course we only saw parts of it, but it didn’t seem any more opulent than other palaces we’ve toured, though it was really interesting hearing the history of it. As I mentioned above, it was King Ferdinand II who decided to build this palace on the ruins of the monastery, but what’s a little unique is that, as a German prince who married Queen Maria II of Portugal, he was technically king consort (as the “royal bloodline” for Portugal flowed through his wife, not him), but he absolutely took the reigns on this project, including making most of the architectural and decor decisions. Unfortunately, Maria died in childbirth at 34 and never got to really live in the palace, so it was Ferdinand’s second wife, Elise, Countess of Edla, who lived in it with him. What a bummer to be there at the start of the palace-building process, only to die before getting to live in it! As visitors to it in 2023 though, I’m glad we were still able to appreciate the end result. Hopefully you will too, through the pictures below!

Speaking of the king’s room, this was the room of a different king, Carlos I, and had previously been the chambers of Elise’s mother.

Another bedroom. Interesting that none of them are very large, perhaps because of the building’s roots as a monastery, where rooms would have been small and functional?

Plenty of trinkets here!

Two very cool, ornate chandeliers. The one on the right holds 72 candles, so I think back with pity for the servants who inevitably had to light, blow out, and replace them all!

After the palace, we made our way to the chapel (not at all unusual to find one in a palace, particularly one built on the ruins of a monastery). We didn’t spend a ton of time there and we of course didn’t get to see much of the outside, thanks to the fog (and the rain, which was still coming down at this point), but as with the palace interior, I’m glad we got to see it. Something really interesting about it that our guide shared is the fact that pretty much all the people who died in the construction of the palace (deaths were bound to happen, I suppose) are buried under the chapel. And from the way she described it, they were buried in a mass grave, which struck me as odd, but maybe that was a normal practice then??

The altarpiece and, off to the right, the rest of the chapel.

With both the palace and the chapel crossed off the list, it was time to head back to the van so we could move on to the town of Sintra. Of course, at this point, the rain was slowing to a misty drizzle, which was at least helpful on the walk back to the van. It was still quite foggy, but the lower down we went, the fog did thin a bit. We also noticed that the line to get into the palace (not the actual entrance, as we learned, but the place where you BEGIN the queuing process) had definitely gotten longer, so hopefully the rain fizzling out was helpful to them! As you can see below, I at least found the silver lining in the weather by snapping some moody photos. 🙂

Back at the van, we made the short drive into the town of Sintra, which we had skirted past on our way to the palace. As I said above, we didn’t go that far on this day trip, distance-wise, as Sintra is considered to be part of the greater Lisbon area. It’s a cute, small town with lots of narrow streets full of pedestrians (many of them tourists like us, I’m sure) that gave us strong vibes of Positano, which we visited last year. It’s another town where driving and parking seem like they’d be a nightmare, so I was thankful we didn’t have to worry about doing either of those things ourselves. We had about 90 minutes here to walk around, grab lunch, and generally explore, so that’s just what we did. Of course, it was raining again at this point (I had my umbrella from the van though, so at least I had my own coverage!), so we didn’t put a ton of thought into where we’d eat, focusing more on what would get us out of the rain. We ended up at Piadinas, a cute little place that had sandwiches, bruschetta, and other Italian-adjacent dishes. Not a bad meal! We didn’t have time for breakfast at the hotel, so we appreciated the nosh!

Aside from eating, we really just wandered around the town as we didn’t have time to properly visit anything, especially after taking the time to eat. The rain was mostly done by the time we finished lunch though, so we at least didn’t have to constantly have our umbrellas up. I even managed to get a few nice photos!

A couple of typical views of the narrow streets in Sintra.

A cute Sintra street sign and one more fun street view before we boarded the van for our next stop.

With our little group back in the van, we hit the road for our next destination, Cabo de Roca. This was a short stop to just take some photos. So what’s so important/notable about it? Cabo de Roca is not only the western-most point of continental Europe, which is pretty cool in and of itself, but it’s also a really great spot to get some gorgeous photos. And wouldn’t you know it? The weather made a COMPLETE 180 on the drive there, so much so that when we got there for our brief stop, there was plenty of sun and warmth. We were both getting hot after just a few minutes! I honestly don’t think the weather changed at the palace though, as we could see the hill in the distance, still shrouded in fog. Even though it was brief, this was a cool stop that reminded me a bit of a day trip in Iceland that took us to the point where the North American and European tectonic plates meet.

Helllloooo, Atlantic Ocean!

And a pair of selfies, naturally. For mine, I walked further down that rocky outcrop you can see behind us.

Our next stop was another quick, sunny one, just to get a few more photos. The Boca do Inferno (Hell’s Mouth) is a natural chasm in the rocks and water, with a formation that causes the waves to slam against the rocks. It probably doesn’t sound like much, but it was neat to see. Especially because the sunny weather continued to grace us with its presence. 🙂

A couple of photos of Hell’s Mouth.

The last two photos before getting back on the van again for our final stop.

We had one more stop to make on our day trip itinerary and that was to the town of Cascais (pronounced like Cash-kaish), which is known for being a popular seaside destination and hosting various events. Our time here was free to do what we wanted, which gave us about an hour to wander around in the sunshine. If the weather had been like it was at the palace, this would have been a depressing stop indeed as walking around in the rain with no particular destination in mind never sounds like a good time to me. 🙂 Thankfully, sun abounded and we got to see a few neat buildings/areas. I probably should have done a bit of research ahead of time to see if there was anything specific we could have walked to, but oh well. We were just happy the trip was ending on a sunny note!

The marina is often used to host events, as mentioned above. There was very recently a Porshe event there.

Still loving all these street views!

And that was the end of our day trip! One half of the couple involved in the morning mixup at the other hotel sat in the back with us on this leg of the drive and filled us in on more of the details, which sounded pretty frustrating for all involved. Luckily for them (and the eight friends they were traveling with), they were still able to see pretty much everything they intended to, even if they had to do it through a combination of traveling in our van and taking various Uber rides to get to the different stops. I certainly would have been frustrated, too! But despite the awful start to the day, weather-wise, this was an interesting, worthwhile day trip and I’m glad we got to do it. It’s also nice to have a day where we don’t have to plan anything and we just get led around by someone else. 🙂

The rest of our evening was low-key. We chilled at the hotel and never went out for dinner, but later in the evening, we were feeling a little nibbly, so Scott had a good idea to go check out the Time Out Market, which is like a HUGE cafeteria, with lots of places to get food and drink, which you can then enjoy at big communal tables. It’s definitely the type of place where you can get analysis paralysis because there are SO many options, but as we weren’t hugely hungry, we settled on a few tapas. They were tasty, but we actually had a hard time discerning which flavor was which from our order because they all looked the same inside and tasted similar. Still good though!

I told you it was big!

Well, that was a long day and this post about it stretched over a couple of days (I’m just hitting publish on it in our Porto hotel, after our train journey here), but it was a good one. And even though we’ve moved on from Lisbon, I’ve still got yesterday’s fun day there to write about. More on that soon!