Museum Hopper

Our last visit in Sintra was to the Quinta da Regaleira.  This was outside of the park system that the Mouros and Pena were a part of.  It is though considered part of the UNESCO heritage site. Parking here proved to be the most challenging aspect of this visit.  There was a small parking lot close to the entrance that was full – otherwise, it was one way streets with very limited street parking.  We had to do a loop twice to end up finding a spot – and had a bit of walk to the entrance (which was fine).  We bought tickets to this when we arrived around 1 pm.  I think we looked to buy tickets in advance, but could not find how to do it.  The gardens were busy, but definitely not over-crowded.  We were able to get tickets right away.  Then into the gardens to try to figure out where to go first.  I do wish they had given more of a path or guided route.  The signage was not great, so it was hard to make sure we hit the high not...

After visiting the Castelo dos Mouros , we headed to the Palace of Pena.   As I look back on this trip, we should have considered flopping these...potentially.  While we were able to get on the bus right away up to the palace, we ended up in a 30 minute line to get inside the palace.  We had bought tickets in advance -- through the same site we bought the Castelo dos Mouros tickets.  I am not sure if we had gotten there earlier, would we have been able to avoid the line. To get up to the palace, we ended up purchasing the bus ticket.  It was about 2-3 EUR each and included a round trip up to the palace and back.  The buses seemed to be coming rather frequently.  After just climbing up to the Mouros, it was nice to sit on the bus for the fairly steep climb up to the Palace of Pena.  We did not use the bus on the way back, opting to walk down instead.  I was pretty pleased with that decision. Jason waited in line and let me ge...

So, I feel like I only have the hardest posts left from our vacation.  Our first stop in Sintra was to Castelo dos Mouros .   We bough tickets in advance.   We ended up driving to Sintra.  We had our luggage with us, so it was definitely more convenient.  We were able to park fairly close to the entrance getting there a little bit before it opened.  We were the first people in there.  It was a good start to the day with a climb.  He let us in a few minutes early and up we went. The fog added a really cool element.  From one end of the towers, you can see the Palace of Pena.   It's orange glow was visible.  You could also barely the Palace of Sintra.  We did not end up going to the Palace of Sintra.  You can see the little white cylinders. The views of they valley were really pretty. You could see all the way to Lisbon. We just would have considered swapping it af...

After Castelo de San Jorge, we started walking down the hill.  We bopped into the Se Cathedral in Lisbon.  It had survived so many earthquakes and fires. This church is adjacent to where St. Anthony was born and grew up.     This was a quick nice stop to escape the heat in the day.  It is beautiful.   Time in cathedral: ~30 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B+

On day 2 in Lisbon, we headed up (literally up the hill) to the Castelo de San Jorge .   We were maybe going to take the trolley up the hill, but there was a queue of ~1.5 hrs.  After our experience the day earlier, I was definitely not doing that again.  We found an escalator that took us about six flights and then we walked....up. We should have bought tickets in advance.  We ended up waiting in line for tickets for about 15 minutes.  That being said, once we were inside, it did not seem very crowded or busy (other than the women's bathroom line -- more about that later). The view from the Castelo is really pretty.  It is a great view of the city and the Castelo itself is iconic in the skyline of Lisbon. I was underwhelmed by the museum -- it was a lot of pottery fragments.  I did like the few plates, pots that seemed more complete.  The influence of the Moors is very prevalent/obvious in the tile. We enjoyed look at t the ...

After our visit to the Jeronimos Monastery , we walked over to the Belem Tower , a former watch tower and welcoming point to Lisbon from the Atlantic. We waited in line to get in about 30 minutes.  You could get in a shorter line if you had bought the Lisbon card .  From what we could tell, it was not worth it for us.  Unfortunately, that was the only way though to pre-buy tickets to Belem, so we ended up having to wait in line.   This was another monument that also was recommended to visit close to dusk.  I bet the light into the tower is quite pretty coming in from the east side.   We headed in and up to the first level first.  Again, it was so nice to be outside after the flight.  View of the tower from the first floor We really were impressed by the stair system in the tower!  It beeps and has colors indicating if you can go up or down at a certain time.  There is a timer as well.  It is bril...

Our first visit in Lisbon was to the  Jerónimos Monastery .  We had a few missteps on our way there -- it took way longer than it should have!  What a beautiful spot for our first stop (and after a "no sleep" flight there).   We did not end up going to the paid section since the queue was long.   The architecture of the building is beautiful with such intricate details.  The scale of the building is long and substantial.   The inside of the church was beautiful.  Our guide book recommended visiting in mid-afternoon, but unfortunately everything seemed to have that recommendation!   The magnificent ceilings and stained glass were rather stunning.  It was busy inside but we were able to see everything we wanted. What a stunning first stop. Times visited: 1 Time in monastery: 1 hr Overall: A-