Day trip to Sintra

Miles: 8.8 Steps: 22671
Flights stairs: 64

We took a 40 min train ride out to Sintra, a small city north west of lisbon. It was another fantastic day - but not for the reasons I expected. We were heading out to see palaces and buildings, but the beauty of the day came from the nature around us.

We started with the Palace of Peña. Its literally a palace VERY high up on a hill - took an uber from the train station. We’ve been in a few palaces now, and the one in Madrid takes the cake (so far). To be honest, we found this one was somewhat underwhelming inside after seeing such ornate ones elsewhere.

After touring it, we took a walk thru the National park to the “Castle of the moors”. THIS was incredible - the walk was beautiful and the ruins were amazing. Oldest thing we’ve seen yet. The moors built it in the mid 8th century. I’m not afraid of heights, but at times I was pretty fearful on the ledges.

After walking all thru the castle and fortress walls, we took another 45 minute walk straight down thru the National park again. There was practically no one else there so it felt so peaceful and serene. That walk was the highlight of our day.

We ended up at a second palace - the Palace of Sintra. Again, inside was somewhat underwhelming, but interesting.

The last thing we saw was “Quinta de regaleira”. This was like a garden, but with old towers and a beautiful well we walked down into that led to an underground tunnel system. Really unique.

Overall the day in Sintra was fantastic. The outside portions stole the show for me. I wish we would have set up a pedometer when we began this trip - may start one as of tomorrow. No idea how far we walked today, but it had to be MANY miles.Read more