Portugal - Day 3 - Lisbon & Sintra 5/14/16

7:20pm - back at the apartment for a much-needed rest after a long day in Sintra. Did not get much sleep so I am pretty tired. we caught the 8am train from Rossio station to Sintra, which only takes 40 minutes. Found Piriquita, a famous bakery known for local pastries. We each had a little queijuada, a little cheese pastry, and a travasseiro, a puffy pastry filled with almond cream. It was still warm and so delicious.

Then we bought our ticket combo pass at the tourist info office and caught the bus up to the moorish castle. We had skipped this the last time I went to Lisbon and now I know why. It was really hot that time and there is a lot of uphill hiking at the moorish castle ruins. But today it was foggy and chilly and that made it ultra-cool. Liza and I are both petrified of heights so we only went a little ways up, but it was still amazing. We then took the bus up to the next stop, the Pena Palace, which isn't even that old but it's gorgeous and opulent and so colorful. 

Caught the bus back down and had a simple sandwich and delicious marinated olives in a cool old little wine shop type place. Then we walked to the Quinta da Regaleira, a 20th Century mansion with some gorgeous gardens and fountains. Wandered back and of course on the way I found a little ceramic shop and bought a couple of cute little purple things, because what else is new?

Finally, we went into the national palace, which is right in the center of town. We were behind an obnoxious and large French tour groups. I can't tell which makes a sight more unenjoyable, huge obnoxious tour groups or selfie sticks? Speaking of those insults to society, the security lady at Pena Palace told us they banned them AFTER A GROUP OF TOURISTS ALMOST DESTROYED AN INVALUABLE PIECE OF ART WITH ONE. Rant over.

Anyway, stopped and got a chocolate pastry as an afternoon snack and caught the 4:50pm train back. After searching Lisbon for 2 days we finally found a supermarket and of course it was only steps from our apartment. We were in near-desperate need of toilet paper and I could finally get some fruit! We were considering going to Cascais after Sintra, but with the weather not great, our dinner reservation later, and being so tired, we decided we may make a quick trip there tomorrow afternoon as it's also a short train ride away.  

By the way, I finally figured out what was messing up all the pictures on Flickr. they should be fixed and up to date by tomorrow. Got a lot of great ones today!!

11:30 pm - back at the apartment after a lovely evening. Set out around 8 for our reservation at Tasca do Chico in Bairro Alto. This is a tiny cramped little place and they do communal seating because it gets so crowded. They only serve snack foods.  We split a chourico, cheeses, olives, and bread and enjoyed lively fado by a bunch of amazingly talented people. After two sets we wandered a bit to see the nightlife and headed back. Liza had yet to try the famous cherry liqueur so we found Baco alto that was open and had a sign for it. Liza got hers and when I told the guy I tried it years ago and hated it he gave me a little sample of a supposedly lighter one. It just tasted like cough syrup. Then I proceeded to dump it all over me. Then he gave me the Lisbon one, which is stronger. Yeah, still totally hated it. Liza loved it, though... Guess someone has to!

Today's total: 26,326 steps, 10.47 miles, 116 floors!

Tomorrow hopefully I will be caught up on pictures!