Starting the day off, Jen woke up early and left the house for Sintra at 7:00 AM (Portugal Time). Upon arriving, she hiked the super steep trail to Peña Palace and then she went along another trail to Moors Castle AND was not tired so decided to check out Monserratte Palace just for fun (lets just say she will be getting a few steps today).
Upon hiking to several of these Palaces, she got lost several times and at one of the points she had walked across this farm where she met a guy who told her it was not okay to be there but its okay for her. (Parent comment: this farm is where they used to raise animals and grow crops for Montserrat. As I passed by, I noticed the gate was open, so being my mother's daughter I walked right in. Nobody was there but a few workers. One of the workers said a lot of words to me in Portuguese, so I asked in my best universal language, "is it OK or not OK." His response? "It's not OK, but it's OK." We decided later it was a good theme for the trip - even when some things are not OK, it's still OK - we'll make it through!")
The picture above is the farm she was walking through during her hike.
At around 9 AM, Griffin, Kayla, and Connor got up for the day and decided to finished off the few hours they had left with the Lisbon cards. For their last use of the Lisbon card, they decided to go up in and then on top of the Rua Augusta Arch. In order to do this, it involved an elevator ride up to the arch and then a small staircase to an open room. The open room contained information about the Arch's history and how it had been destroyed in the horrible earthquake that struck Lisbon and when they rebuilt the arch at the end of the 19th century, they created a spaced for people to go up into the arch and then on top of the arch to see the open square the arch looked out onto. In order to do this they build on small spiral staircase that brought us up to the outside top.
On top of the arch you could ring the Bell (which Griffin did several times) and enjoy the wonderful views.
We then came back and Gage and Dad decided to stay in for the day. So, before we headed to Sintra for our day trip we made our two pizzas that we got from our favorite grocery store (ALDI). After we had lunch, we packed our sandwiches for our trip (trying to avoid any hangry-ness from anyone for the day) and things were looking up because Matt decided he wanted us to save him a piece of pizza (that means he wanted other food than chicken broth for his meal). (Parent note: there was a bit of hangriness despite the sandwiches, but it was quickly subdued by a Happy Fruity break. Happy Fruity is a Scandinavian brand of chewy, fruity-flavored candies we discoved at, you guessed it, Aldi. It has become a mainstay and has warded off much hangriness.
Once at the train station, Kayla, Connor, and Griffin decided to try and use the machine but did not understand what to do (so we decided to be a typical lost tourist and ask the desk person who spoke english). We got our tickets and hopped on the 1:10 train for Sintra
We arrived at Sintra and we met up with Jen, who decided she had not in fact had enough steps today so decided to explore more of Sintra with us. (Parent note: as agreed, Kayla texted me when they were on the train in Lisbon, so I could meet them when they got off in Sintra. Since the train had not yet left, Kayla assured me that I had 45 minutes until they got there so I could take my time. What she didn't know is that I hadn't the slightest idea where I was or how long it would take to find civilization, so I decided to move fairly quickly. Fortunately after about 20 minutes of being completely lost, I came upon the farm mentioned above, with just enough time to hustle back to Sintra to meet their train.). Then all four of us decided to catch a cab to Monserratte Palace in Sintra, Portugal. (Parent comment: while a cab seems a luxury, for 4 people it is cheaper than the bus). Upon arriving at the Palace grounds we got out of our cab and began the short walk to the Palace (along the way we saw a cute little waterfall).
After looking at a part of the garden we headed up to the actual Palace building to check it out. Everything inside and outside of this Palace was extremely intricate and filled with lots of history. All of the walls had handmade engravings on them and there was lots of color (everything hand painted). The whole palace was designed to have a romantic feel and several romance books are based/written about this Palace. In one of the rooms there was a nice documentary we could watch for some background on the Palace. It was bought by a family who used it as a summer home around world war two and the kid who lived in the home was flown to class in a private jet (Kayla and Connor decided that if they ever had kids this was not happening for them).
If you would like to know more about the history of this palace please click the link to find out: https://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/parks-monuments/park-and-palace-of-monserrate/history/
After touring all of the rooms and even the basement in this palace we then decided to head to the gardens. Another fun fact we learned about the Palace was that it was home to Portugal‘s first ever lawn which Griffin and Connor really wanted to roll down but Jen and Kayla told them it probably wasn’t the brightest idea in the world.
We then took some time to explore the gardens a bit which led us to this abandon ruin (the remains of an old house) which was once the home to the people who tended to the horses of the estate.
Finally, after taking every possible path around the palace we then decided to hike back down to the city. (Parent note: this may or may not have been largely due to one of us preferring walking to waiting whenever possible. And I now knew the route quite well!). Along the way we stopped at another super cool Palace/castle but we decided that even though it looked very neat we were all castled out (plus we wouldn't want to take away to much money from the croissant budget).
However, after the long day we Jen decided it was a perfect idea to stop and have a little cocktail break. Once we found a cute little restaurant, Griffin decided to get two of the specials (a steak sandwich, fries, and a non-alcoholic beverage) and proceeded to drink most of Kayla‘s delicious sangria.
Connor and Jen decided to try a beer which they thought was extremely refreshing and then we were off to the train station to head back to our Airbnb at around 6 PM (Portugal time). For the 45 minute train ride, Griffin wanted to read but Kayla decided to write this blog post using text to speech which was definitely his favorite part of the day.
For our plans tonight, Kayla and Connor plan to go on a cute date night (which if you read the about us section in our Blog you know its what he is most looking forward to). The rest of the family decided to try some takeout for the night and spend the night relaxing and recovering from the days events. Hopefully, Gage and Matt will be recovered for tomorrow but until then stay tuned for the next blog post.
Signing off
Kayla Daniel
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Awesome photos!