Sintra and Cascais

This is the most popular day trip from Lisbon. I had such a good day! The weather improved and it was even sunny for most of the time. There were 7 of us in the minibus plus the driver, Juan.

In Sintra, we visited the Pena Palace. Juan had us walk up through the garden first. It was an artificially constructed garden (something like Araluen) with lakes and duckponds. Originally it was the summer palace of King Ferdinand. It was quite a steep slope, but when I was flagging, Juan gave me his arm so that I wouldn’t slip on the cobbles and steps. He was very thoughtful.

The palace is at the top of the garden:

At the top, there were views on all sides. It was apparent why they had chosen to build the palace there.

The gate in Moorish style. Juan is on the right in the black jacket:

Inside the palace was a treasury of periodic furniture and porcelain:

Cloisters:

The parts of the buildings painted red denoted it was original, as opposed to later additions:

Bottom right of the stained glass in the chapel is the homage to Vasco da Gama:

After the palace, we drove down into the small town of Sintra for lunch. Several recommendations were given to us, but I chose one with plenty of inside seating:

The waitress was doing a flambé of some kind. This was mine:

Small broad beans featured in many of the dishes. Someone must have spent all morning shelling them!

Back in the minibus, we drove to the most western point of Portugal:

There were warnings to stay on the right side of the fence, or you would be breathing your last!

An enterprising person had set up a pina colada stall.

Usually this place is really, really windy. We were lucky today.

Next was a scenic drive to the seaside resort of Cascais. Juan recommended an ice creamery. This was the first time on this holiday that I felt like one:

It was delicious: pity about the hat!

The Marina at Cascais.

Some lads were playing football on the beach. I was sitting on the sea wall when their ball hit a woman on the head just below me on the sand. She took it very well but it must have hurt her.

This was our vehicle. I got the front seat, as I was the last to be picked up in the morning. All in all, it was €90 well-spent!