After exploring the city yesterday, today we headed out of the city to the Sintra National Park which is famous for its colourful palaces and ruins. We had to be at a specific palace by a certain time to enter so set out with what we thought would give us plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately we ran into difficulties at the train station which made us miss the train we planned on taking and put us back half an hour.

Yesterday we had bought a day pass. The Lisbon ticket system works off a reloadable card. When we purchased the day pass, we had purchased the pass to include the metro/buses/trams and funiculars (not the suburban train!). We thought we could just purchase the train (which you can) but ran into a problem where our cards would not allow us to because you can have only one active transport option at a time (and our day passes were still active!). Queue a minor freak out as two of the three ticket machines would not issue us new cards. The third machine, after some coaxing, thankfully worked! We missed our train but luckily it was only a 20 minute wait till the next one. The train ride out to Sintra was interesting as we passed through a number of Lisbon’s outer suburbs so saw more of the areas where most of the population live.

The township of Sintra itself is beautiful and from the town we caught our first view of the palaces and castle we were planning to visit today.

But first, breakfast! We had a very cheap breakfast spread (€8 each including coffee!).

Our next stop was to the bus stop to get the tourist bus up to the sites. The places we visited were up the top of a mountain, and we had read online that the best option was to take the tourist bus to the top and walk down. Otherwise it was a 55 minute walk uphill! We'd read that the bus was notoriously scammy and would try sell us a day pass for €11.50 each, instead of the one way ticket of €4 - we didn’t seem to have this issue although maybe it was because we were well-researched and knew what to ask for.

It was standing room only on the bus which twisted and turned its way up various switchbacks towards our destination, the Peña Palace! The queue at the Peña Park entrance was massive. We had wisely pre-purchased our tickets online so skipped the queue and walked straight in. From the entrance, it was another 30 minute walk uphill. We had pre-purchased a transfer up but, after being faced with another massive queue and with a tight timeframe to be at the palace, we bailed on the transfer and hiked up the hill.

After a confusing line we finally entered the beautifully coloured and vibrant Peña Palace. Originally a monastery, King Ferdinand II converted and expanded it to a royal residence after it was mostly destroyed in the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the "7 Wonders of Portugal". Words can’t describe and photos can’t really do it justice! I took so many photos of tiles and ceiling frescos. And the views! Every room and balcony had spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. I envy the people who once upon a time lived here.

After the palace, we walked around the gardens and hiked up to the Alto Cross which marks the highest point in the Sintra mountains. We went off track and got a bit lost but eventually found our way down to the valley of the lakes and the exit gate.

Our next stop was to the Castle of the Moors. We walked around and up the castle battlements, enjoying the spectacular views of both the countryside and castle walls. At the top tower, we were able to look back and capture views of the Peña Palace.

After a cold drink, we set out on the main stretch of walking for the day which was the hike back down the mountain. We initially followed Google Maps but after seeing bright orange spray painted arrows, felt a little adventurous and decided to follow them. The first few encounters with these arrows were effective shortcuts through all the switchbacks and turns that the traffic had to follow. Then one stretch went off for ages and we found ourselves walking a path questioning our wisdom at blindly following spray painted arrows. It eventually lead us to exactly where we were heading but I was constantly checking the GPS to make sure we were headed in the right direction!

Our final stop for the day was to the Quinta da Regaleira, another Romantic palace close to the historic Sintra town. The main attraction we were stopping to see was the Initiation Wells. The main well has a spiralling staircase leading downwards in an underground tower to an inlaid stone compass with the Templar Cross. It’s theorised that these wells were built for ceremonial purposes by the Knights Templar. It was an interesting descent and interesting walk through the underground tunnels.

The palace itself was mostly pretty from the outside - there wasn’t much of interest inside the palace (especially not in comparison to the Peña Palace!).

Before heading back to Lisbon, we were in desperate need of beer after all the walking and steps so found a nice restaurant where we had a delicious dinner and even treated ourselves to dessert! We headed back to Lisbon, full and exhausted after another massive day of walking!