Sintra

Our second visit to Lisbon this year.  Having wandered around the city last time we were here in January we had plans to take this opportunity to escape on a local train and visit the small town of Sintra. 

Best laid plans hey.... Dr Fred woke up with an 'injury' ... his hip and knee were not cooperating and while had been stiff yesterday they were now quite painful.

We decided to walk into town and see how the leg felt.  Fortunately some friends in Amble (hello and thank you friends in Amble)  had given us some very clear and detailed instruction on how to make this journey ss they had done it quite recently.  Because of this very little effort was spent getting 'lost' finding the right station... train... etc so we decided to go - we limped across town to the railway station and boarded an incredibly crowded train...

Fun trip to absolutley packed out place...  Sintra is a 40 minute train ride from Lisbon and is UNESCO world heritage site with stunning buildings and beautiful gardens.. mature trees (I miss trees at sea) and a magical looking palace on top of a mountain. 

There are lots of different museums and palaces and grand houses all sited in and around a windy old town with lots of beautiful gardens. The streets have different sculptures and street art lining them and there are a lot of local market stall as well. We would have liked to visit Pena Palace at the top of the hill. 

It had a kind of Port Merrion vibe about it but it was too far to do in one day,  especially as we were creeping along a snail's place.

We wandered around the hilly old town and finally found the Quinta Des Ragaleria - picked because it looked the most reachable (in the circumstances), ornate, gothic and interesting of all the amazing looking buildings.

However, Dr Freds hip was really playing up by this time so in the end (and partly daunted by the queue for tickets) we decided not to go in and put it on the list for next time. It was an incredible looking building - I took some pictures from outside and look forward to exploring it further. It really wasnt an option with Dr Fred this time. 

It was a busy place and we walked around the outside after deciding not to go in checking out the incredibly ornate stonework, towers and turrets.  It really did look like something out of a storybook, in the sunshine it looked like a fairy tale castle,  but I imagine in the rain or on a dark day it could look really gothic. 

Eventually we stopped and had a really nice lunch a pavement cafe -  there's always a low level of anxiety that we are going to miss the boat 🤣🤣 and knowing that we were a train ride and a slow walk back to the ship we decided to head back after lunch.

We made our way back to the station and into Lisbon. All this effort necessitated another bar visit...

We sat outside, enjoying the sunshine, feeling very continental, drinking a much needed long cold beer. I have to say given our fairly decrepit appearance and the fact that we are very much pensioners we were very surprised to be offered both hashish and cocaine 🤣🤣we weren't tempted by either so we politely declined.  

We Satan watched some by now familiar faces what past heading back to the ship and we decided that's probably why we needed to be we were hot and grubby we needed to be somewhere a little bit cooler.

We don't have many nights left on the ship to enjoy the kind of unprecedented luxury you dont get in a camper van ( Although, I am very excited to get home to our new campervan) particularly of having your meals cooked and served so we try to make the most of what is left.... but lacking the drugs 🤣 to fuel our energy levels we had dinner early - accompanied at one point by a part of dolphins and then rather lovely passing under the 25th April Bridge just outside Lisbon followed then by an early night.

We hope that resting up Dr Fred's leg would improve it - as he still has a full days work to present a lecture a lunch and the stargazing session....