Unexpected stop in Lisbon where we have adventure train ride to Sintra ...

There was another change of plan due to having to avoid the storm across the Bay of Biscay.   Instead of going to Porto we stopped overnight in Lisbon.  We have been to Lisbon many times and while it is a beautiful city we have wandered around it several times and don't feel the need to explore further. In fact last time we came we didn't even get off the boat...  but this time we had enough time and an overnight stop so we went on the train to Sintra.  We met up with some people we had made friends with and the four of us set off for an adventure in Portugaul. 

Sintra is a small town about 30 minutes away by train.  It is the home to the National Palace of Pena plus a couple of other really interesting buildings.  We didn't pick the right day - not that we had any choice..  as we sat off uptown to the station ( its a beautiful art deco station) it absolutely chucked it down and we got wet, very wet! 

Once we were on the train it stopped raining and actually was almost sunny!!  yay...  we thought we're okay - the weather gods are kind .  We got off the train and we got an uber to the top of the hill because it's quite high and quite a long walk..  when we got out of the uber it started to rain again...  really heavily and during the 10 15-minute walk from the ticket office up to the entrance of the castle Palace we got very very wet.  

At the top of the hill it was quite windy too so we were not just wet but we were starting to feel cold.  To be honest I wasn't really dressed for a cold rainy weather forecast.  I probably could have had more clothes on but I didn't so I had to survive.  I'm a hardy notherner!! We had to wait nearly half an hour to get into the palace...  shivering🤣🤣 

However grief lessened as we were outside an incredibly pretty over the top building.  You can see this palace high on the hill from a long way off, but to be honest it doesn't do it justice until you get up to it.  The exterior is all higgledy-piggledy - different shapes, colours heights... and extremely ornate brightly coloured in reds, oranges and yellows. 

There are some amazing stone carvings and moreish type ceramic tiles.   There is so much to look at.  You have to take away the grey skies and the glowering clouds and you can see it in all its glory and graduer... although in reality, it was actually very atmospheric being up there In this kind of weather.   Yes I would have preferred it to be sunny but it wasn't! 

Eventually we were let in and it was nice to be out of the wind I can't say it was much warmer.   We were drying out slowly, - of course, it stopped raining once we were inside.   The interior of the palace was just incredible.

  Most of the rooms were all quite small - cosy with low ceilings and shuttered windows which opened on to a beautiful tiled courtyard. Quite fancy this effect in our garden...   It was a one way around walking plan but you could take your time - and you needed to because they were so much ornate detail to look at it was just fabulous. 

There are the most fantastic painted or plastered ceilings in every room, some amazing furniture and some really interesting, weird, peculiar ceramics - a real mishmash collection across I would say a couple of centuries.

   Sadly, not a lot of information about what was what.   I think there was something you could download onto your phone but I only saw it the once and we didn't bother - it's difficult to look at things listen to your phone and avoid other visitors all at the same time. 

The whole circuit only took about 45 minutes-  there's obviously an awful lot more to be seen because this is a huge building and we only looked a very small bit of it but it was really worth a visit. 

The cafe was all outside seating and it was still cold and although it wasn't actually raining at this time it was damp.   The views from up there are absolutely amazing and so far reaching, again very atmospheric with all the misty clouds sitting on top of the woods and trees we weren't tempted to stay.  The gargoyles were fab especially the crocodile (pictured above).

I will definitely visit again next time we are in Lisbon on a sunny warm day because the grounds look beautiful as well.  There were so many different species of trees and some amazing tree ferns and quite a lot of color still even though it's January.  We walked back down the cobbled road to the ticket office and went back down into town to look for a warm calf when we could have a drink and maybe a cake.

Coffee, wine, mission accomplished - we debated whether we had time, or even the will, to visit one of the other interesting looking buildings and decided that this time we wouldn't.  It would be quite late by the time we had done the journey home and we were quite worn out - partly from the rain and partly because it'd been a really interesting day out and if you do too much you get museum leg! 

We headed back to the station back on the train and trailed back down through Lisbon to the ship where there an evening meal waiting and a nice glass of wine to finish the day off.