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Day 3: Sinatra

Old Morish Castle as Seen from Penna Palace

Today we got up at 7:00 AM and had breakfast downstairs, then prepped for day’s tour.  The tour company hired us a private car to drive us to Sintra to see Penna Palace.  The only way to really get to Sintra if you are tourist is if you are on a tour, have a driver, or take the train then catch a taxi to the palace.  Since we had a private car/guide, they were able to drive us up to the palace and guide us through the entrance.   We had “fast pass” tickets to the palace plus transfer tickets.  The transfer tickets let you ride the small bus up to the top of the hill where the palace is located, without making the 15-30 minute walk up the hill.  Trust me, the transfer is worth it.  Once at the actual place you make your way through the hoards of tour groups to find the entrance where they take your ticket.  Now the ticket says skip the line, but it is a lie, you still have to wait in line till your timeslot.   Honestly, I didn’t feel it was well organized and if I have skip the line tickets, I shouldn’t be waiting in a line with all the other people.   

Veiw outside Penna Palace (entrance area of palace)

A view from inside the palace on a rampart

The palace is colorful, and I would love to go back when it isn’t so crowded in either early morning or late evening to get some nicer pictures.  The light at 10:30 AM is fairly flat and uninteresting.  The self-self-guided tour of the palace (more like just follow the line of people) was ok, needed some adjustments to allow for better flow of people through the palace because in some places it is unclear where you go, once they dump everyone into a courtyard.   Once we saw everything and walked around the ramparts, we stopped to grabbed a quick snack before heading back down to were the transfer bus picks people up.  I would have loved to walk around the gardens, but the driver was waiting for us, and I was unsure how long we had at the palace.  After the palace, the driver drove us down to the center of Sintra, where we had 90-minutes to explore.  We took that time to see the National Palace gardens, which are very tiny, and the National Palace.  I liked the National Palace better, because it was basically empty and we could walk at our own pace.   The most interesting part of the palace is the chimney kitchens, which I couldn’t really get a good picture of unless I had a fish eye lens with me, which I did not.   Same thing goes for the room that had all the coat of arms on the ceiling, that also needed a fish eye to really show the magnitude of the ceiling and room.   The thing to remember when touring old palaces is to look up, the ceilings are usually very interesting.    Once we were done touring the palace we stopped to get Sintra specific pastry and looked at a gift shop before heading to where our driver was to pick us up. 

The swan room inside the National Palace

Coat of Arms Room inside the National Palace

A view from one of the verandas of the National Palace

From Sintra we headed out to Estrada do Cabo da Roca which is the furthest point west on the European continent.  We spent a little time there taking in the ocean views and stopping at the gift shop.  From there our driver took us to nice restaurant overlooking the water, where their specialty is seabass baked in salt.  Basically, the put the whole fish on a bed of salt, then cover it with more salt than bake it for about 20-25 minutes so the fish steams inside the salt.  When it comes out, they break the salt off and filet the fish right in front of you. It comes with a small baked potato, green beans, and small piece of yam.  This is what we had for a late lunch, early dinner. Along with the meal we had bread, some olives, water, and green wine.  Green wine is white with a slight green color too it, it semi-dry and has a light effervescence on the tongue.   The whole meal cost 108-euro which isn’t too bad, considering the we had a whole 1.25kg fish split between the two of us.   After lunch we decided to skip the last destination of the day tour since we will be going there later in the tour and just heading back to the hotel.  We got back to hotel around 4:40 PM. 

Furthest Point Marker
View from the furthest point

Preparing to crack open the fish

Served fish with sides
(While they remove most of the bones you still need watch for them)

Tomorrow, we will pick up the rental car at 9:30AM and drive north up to Porto.  

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