Saturday, May 4, 2019: Day 0; Lisbon

Sarah got off around 7:00 am for the airport. Stephen and I met Miguel in the hotel lobby at 9:00 am for the Panoramic Tour of Sintra, Estoril and Cascais. Before leaving the room, I got a message from Maxine. She had missed her connecting flight in Newark due to bad weather and was not going to arrive today. She will fly in tomorrow, Sunday, which means she will miss the tour we have scheduled that day.

Miguel lives in Porto and is a former cruise ship employee of Crystal Cruises. He primarily worked as a waiter in the ship restaurant and sailed the high seas with Crystal for 15 years before deciding it was time to go ashore and start a family. He now works for the Arts & Leisure Tours USA along with his wife. She originally is from British Columbia. They have two children, seven and nine.

https://artsandleisuretours.com/

Our first stop was at the Palace at Pena. It was about an hour's drive, but Miguel said it is the second most visited site in Portugal and we needed to get there soon to avoid the crowds. We did not avoid the crowds, but it was a very interesting tour.

https://www.parquesdesintra.pt/parques-jardins-e-monumentos/parque-e-palacio-nacional-da-pena/

In 1838 King D. Fernando II  acquired the old monastery of Jerónimos Monks of Our Lady of Pena, which had been erected on top of the Sintra Mountains in 1511 by King D. Manuel I and had been vacant since 1834 with the extinction of orders religious The convent consisted of the cloister and outbuildings, the chapel, sacristy and bell tower, which now constitute the northern core of the Pena Palace, or Old Palace.

It was a very steep walk up the mountain to the palace.

Cloister of the original monastery

Grand Hall

Looking down on the Moor Castle from Pena

Upon leaving the Pena Castle, we drove down the mountain to Sintra where the King had his other palace built in the 16th century.

The King's Other Summer Palace in Sintra 

https://www.parquesdesintra.pt/parques-jardins-e-monumentos/palacio-nacional-de-sintra/

Looking up at the Moorish Castle from Sintra

Then we had lunch at a street cafe in Sintra.

Sintra Town Hall

Before leaving the area, we stopped at Cabo da Roca which is a cape which forms the westernmost extent of mainland Portugal, continental Europe and the Eurasian land mass. The cape is in the Portuguese municipality of Sintra, near Azóia, in the southwest of the district of Lisbon, forming the westernmost extent of the Serra de Sintra.

From Sintra, we drove south along the coast to Cascais, a resort town with very popular beaches. We parked and walked along the boardwalk.

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Some very large elegant private homes along the beaches.

Exhausted and hot, we started back toward Lisbon.

Parliament Building

We delayed returning to the room to ensure the bar was still operating properly...it was.

Tomorrow, we have another day long Tour of Evora and Arraiolos. This is the one Maxine wanted to do and Stephen and I decided to join her. Now she will not be going. We will check out of the Hotel Avenida Palace in the morning and either drop our luggage off at our next hotel, Hotel Tivoli Lisboa, or leave them at the Hotel Avenida Palace to be retrieved when our tour is finished. The Hotel Tivoli Lisboa is the hotel in which we begin our Viking river cruise.