Day 8 - Sintra and Caiscais

On the advice of our tuk tuk  driver yesterday,  we left early in the morning for Sintra and the Pena Palace. We were told that parking was very limited and you could have a 30 minute hike to the Palace from the parking lot.  We drove the narrow, winding road (on the map it looked like an intestine!) and got to the Palace but saw nowhere to park.  I asked a random tuk tuk driver where to park and it turned out it was illegal for us to drive up there.  He offered to lead us down to parking and we could walk up or he'd take us.  Naturally we opted to ride with him (Sergio).  As it was, it was a 20 minute ride.  We wouldn't have survived walking.  Even at the entrance, it was another 20 minute hike up hill to the Palace! 

 

I climbed up on a turret and took this and the next three pictures.

 

We finally got "in" and it was a continual line walking through the various rooms and hallways.  It was beautiful with gorgeous furnishings, but packed with people.

It took us about an hour to walk through. Then we were on our trek back to our car.  The downhill walk was on the same, narrow, cobblestone road we drove up.  As cars were coming we tried to squeeze against the sides.  At one point a giant bus came through.  We were all pressed against the walls on the side of the road as the bus came within inches of us.  

We finally got to our car and drove into the town of Sintra. We eventually found a parking space and had lunch in a pizzeria, then David and Raymond shared a donut!

After lunch we were back in the car heading to Caiscais.  First we drove to the ocean.  We walked around and then got ice cream. 

Fishermen!

Next we went to the center of town which was filled with restaurants and souvenir shops.  We all bought a few things and finally drove our exhausted selves back to our apartment. 

A fish painted on the road

A beautiful street in Caiscais

The touristy souvenir area

We walked over to a local restaurant that didn't look like much, but there were several reserved tables and the place filled up quickly. No one there spoke a word of English or Spanish.  We were using Google translate and hoping for the best! 

Raymond's "house meat"

Lori's dorado with "salad"

David's chicken and pork (bacon wrapped chicken)

Sue's grilled steak (came with bacon strips but I didn't eat them)

 Food was good... no credit cards, the waiter totaled up the bill by hand on a piece of paper.  Then we went to the local supermarket,  Lidl, and got dessert.