A year ago, we’d planned a day in Sintra, with stops at the Moorish Castle, Pena Palace, and the Quinta da Regaleira. However, Eilidh had other plans, and after an emergency trip the night before to a Lisbon emergency room, we significantly scaled back the agenda for Sintra. Amanda stayed with a recovering Eilidh, while Cassy, Noah, Emmie, and I took an afternoon train to Sintra and visited only the Moorish Castle.
To fit everything in, we had to leave our apartment at 8:15 sharp, to walk to the subway for a two-stop ride followed by another walk to the Roma-Areeiro train station. We made it just in time for the 8:42 train to Sintra, putting us in the city before the 9:30/9:45 timeframe that Rick Steves says is the start of miserable morning crowds. It turns out, an arrival at 9:23 wasn’t much better, and by the time our bus ride to Pena Palace was complete, it was well after 10:00.
Waiting at the Intendente station to board our first subway.
Eilidh is getting good at selfies with her tongue sticking out.
Pena Palace was constructed in between 1842 and 1854 and featured a variety of architectural styles and colors based upon the wishes of then-King Ferdinand II. The palace was abandoned by the royal family in 1910 and it was nearly immediately classified as a national monument and converted into a museum.
When we arrived, the ticket purchase went pretty quickly, as did the wait for a shuttle bus to save us a 15-minute uphill walk to the palace’s main entry area. The line to visit the palace’s well-preserved interior was pretty long, however, so we opted to explore the less crowded outdoor courtyard and wall walk.
Emmie had a spot in the front of the shuttle bus to the palace.
The first views of the palace as we walked up to the main archway.
Once we were done with the courtyard and wall walk, we returned to the queue for the indoor walkthrough to find the line had grown to be significantly longer. Amanda began to investigate the possibility of the “priority” status we’d received at other sites, and her effort was quickly successful. We were told to simply move to the front of the line, and with Eilidh in tow, we’d begun our castle walkthrough.
The “priority” law helped us beat the crowd shown in this photo.
Emmie was really interested in learning about the royalty who lived in the palace.
The walkthrough did not move particularly quickly, and the crowds never particularly dissipated as we worked our way through the castle’s rooms. We took a few photos on the terrace before returning through the one-way tour, which ended in the cafeteria, where we shared a few subpar sandwiches.
We could leave the Pena grounds the same way we came (by shuttle bus) or via the sprawling garden complex. I voted for the latter, as the walk was supposed to be mostly downhill, and I figured the kids would enjoy the greenery. The sparser crowds were pleasant but the park was generally unremarkable. We exited by the lakes and found the needed bus stop to get to our next stop, the Moorish Castle.
Signage was helpful but infrequent as we worked our way through the park.
If one big kid has a photo taken, the other wants one.
