Friday Friday!

 Me, a door, and some graffiti. My Lisbon glamour shot.

 

 Just a pretty picture for you to enjoy.

Ah, Friday! Another day to enjoy some cornflakes and the Lisbon sunshine! Except today we were headed to Sintra, a favorite summer retreat of the Portuguese royal family for centuries. Now a Unesco World Heritage site and a short train ride from Lisbon. If you can find the train - which we did after a bit of searching.

My new Portuguese sunglasses! 

I should say, David was not feeling well this day. He looked quite green on the train and many times I thought maybe we'd be better off just getting off the train and heading back to Lisbon. I'm not sure if it was the cod or the firewater. Our party was also short one as one of the late night revelers decided to stay in Lisbon.

 

Well, hello! Care to join us for a little castle hopping?

The main attraction in Sintra is the Palacio Nacional de Pena. It boasts the first shower in Portugal, as well as sort of a candy-confection of a castle with yellow and red walls, walls covered in tiles, and all sorts of creatures carved here and there. And the view - let's just say it's no wonder why the royal family stayed here. Sadly, they don't allow photos inside so you'll just have to trust me that it was as lovely inside as outside.

Why yes, I would love to have my summer vacation here.

 Another view of what my guide book called "pure pastiche".

 

These people look familiar.

Our next stop was the Moorish Castle (Castelo dos Mouros). We had a lovely walk through the woods to get down there, although we did seem to take a wrong turn somewhere. For a bit there, I thought we were going to have to scale a wall. Fortunately, we found our way.  Most of the group walked up to either of the turrets, but I stayed in a nice sunny spot closer to solid ground.

 

It looks all warm and sunny, but was rather chilly actually.

At this point, we were all pretty hungry. Sightseeing does that to you. We hopped back on the bus and to the train station where we found a little restaurant with the most amazing chicken empanada things.  First Amit had one...then David and I went back for one...then Kym...and then Alan. The guys working there thought we were pretty funny. We also had these yummy desserts called "Queijadas". They were so very very very yummy. I might have to try making these.

 Kym with the empanda-y goodness!

And then...time to head back to Lisbon. We had a bus to catch! We were taking the overnight bus from Lisbon to Sevilla, Spain. This turned out to be a mistake, but that's a story for another day.

More empanada goodness!