Portugal Day 3 - Day Trip to Sintra

My eye was still puffy this morning but has deflated somewhat, so today's goal is to hit a pharmacia!

RRR and I started the day at the "mini gym" which had one treadmill, one stationary bike, one recumbent bike and a rower. Well, it served its purpose; all this eating and drinking is certainly having its affect on my waistline and it is getting tougher and tougher to find the energy to work out.

We got ready and finally got through to Delta - we've been extended one day! I'm so excited! Now we just need to extend our hotel in Madrid and we'll be golden!

It was a bit of a mess getting the train to Sintra since I screwed up and sent to the wrong train station (Oriente instead of Rossio). Ooops! Good thing no one held it against me!

We made it to Sintra and found it was overrun with tourists. We jammed on a bus that went up a very, very narrow winding road and then Mitch, Sharpie and I huffed and puffed our way up to the Palacio da Pena. (RRR & Mr. RRR went on their own adventure) The views were spectacular and the castle was a mix of architectural styles. There were some beautiful rooms decorated with furniture of the time and we marveled at how tiny and ornate everything was. After jamming on another bus that came down the very very narrow winding road, e eventually made our way back to town and met up with RRR and Mr. RRR.

We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we took a bit more time in Sintra and had lunch at the Restaurante a Taverna. After blowing 19 euros on appetizers, a restaurant practice that my Lisbon book warned me about where a server comes around with a plate of tapas and whatever you choose you get charged through the nose for, I decided to have the frago de cerveja which translates to... chicken in beer.

It was tasty thigh meat cooked in beer, garlic, oil and a bit of white wine. The chicken was tender, juicy, simple and delicious. Mitch had a delightful pork with bread stuffing. The stuffing was absolutely sublime! Perhaps it's been that long since I've had stuffing but it was moist and bursting with flavor!

Before catching our train, I made a pit stop in the aforementioned pharmacia, to get my puffy eye some relief. I was a bit nervous getting an eye wash whose ingredients were only in Portuguese but eventually it helped my eye get back to normal.

On the train back to Lisbon, we discovered that we were on the wrong one! The tunnel to Rossio was closed and we had to get off, switch trains, head back one stop and catch the Metro. UGH!

Once we got back to Lisbon, we started wandering in the neighborhoods of Chiado and Alfama. I was pretty beat but since our time in Lisbon was limited, I wanted to see as much of the city as possible and I don't think we've experienced much of its beauty. We went inside the Se Cathedral and in the chapel off to the side of the main altar, a priest was saying mass in Portuguese. Even though I had no idea what he was saying, it was pretty cool.

After that we walked past the Praca do Comereio and took some pictures of the arch. Eventually, we made our way to Rua Augusta, a very long pedestrian street, and there was an interesting group of bohemians with packs of dogs. I tried to be stealth in my photo taking (since they were asking tourists for money) but didn't do such a good job with the photo clarity.

Now we were really tired but continued to walk to Rua das Portas de Santo Antao, a street full of restaurants and people trying to get you into theirs a la Little Italy. We stopped in a small modern ice cream shop/bar where RRR and I shared a light sugary pitcher of sangria and then we continued to aimlessly wander around to find a place to eat.

We finally settled on a place to eat and RRR and I shared arroz de marisco (shellfish rice). It was actually pretty good but no where near as good as our monkfish rice from a few days ago. Still for a touristy restaurant in a high trafficked area it was much better than I had anticipated.

Over the course of the evening, we had decided to take a later train to Porto tomorrow, so the RRR's and I can do a bit more sightseeing and Mitch & Sharpie could hang out and relax.

Once again, we are on the move!