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vampyresheepOur last day! After another lovely breakfast we checked out and they were happy to hold our luggage until we left for our flight that afternoon. We set out early because we had two palaces to visit!
Caught the first bus to take us to Monserrat Palace, which was located a short way out of town, getting there just in time for opening.
(a quick sit down in our accommodation's roof patio before departing!)
the entrance lodge
Not as busy as the other palaces so we nearly had the place to ourselves. It was an exquisite little place. The path through the beautiful botanic garden led to the small but intricately detailed Moorish style villa. Not particularly old, built at the turn of the last century by an Englishman and recently fully restored after it went to ruin during the wars.
trying to capture all the ceiling in my camera!
We couldn't spend too long exploring the grounds as we were aware we didn't want to risk getting stuck/delayed, but brought some pastries purchased from a bakery in town the day before and sat with those in the Mexican garden for a little while, enjoying the sunshine and the view.
Pena Palace in the distance
the ruined church with a tree growing right through it - it felt like we were in some exotic land
Headed back to the bus stop, via a minor panic when I got locked in a loo which had a very stiff old wooden door - thankfully Rob heard me call for help and managed to source the door open!
The bus didn't take us to Sintra National Palace as we'd hoped, but instead back to the railway station, not sure if we're were supposed to have asked to stop there. So we took that winding road back into town for the last time and to the palace.
Sintra National Palace was a real one, dating back to the 14th -15th century. Not as lightly and frivolously ornate as the other palaces we'd visited, but featured lots of beautiful old tile and painted woodwork. A number of rooms were themed, so you got one with lots of different swans painted on the ceiling, one with magpies, one with galleons, another with mermaids, culminating in an amazing domed room covered in Moorish carvings.
where we discovered that the iconic towers of this building were actually chimneys for the kitchens! Food gets high priority in this country.
finally the beautiful grotto out in the courtyard
The palace was undergoing a refurbishment programme, the paint and timbers showing decay in places but they kept access open as much as possible around the works. It was an interesting old place but as there weren't any grounds to explore the tour was shorter than we expected, giving us time to have a final meal in Portugal.
We had intended to go back to our accommodation for lunch as they do a cheap menu of the day with good reviews online, however it was a glorious day so we wanted to be outdoors and we headed to the top of the shopping alleyway, past Cantinha do Byron (sadly closed on Tuesdays) up to two restaurants with viewing terraces. Only one of the two was open and although the menu slightly lacked many Portuguese specialties, the view was amazing and it was getting late in the afternoon to find anywhere else.
closed - devastated!
but a fantastic view where we did go to dine at the Sintra Terrace bar
What we had was fine though, started with some cod croquettes to share, then Rob had a toasted sandwich and I had Bacalhau a Bras. Whereas Robs dish the night before was soft and eggy, mine was more crispy but still tasted just as good. And we had an amazing view, plus a tasty glass of sangria, what's not to like? It was the only establishment which brought out appetizers without us asking, but knowing we'd be charged for them, I said no thanks and they were taken away without a quibble.
bacalhau a bras
Had a final walk around town, taking in some port and ginja as we passed by. Our plans to purchase some final pastries was scuppered by a big power cut which affected all the shops, so instead we managed to persuade one cafe to sell us ice-cream before it melted. :-)
Got back to our accommodation in time for a final coffee and Rob got a piece of the chocolate cake which had been tempting him for our entire stay. The owner brought our bags down to us and we reluctantly went to catch our train back to the airport.
As we boarded the train I got a notification that our flight was delayed by an hour but by the time we got there it had gone back to being on time …. Not the case however, and we next had to endure v the special place in hell which is Lisbon airport T2 departures - a crowded metal box solely for budget airlines. I needed to buy some booze for presents, sad that I couldn't get any of the beautiful boxes in Sintra due to hand luggage restrictions, so I battled my way through the duty free whilst Rob found a spare bit of floor to sit on with our bags. At around the time our flight was scheduled to leave we finally got our gate announcement, to find we then had to join a massive queue through passport control, along with all the other UK bound flights. We found out later this was due to a French Air Traffic Control strike, but there were no announcements at the airport. Finally took off an hour later than scheduled, but arriving back at Luton before the WizzAir flight which was scheduled for 2 hours before us!
The tiresome journey home did little to dampen our memories of our holiday though, just a wonderful place to visit.
(a couple of final pics of Lisbon's Oriente Station and metro art)
The full gallery of pics for this final day can be seen here
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Date: 3 Apr 2019 11:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Apr 2019 14:37 (UTC)I'm so glad we got to Montserratte. We nearly didn't because we took so much time at the other palaces and didn't know how easy it was to get back into town from there (to get our flight home!). It would have been nice to spend longer in the grounds but at least we got to see them.
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Date: 5 Apr 2019 12:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Apr 2019 13:56 (UTC)I'd rather the chairs in a different colour but i did love them - somewhat typical of the crazy chintz accommodation we were staying in.