Ah, Sintra. Land of castles, misty forests, and—if you’re anything like us—the occasional unavoidable travel fail. Our journey to Sintra was supposed to be the crowning gem of our vacation, a final flourish of fairytale castles and awesome views. And it was… for about 15 minutes. Here’s a rundown of how our Sintra adventure turned into a comedy of errors, complete with a Portuguese downpour, a 28-hour journey home, and the kind of jet lag that leaves you questioning your sanity.
We found Sintra a few years ago, by accident, and we really loved it. We were excited to be able to return for a longer visit and see some of the places we had missed before.
Terri found a great Airbnb that was centrally located to the many palaces, sights and tavernas scattered around Sintra.
One of our favorite places from our earlier trip was Quinta de Regaleira. This place is a bit crazy but beautiful.
If you’ve ever seen a photo of the Peña Palace, you know it’s a colorful mountaintop palace that looks straight out of a kid’s movie. It is a “must-see” on anyone’s Sintra itinerary. What no one mentioned, however, was that it’s also on a mountain — and that when it rains, it’s like being in a cloud while getting sprayed with a garden hose. The rain was literally coming in sideways.
Once we finally reached the palace, we joined a line that was half-soaked and half in denial about the weather situation. With everyone huddling under any available overhang, we were all packed together like sardines in a can. And as luck would have it, someone behind us in line was not about to let a little thing like “personal space” get in their way. Wet and visibly irritated tourists started pushing forward, creating a line that seemed to have a mind of its own.
The highlight was finding this place on the way home from Peña Palace, very cool.
The place we enjoyed the most was The Park and Palace of Monserrat, it was not crowded and very serene.
Fast forward to our departure. We bid a (not-so-fond) farewell to Sintra and headed to the airport. But apparently, the travel gods weren’t done with us yet. The drive was very hectic as Lisbon taxi drivers are less forgiving of tourists than in the rest of Portugal, and Google maps was not helping us traverse the 4 lanes of multiple roundabouts 😞. We boarded our flight only to find ourselves parked on the tarmac for three hours. Three hours of stale airplane air, lousy snacks, and unhappy passengers who were already looking at a nine hour flight before the delay. And then we missed our connecting flight, because, of course we did.
All in, it was a 26+ hour travel day.
It’s good to be home.
Europe Detour 