X-mas in Lisbon part II: Sintra
English: Palácio Nacional de Sintra (Palácio da Vila) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Before starting this travel story I do have to warn you that the journey from Lisbon to Sintra is one of the most depressing and boring train journey I ever had. The only interesting fact on the 40 minutes train journey from station Rossio to Sintra, was listening to a group of Brazilian Americans who were in Paris on the day of the Paris attacks. There was absolutely nothing to draw your attention on the journey except for an ancient viaduct and a tunnel , everywhere else just boring old portugues communist type of flats buildings.
The top 10 things to do in Sintra
1. Sintra is a city of palaces and historic monuments, and has even been described as Disneyland for grown-ups. It was known in ancient times as the Hills of the Moon and its sheer beauty even inspired the poems of Byron. Its ancient centre is World …
I had no great expectations after the dull train journey, but I was in for my first pleasant surprise in Portugal, as I was going to discover very short. From Sintra station you can choose betwin a variety of option to see the area, from travel tours, hop-on-hop-off , public transport or even rent and drive a Twizzl
y. We decided to go for the public transport, like majority of the tourists in the area, the bus was overcrowded. They are 3 main public bus routes 434 , 435 and 403 the price for a return journey on any of them is 5 euro, and they are all hop-on-hop-off . We decided to take the bus to Burg, the Moor Castle, the view on the bus journey was beyond any words. The tour of the Castle itself a bit pricey, and we where in a rush as the last bus was at 3 o’clock as it was a bank holiday.However in Sintra most of the stores and restaurants where open for business. I had a chat with a Joao Lente, (in my basic broken portuguese) a local tiles artist, who’s photo can be seen above.
READ Holidays (almost) perfect — last-minute offers, peak business season
How Lisbon traffic turned my X-mas holiday into a nightmare
We departed with one hour delay from Heathrow as there was fog in Lisbon, and they said it is better to stay on the ground, then to be held in the air above Lisbon. Otherwise using British Airways was a pretty pleasant experience, their planes look classy, and the food …
. New York, Flight attendant, Associated Press, Aer Lingus, Dolores O’Riordan, Irish rock, Patrick Durcan, Psychosis, Shannon, County Clare, The Cranberries, stewardess
Originally published at www.poundtravel.uk on December 29, 2015.
