Lisbon and Sintra day trip May 2018

Lisbon

The city of Lisbon from the hill top

Woo hoo.. finally i got a chance to visit Portugal.
This has been on my to-do list as one of the country that i haven't visited in my life =)
I am pleasantly surprised by how nice and helpful everyone is in Portugal, and also how easy to get around Portugal with English.

What i learned about this trip is Lisbon really got reborn after the 1755 earthquake, rebuilt by the 1st Marquess of Pombai.

The statue of the 1st Marquess

As i'm curious about Portuguese food, I decide to start the day with a food tour of the Mouraria area and was pleasantly surprised by how many places we stop and the amount of alcohol that was served! They certainly knows how to party!

Food tour group. There's 2 groups of English (one bride-to-be with her bridesmaid group and another housewives group). First step: Port wine at 1030am

While the tour guide is not the most dynamic or talkative about the history of Lisbon, she is certainly very passionate and proud about her country and their food.

2nd stop : Bifana (Portugese pork sandwich cooked with wine and garlic) with a glass of beer

3rd stop: Charcoal grilled cod fish with chicken sausage and salad. Free flow of house wine

4th stop: Cheese and Jamon from Portugal, together with tasting appetizers, Free flow of red and white wine AGAIN! this is in a lovely restaurant inside the Independent palace

5th stop: dried fig with walnut, accompanied by sour cherry liquor  (Ginjinha)

Finally, Portuguese egg tart.. yum

The Mouraria area is getting gentrified in Lisbon whose real estate value is going off the chart. I can certainly imagine a lot of pressure trying to reclaim those land and rebuilt the area. But in the meantime, it's certainly interesting to walk around the streets and look at the street art.

Great street art

I also learned that Lisbon is made up of 7 hills and hence there are a few secret elevators =) the locals actually avoid climbing the hills by knowing where all the secret elevators are and taking them from hill to hill!

One of the secret elevators

After being stuffed full of Portuguese food and wine, I'm certainly not motivated to rush to any other places =) I saw Tram 28 and decide to hop on it and see where it takes me. It's certainly interesting that it really ends at nowhere and all the tourists just took it back to the starting line again! A good way for the tram company to earn 6 euros and yes, i feel like a dumb tourist =)

2 of the 28 tram side by side

Aquaduct of Lisbon

Sintra and Cascais day tour
My 2nd day in Lisbon, I I wanted to see the Portugal Riviera. So I decide to a 8 hour day tour to Sintra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintra

The city of Sintra and the coast from Pena Palace

It turned out to be a great trip with Patricia as the tour guide and 7 other tourists and everyone is punctual, polite and really nice on the trip.
Going up the coast, i can see the beautiful waters that stays cold all year round as it's Atlantic Ocean.

The beautiful coastline of Portugal Riviera

First stop is Caiscas is an interesting village.

The harbour area

It mean shell and was meant to be a throw-away town. But the Portugal king like it as a holiday destination and developed the village. It has a good mix of local fishermen and the rich & famous.
There's a casino in there where Ian Fleming started thinking and writing about James Bond!

The town of Caiscas

After Cascais, we went to Cabo da Roca which is the most western point of Europe.

OF course i need a picture of this =)

And i'm at the end of the world!

Beautiful wild flower season, with the Atlantic ocean backdrop

Pena Palace is up next, which is a really cute and colorful palace. It reminds me of Aladdin's land!

The best picture of the castle.. colorful eh! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pena_Palace

The rooms and furnishing inside the palace

19th century stain glass on display in the castle

After the Pena Palace, we went to Sintra town and I had a great lunch at Tacho de Real with a grilled seabass and a scallop gratin.

My yummy lunch

After that, we went to this park Quinta de Regaliera which is quite spooky.
It has a very dracula-like castle that won't be out of place for Halloween!

Spooky castle

Pretty furnishing of the chapel and the castle

Choir singing in the amphitheater

There's some mystical masonry affiliation and the reborn of the person after going to the 7th level of hell =)
Climbing through the stone levels signifies a reborn of the person

7th level of hell-hole

Exiting from the hell-hole into water

Pastry that's typical in Sintra

My usual captures of fun things in the city