Sintra is just a one-hour winding road drive from Ericeira. My family decided to go on our third day, which was the rainiest day.
We walked up to Quinta de Regalia, a beautiful property with a palace, a vast initiation well, and caves. First, it was sprinkling at this time, but it was not holding us back. We explored the well first, and there were many caves connected to this. Many that people didn't even go down! They just left right away, and in the caves, it wasn't as busy as the rest of the area. We made sure to explore thoroughly, and I felt like I was a princess running away from the guards. The estate is full of greenery and different buildings that are just beautiful, and it was a great start to the day. We walked back down to Sintra to figure out how to get to Pena Palace.
Our car is parked at the bottom of the mountain, and the palace is at the top. Luckily, since it's raining a little more, we got a Tuk-Tuk to take us to the top for a huge ripoff price. Still, honestly, I didn't want to walk up that way. Even though the Tuk Tuk drives up the mountain, you have to walk another 15 minutes to get to the Palace, which is when the rain and wind kick up. We couldn't even see the palace until we were just upon it. It was like a mystical place that appeared out of the clouds. You couldn't see past anything, the walls, and then looking into the Mist. The colors are red and yellow, which makes this castle stand out. You don't need to pay to go inside the walls because that's a ripoff. We just got the garden pass and could walk straight into the palace and look around without heading into the long line of the interior.
Now that I was becoming freezing cold since my new African temperatures were never below 60, we decided to head down and walk to the Moors Castle. I wonder why we chose this. However, I'm still glad we did. After walking through the grounds of Pena Palace for what felt like forever in the rain, we finally found the entrance to the path to the Moors Castle. It was another little hike where my dad ran ahead because he had no umbrella, and my mom and I walked slowly to avoid slipping. We made it to the Moors castle. There was only us and one family. There was not a single other person in sight. The view from the wall was amazing. You could see through the mist slightly, but looking at the castle from the other side was beautiful. The ancient structure built on a mountain hanging over cliffs was beautiful. The wind blew my umbrella, and I thought I would fall over the edge a few times. That would have been an entertaining way to go.
Well, we saw that, and now it's time to go. The story ends there. Right? No.
We wanted to walk down the mountain because the Tuk Tuk was such a big rip-off, and I found a path on a hiking path on Google. Still, as we were searching for it, I wasn't sure if the path we were on was correct or not, and I didn't want us to be lost in the wilderness in the rain. As we were all frustrated and wet, my Dad decided we were just going to walk down the road instead, which added an extra 25 minutes. The road was passable; we were all sopping wet, and some cars were zooming by close to splashing us, and buses nearly flattened us around a turn. It was a fun way down, and we were so tired afterward. Luckily, we could drive back and eat food, but that was our day in Mist-ical Sintra!
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