Smiles from Miles Away

Sintra is only a 40 minute train ride from Lisbon and where most of the royalty had summer homes! With almost 5 palaces/castles I am glad that I decided to do a couple days there instead of a more common day trip.

My first day I got up early and arrived at the moorish castle. My hostel recommended that I walk, but so glad that I decided to take the bus instead considering it is on the very top of the hill in the city! Pro tip for anyone going to Sintra to do a hop on hop off bus pass since nothing is really walkable in the town with the crazy hills.

Pena palace in the distance! 
Next, I walked over to the Pena Palace which is the most well known palace and where most pictures are taken. By the time I got there it was quite crazy with tourists. I got quite lost trying to get views of the entire palace so I will just have to enjoy the postcards instead!

Loved this knight holding the lamp lol

Next, I went to Cabo da Roca which is the western most point in Europe. Again was told it is about a 30 minute bus ride, but almost an hour later I arrived! Must be on Portuguese time haha. It was beautiful with a lighthouse and such as you can see in the pictures. Not pictured was the 40 mph winds. I tried so hard to wear my hair down that day, but mother nature’s 90% humidity and 40 mph winds had other plans for me!

The next morning I got up early to make it to the Quinta de Regalia Palace and was the 2nd one in line! It was so cool with all of the underground tunnels, back secrets passage ways, and of course the palace itself!

I went back to my hostel, grabbed my backpack and started the trek to Zurich. Sintra Hostel➡️Sintra Train Station➡️Lisbon train station➡️Lisbon Airport➡️Zurich airport➡️ Zurich Hostel 🙈 quite the long day, but the views of the Alps outside of my window were beautiful!