Since the day before was pretty busy, we were all quite tired, and we ended up sleeping in. Since we had a timeslot to see National Palace of Sintra for 1pm, we were a bit rushed (as we needed to go pick up our rental car from the airport). After grabbing some quick pastries outside the Airbnb, we called a Bolt to the airport. However, the wait time looked (to Logan and Brad), like we weren’t going to make our timeslot on time, so they bailed and decided to call their own Bolt to Sintra,* while Jack and Benton went to get the rental car).
*Bolts are super cheap, and they had some crazy promos (like 70% off the first 3 rides), so calling a 40 minute Bolt ride to Sintra actually wasn’t that expensive.
Picking up the rental car was uneventful, but Jack and Benton decided that they didn’t want to figure out parking near the Sintra palace, so they ended up parking outside of a sporting goods store along the highway near Sintra (Decathlon Sintra), before then calling a Bolt to the palace. However, the driver pointed out that traffic would be a mess, so he suggested that we get dropped off on a random street (around 38° 46’ 52.5144" N 9° 23’ 9.0384" W). Jack and Benton agreed (as there is no way we would make it to the palace on time with traffic), and then we walked up some trails (which were not really marked/even visible as trails at times). The trails were neat, and ultimately we ended up finishing our hike uphill to the palace just in time, rejoining Logan and Brad.
Logan and Brad had a different experience, but ended up getting dropped off on the other side of the hill that the palace sits on (closer to the actual town of Sintra), so their hike uphill was on a much more well kept trail.
The palace itself was pretty cool, since it had a ton of color and some pretty ornate elements on the outside, and the rooms on the interior were all quite different. However, it was super mobbed with tourists, and wasn’t actually that huge, so we finished the tour relatively quickly. From the palace, we walked downhill, and then back uphill, to The Moorish Castle. The “castle” was really more of a collection of walls along some ridges, and it was fun to get some nice views and explore the varied terrain.
After the castle, the four of us walked down the path that Brad and Logan had walked up earlier, and we stopped for some lunch at Pizzeria Do Carmo (after picking up some small souvenirs nearby). Benton got an eggplant dish (which was good), while the others got pizzas. Logan and Benton also got some homemade fruit tea, which ended up being the highlight of their meals.
Next, we took a Bolt back to the parked rental car, at which point we split up. Jack, Brad, and Logan drove out to Cape Roca, while Benton took a Bolt to MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (he didn’t want to be in a car anymore).
Cabo da Roca was cool, as the cliffs were very high. Logan also got a pina colada in a pineapple, and overall there were some good opportunities for photos as the sun began to set.
Benton ended up walking around MAAT and some of the surrounding parks, ultimately stopping by Pastéis de Belém to get a Pastel de nata (which was invented at that pastry shop). It was tasty. After walking around a bit more, Benton took an e-scooter all the way back to near the Airbnb ($7 was not the cheapest way for him to get back by any margin, but cruising along the water with the sun going down was a really nice experience).
At the Airbnb, we all reconvened before heading to dinner at Sant’Avó. Benton at Jack got some huge stews, Brad kept it light (“summer bod cutting season”), and Logan got a fun meal served inside of the crust of a loaf of bread. The highlight of this meal was being shown all of the dessert options from a single container; it was basically a portable display of all of the options brought to the table, and then we got to choose which ones we wanted. Logan got a rich chocolate cake thing, while Benton chose rice pudding (both tasty). Today, we went to bed a bit early since we knew we had a big day planned for tomorrow.
