Day 4: Climbing!
We went to an outdoor climbing class! We’ve always been gym climbing. Prior to this, we’ve only taken one outdoor climbing class from REI.
We found Jose on Airbnb Experience. Originally, we were going to go up to the wall right underneath the Moorish Castle. But due to weather, we had to go to the other side of the mountain.
There were total of five people in our group. Two Dutch and one Swedish. We always run into dutch people on vacation. We were all gym climbers. So Jose decided we could all climb top rope. Maybe because Jose brought an assistance with him, we got to climb quite a few routes through out the day. We were a little sad that we didn’t get to climb under the Moorish Castle. We still had a great time!
Day 6: Fun day driving around with an electric vehicle!
The first day when I exited Sintra train station. I saw these tiny two-person vehicles parked across. This day was the day I got to try these!
The company is called Go2Cintra. It cost 100 Euro for eight hours. It include insurance as long as we stay on the said route. It also provided wifi hot spots, and support through Whatsapp. They entered all the destinations to your phone on Google Maps for directions. They’ll tell you at the store that you won’t be able to stop and go in to see all these spots in eight hours.
One of the employees took us to spot 2 to start. Since we’ve already visited Quinta da Regaleira, we briefly walked around Palacio de Seteais. Part of the building was a hotel. The garden itself is open to the public.
Next, we drove to Palacio de Monserrate.
The interior of the palace was magnificent. The details on the wall and ceiling were so incredible. You can find the history of Park and Palace of Monserrat here.
Next, we drove to Azenhas do Mar. This place is amazing for pictures. Our Airbnb host said she didn’t know how people sleep right by the cliff. We had lunch at the restaurant right above the pool.
Our last stop of the day was Cabo de Roca. This was a quick spot to look around if you just want a picture with the landmark of the most western point of the European continent. There’s a beach close by that it takes 30 minutes to hike to.
It was super windy and there was a line of people behind me waiting to get a picture taken.
That pretty much concluded our day. We stopped at spot 7, Convendo dos Capuchos, but didn’t go in. We were worry about not having enough time to get back. The rest of the drive was really fun. Up and down windy narrow roads in a tiny car.
Day 7: Cabo de Roca beach
We took a bus from Sintra (right outside the train station) to Cabo de Roca. It took probably almost an hour. Then we had to find our way to the beach. It was very clear where it was. I actually saw this sign on our way back. This sign was probably about 15 minutes walk from the bus stop at Cabo de Roca. You might be able to tell the bus driver to stop here. There’s a bus stop across the street from this sign for either going back to Sintra or Cascais.
We spent the rest of the day here. Though I’m not a beach lover, it was relaxing to sit and knit. The water though, was ice cold.
This was our last night in Sintra. It was sad to leave. We decided the next morning we would get up early to do one last hike up to Moorish Castle. We hope we get to come back here soon.