We left Lisbon this morning. After dragging our bags about a block (all the central streets are paved with smart but slippery black and white stones) we boarded a comfortable minivan that fits the dozen of us with a couple of seats to spare.
Here's a map of our tour. Bear in mind that Portugal is not a big place, so Sintra's only an hour and a bit north of Lisbon and is essentially continuous with the suburbs. Coimbra is two plus hours further again, depending on traffic.
Sintra is up in the hills, so it's several degrees cooler and where the royal family etc had their summer homes. It was certainly cool today but also horribly crowded, perhaps because a train strike yesterday meant more people today We started at the Pena Palace on the hill above the town. It's striking, kind of ugly inside and out. But there were very long periods standing in queues, to get into the house then at various points.
After this we waited more for our van and eventually got down to the town, where we were turned loose. Lynn and I found a small wine bar for a platter and tasting of local wines.
Then to fill in time we looked around the Sintra Palace. This was much less crowded and more pleasant. It was also fairly bare, but a few rooms were great.
The two and a half hours to Coimbra were smooth and comfortable, but we didn't arrive until after seven and now look forward to walking around here tomorrow.
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